Chess is not just a popular board game for intellectuals, but a real professional sport. To assess the level of a player, the categories and titles generally accepted in sports, as well as a specially developed Elo rating system, are used.
Chess is a very popular game, but not everyone knows that chess is also an official sport. Various competitions are constantly held for chess players, the most important of which are the World Championship and its own Chess Olympiad. Like all professional sports, chess has its own ranks and ranks to determine the level of skill of the player. In Russia, the system of sports titles is the same for all sports. In order to get a chess rank, you need to play in special qualifying tournaments.
Previously, different countries used their own systems for determining the level of a player, which led to the problem of comparing chess players from different countries. To this end, in 1970 the International Chess Federation (FIDE) introduced the Elo rating system. This rating system was developed by Arpad Elo, an American professor of physics of Hungarian origin.
Chess rank hierarchy (with roughly the corresponding Elo rating)
- non-ranked player (below 1000) - any person who is fond of playing chess, who has not played in a qualifying tournament before;
- 5th grade (below 1000) - officially does not exist. Used by some coaches to motivate children as the first chess title;
- 4th rank (1000-1400) - the first official rank, the player knows the basic rules of chess;
- 3rd grade (1400-1600) - a chess player understands the stages of the game, tries to play deliberately, but makes many mistakes, especially "blunders" of pieces;
- 2nd category (1600-1800) - a chess player understands strategies and tactics, has his own opening repertoire;
- 1st rank (1800-2000) - a strong player, has his own style of play;
- Candidate for Master of Sports (2000-2200) - the first professional chess title; the player is very strong, can work as a coach;
- FIDE Master (2200-2400) - a special FIDE title, recognized throughout the chess world;
- international master (2400-2500) - very high technique of the game;
- grandmaster (2500-2800) - translated from German as "great master";
- international grandmaster (over 2600) - the title is recognized throughout the chess world;
- super-grandmaster (over 2700) - unofficial title, elite player.
The presence of a rating does not give the right to receive the corresponding chess title or category, since ranks and titles are awarded after fulfilling certain norms in special tournaments.
