Yes, a 1200 Elo rating in chess is considered a solid intermediate level, showing you understand the basics and are past beginner stage, though it's not expert level; it places you above many casual players but still with room for significant growth, often marked by frequent blunders and tactical errors typical for that range.
1200 is a good achievement for a beginner who has lived in the 900 range for a while. Mathematically, a 300 Elo point gain means you'd be expected to beat your former 900-self about 80-85% of the time now. So it's definitely good improvement.
Players with ratings of 1200-1600 are considered Intermediate, and there were around 13,260 players in that range. According to the same statistic, there were around 11,000 Advanced players, with ELO ratings of between 1600 and 2000, and ~2300 Expert players with ratings between 2000 and 2200.
For some context, the average rating on chesscom is 800, so anything above that is above average. For an average person, 1300 is pretty good. For a good chess player, 1300 is pretty low -- it's all relative. Classically like some people respond, 1300 is considered intermediate.
A rating between 1500 to 2000 is for considerably experienced and great players. Players with ratings beyond 2000 include some of the best players across the world who could possibly gain norms to be Candidate Masters, FIDE masters, and International Masters.
Bill Gates may not be a very well-known chess player. Still, with a rating of 1578 and a peak rating of 1690, we can safely assume that the strategic thinking that he displayed during the awfully short but interesting game against Carlsen was honed over the years he spent in the corporate world.
Furthermore, the stronger players had higher WISC performance IQ scores than the weaker players. More recently, using a relatively large sample with a wide range of chess skill, Grabner, Stern, and Neubauer (2007) found a significant positive correlation (r = 0.35) between full-scale IQ and chess rating.
If we plug in 100 IQ (average IQ score) into the equation, we will get 2000 ELO, meaning that an average person should be rated 2000. However, some chess players (actually most chess players) play their whole life and never reach even 1700, making the 2000 mark fall into the top 4-5% of all chess players on the planet.
Being good at chess shows strong strategic thinking, memory, and problem-solving skills, which are linked to intelligence, but it doesn't automatically mean high general intelligence; while a small correlation exists, especially in beginners, serious chess mastery relies more on dedicated practice, pattern recognition, and specialized knowledge, with general IQ explaining very little in top players, highlighting that intelligence manifests in many ways.
What's a good chess rating? A rating above 1200 is a good goal for new players. If your rating is between 1600 and 2000, you are considered an advanced player. A rating above 2000 makes you an expert or master-level player.
That means a 1200 falls solidly in the middle range: above average, but not among the highest scores. A 1200 corresponds to the 76th percentile, meaning you scored better than 76% of test takers. In other words, students who score 1230 or higher are generally in the top 25%.
1400 is slightly better than a 1300 and slightly worse than a 1500. Ziryab wrote: You're in the top 5% of members. That makes you elite.
You should seek to both broaden and deepen your understanding of the openings – broadening it by learning additional openings, and deepening it by not only learning more variations of openings you've encountered but also learning the ideas behind the openings you play.
Something like 60% of chess players fall between 800-1100 ELO… In a sanctioned chess event that would be beginner. The term bad is subjective but “bad” would typically be below 800.
A Good Chess Player Is Rated Over 2000
Most chess players will never reach a 1000 rating, much less 2000.
90% accuracy in chess can be a sign of cheating, especially in long, complex games for lower-rated players, but it's not definitive proof, as simple games with big blunders or strong human play can also yield high scores; instead, look for consistent high accuracy (90%+) alongside perfect engine moves, unusual time usage, or unexplained rating jumps, as the Computer Aggregated Precision Score (CAPS) is meant as a performance tool, not a cheat detector, though patterns of high scores often trigger moderator review.
Hikaru has taken an IQ test and his IQ is average at 102. I think he has a photographic memory though, not sure. The ones that I've met seem intelligent and nice, but I don't think it's a rule. Nuro psych testing would be interesting.
Elon Musk famously tweeted that chess is a "simple game," understandable when played with "squirrels and rocks," but now made trivial by computers, preferring games like Polytopia for their added complexity (no fog of war, tech trees, etc.). He believes chess is too simple because of its perfect information, lack of randomness, and identical starting pieces, contrasting it with the dynamic, evolving challenges in games he finds more engaging, showing his preference for strategy games with more variables than the traditional 8x8 board.
The 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) in chess means 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts, so you should focus on high-impact areas for maximum improvement, like mastering tactics, core endgames, and essential openings, rather than trying to learn everything. Key focus areas often cited include tactics (pins, forks), fundamental endgames (like king and pawn), basic opening principles (center control, development), and analyzing your own games to find recurring mistakes.
Albert Einstein was a good friend of World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker. In an interview with the New York Times in 1936 Albert said, “I do not play any games. There is no time for it. When I get through work I don't want anything which requires the working of the mind.” He did take up Chess in his later life.
Meaning of IQ
85 to 115 - Two thirds of us have an IQ in this range: the 'average' IQ is 100. Over 135 - You are in the top 1%.
'Chess Messi' Faustino Oro achieves grandmaster norm and 2500 rating at just 11 | Chess | The Guardian.
GM Magnus Carlsen has officially claimed the top spot on the first-ever Freestyle Chess (Chess960/Fischer Random) rating list, soaring past the mythical 2900 mark with a jaw-dropping 2909 rating, the highest in the format's history.
Stephen Hawking took his lifelong passion for chess to an expert level, reportedly with an Elo rating of over 2000. Despite being confined to a wheelchair and using a computerised voice communicator, Hawking regularly defeated visitors, including distinguished physicists, in speed chess matches.