Rated chess has its own vocabulary, and nobody hands you the glossary. This page covers the four things new players ask about most: what actually happens at a tournament, what the time formats mean, how you get an official rating, and what the FM, IM and GM titles require. Every number was checked against the FIDE Handbook or US Chess on the date at the bottom, and each section links to the official page so you can read the rule itself.
You do not need to memorise a rulebook before your first tournament. You need to know that the rules are written down and free, what touch-move, the clock and the scoresheet ask of you, how a game ends in a draw, what happens after an illegal move or a phone in your pocket, and how pairings decide who you play.
Organised chess runs on the FIDE Laws of Chess. The version in force took effect on 1 January 2023 and is free to read on the FIDE Handbook site. Every event has an arbiter who applies the Laws and settles disputes. In the United States that person is the tournament director, and US Chess publishes the core chapters of its own rulebook free.
If you still need the moves of the pieces, Lichess has a free interactive course. This page is about everything that comes after that.
FIDE forbids any electronic device the arbiter has not approved inside the playing venue, and a phone found on your person during the game loses it unless the event announced a lighter penalty. US Chess requires the director’s permission unless the phone is completely switched off. No notes, no advice from anyone, and nothing that distracts your opponent. Shaking hands before and after the game is the custom.
Most open tournaments use the Swiss system: the number of rounds is announced in advance, you play every round, you are paired as far as possible against someone on the same score, you never meet the same opponent twice, and colours are balanced. With an odd number of players someone gets a bye, worth a win. When players tie, the event’s regulations say whether they share the place or how they are separated; FIDE’s tie-break regulations define the usual methods, such as Buchholz and Sonneborn-Berger.
Read the official source
Every rated game is played with a clock, and how much time each player gets decides whether it counts as standard (classical), rapid or blitz, and which of your ratings it changes. FIDE and US Chess draw the lines in slightly different places, so here are both.
“90+30” means 90 minutes for the whole game plus 30 seconds added to your clock after every move. US events write the same thing as “G/90;+30”. “G/30;d5” means 30 minutes with a five-second delay. Some events split the game: “40/100, SD/30, +30” is 40 moves in 100 minutes, then 30 more minutes for the rest, with 30 seconds a move throughout.
With an increment the seconds are added to your clock every move, so quick play can build up time. With a delay the clock simply waits those seconds before counting down; you never gain time, you just stop losing it for a moment.
FIDE measures a game by the time each player would have over 60 moves: the base time plus 60 times the increment. So 15+10 counts as 25 minutes, and 3+2 as 5.
FIDE keeps three separate lists: standard, rapid and blitz. A rapid event changes only your rapid rating, and having a rating in one format and none in another is normal. New lists come out every month.
US Chess adds the main minutes and the delay or increment seconds together, so G/60;d5 counts as 65. It keeps separate over-the-board ratings for regular, quick and blitz, plus online versions of each.
These are typical, not rules. The event flyer always states the time control, and that one line tells you which rating the games affect.
Read the official source
A rating is a number that estimates your strength from your results. You get an official one by joining a federation and playing in its rated events. Ratings from Lichess or Chess.com are real but separate, and do not count.
Chess ratings are Elo-style. Beat someone rated above you and yours rises; lose to someone rated below you and it falls, and the bigger the surprise, the bigger the change. Over many games it settles near your real level. A rating only compares you with the other players on the same list, so 1500 on one list is not 1500 on another.
Most national federations also keep a rating list of their own for their own events: US Chess in the United States, the All India Chess Federation in India, the English Chess Federation in England, the Chess Federation of Canada. Those numbers are separate from your FIDE rating and will usually differ from it. The FIDE rating is the international one.
Your Lichess or Chess.com rating is real but not official: it will not enter you in a rated section or count towards a title. Each site uses its own formula (Lichess uses Glicko-2 and starts everyone at 1500; Chess.com uses Glicko), has a different pool of players and mostly rates faster games, so the same strength gives different numbers. Lichess’s own FAQ says not to compare its ratings with other organisations’.
Read the official source
FIDE awards eight lifetime player titles. The lower ones come from your rating alone; IM and GM also need “norms”, which are outstanding results in specific tournaments, plus a peak rating. US Chess has its own separate titles and rating classes.
Four titles are open to everyone and four are for women, with lower thresholds. The current Title Regulations took effect on 1 January 2024, and a title is for life once FIDE confirms it, even if your rating later falls.
A norm is one outstanding tournament result. Over at least 9 games in a FIDE-rated standard event you must score the way a much stronger player would: a performance of 2600 for a GM norm, 2450 for IM, 2400 for WGM and 2250 for WIM. Performance is worked out from your score and your opponents’ ratings, not from your own rating. The field has to be strong and international: for a GM norm your opponents must average at least 2380, half of them must hold titles, and they must come from more than one federation.
Your norms must cover at least 27 games in total. A norm is normally 9 games, so that usually means three norm tournaments. Only over-the-board standard games count: not rapid, blitz or online.
A few elite events award a title or a norm directly for a set placing: the World Cup, the Olympiad, the world junior and youth championships and the continental championships, all listed in FIDE’s Table for Direct Titles. Titles are not automatic: your national federation applies to FIDE for you, and a title fee is charged on the schedule published in the FIDE Financial Rules.
FIDE Online Arena awards separate Arena titles (ACM at 1100, AFM at 1400, AIM at 1700, AGM at 2000) for an online rating held over a set number of games. They are a lower band: an AGM is not a GM, and a real IM or GM title replaces any Arena title.
US Chess runs its own rating and its own labels, separate from FIDE. National Master (NM) goes to any player whose US Chess rating reaches 2200, and Original Life Master to a master who has played 300 games rated over 2200. Ratings are grouped into classes:
The great majority of rated players never hold a title, and you do not need one to play rated chess or to improve. The thresholds sit far above where almost everyone starts, and norm tournaments are a small subset of events. Sensible milestones are: get a rating, move up through the classes, and think about CM or FM (or US Chess Expert and NM) once you are near 2000. Treat IM and GM as long-term goals, not next steps.
Read the official source
Regulations change. Every number on this page was read from the official page listed here on the date shown; if you are about to rely on one, open the source. Last checked on 2026-09-14.
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