Blitz rating
A blitz rating is a rating earned in blitz games, kept on a separate list from standard and rapid ratings, because fast play measures a different skill.
Blitz is rated on its own list because five minutes of thinking time rewards a different mix of qualities than three hours do: quick pattern recognition, steady nerves and good clock handling count for more, while deep calculation counts for less. FIDE's Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations apply the same sum, base time plus sixty increments, and call the game blitz when the total is above three minutes and no more than ten.
A 3 minute game with a 2 second increment totals 5 minutes, so it is blitz. The same regulations carry a cap on the rating difference used in a calculation and, from 1 December 2024, do not rate a game when the two ratings differ by 600 points or more and one player is above 2600.
Because of the pace, blitz results are noisier game to game, so a blitz number is best read over many games. Related entries cover rapid rating, bullet chess and blitz chess.
Also worth reading is Online rating. An online rating is the number a website or app computes from games played on that platform; it belongs to that site's player pool and is separate from FIDE and national over-the-board ratings.
How "Blitz rating" applies to your own results depends on where you stand now, and the improvement plans by rating band show what players near your rating work on.
Related terms
A rapid rating is a rating earned in rapid games, kept apart from the standard rating, so the same player can hold different numbers for slow, rapid and blitz chess.
Blitz chess is a fast format where each player has about three to ten minutes for the whole game, so decisions rely heavily on pattern recognition and quick tactics.
Bullet chess is the fastest common format, with each player having under three minutes, usually one minute, so success depends on speed, mouse control and instant tactical vision.
A time control is the rule that sets how much thinking time each player gets in a game, and whether extra time is added per move, which decides what kind of chess is being played.
A FIDE rating is the Elo-based number that the World Chess Federation publishes each month for players with rated games, with a published minimum of 1400, and it is the rating that FIDE titles are measured against.
Guides that go further
What a rating measures, how FIDE, Lichess, US Chess and chess.com compute theirs, and why the numbers differ.
Average chess rating and a good chess rating
What share of active Lichess players are rated above 800, 1200, 1500, 1800 or 2000, by time control.
Work out how a FIDE rating changes after a run of games.
Sources
- FIDE Handbook B.02 FIDE Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations, effective 1 March 2024, Clause 1.1.2, read Oct 21, 2026.
- FIDE Handbook B.02 FIDE Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations, effective 1 March 2024, Clause 7.3.1, read Oct 21, 2026.
Want to spot this in your own games?
A first lesson starts with your games: George reviews them and builds a study plan around what he finds.