--- title: "Glicko rating in chess" url: "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/glicko-rating.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/glicko-rating" last_updated: "2026-11-07" type: "reference" summary: "A Glicko rating is a rating that comes with an uncertainty value, the rating deviation. Open a Lichess profile and the number you see is a Glicko-2 rating." related: ["https://georgelichess.com/glossary/k-factor.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/provisional-rating.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/online-rating.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/elo-rating.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/rating-system.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/category/tournaments-ratings-titles.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary.md"] --- # Glicko rating in chess > **For AI agents:** the complete index of GeorgeLiChess pages is [llms.txt](https://georgelichess.com/llms.txt). Every page is also served as markdown at its URL plus .md. A Glicko rating is a rating that comes with an uncertainty value, the rating deviation. Open a Lichess profile and the number you see is a Glicko-2 rating. A Glicko rating is a rating that comes with an uncertainty value, the rating deviation, so that a player with few or old results can move faster than one with a long recent record. Open a Lichess profile and the number you see is a Glicko-2 rating. New accounts start at 1500 with a wide uncertainty, and that uncertainty is what the system adds to a plain rating. It is called the rating deviation, or RD. A rating plus or minus twice the RD gives a rough 95 percent interval for true strength, so 1600 with an RD of 80 points to a strength somewhere between about 1440 and 1760. Two consequences follow. A large RD means every result moves the rating a lot, while a small RD means the system already trusts the number and changes it gently. And RD is not fixed: it shrinks as you play and creeps back up during long absences. Lichess marks a rating provisional with a question mark when its RD is above 110. Mark Glickman designed the original Glicko system, and Glicko-2 adds a third quantity, volatility, which tracks how erratic a player's results have been. FIDE uses neither. It applies a [K-factor](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/k-factor.md) set by status and carries no uncertainty value, and US Chess publishes its own separate method, also with a K that falls as games accumulate. A Glicko rating and a FIDE or [US Chess rating](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/us-chess-rating.md) therefore rest on different assumptions and different pools of players, so never compare them point for point. See the entries on K-factor, [provisional rating](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/provisional-rating.md) and [online rating](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/online-rating.md). Also called: Glicko. A neighboring idea is [Elo rating](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/elo-rating.md). An Elo rating is a number that estimates playing strength from results: the gap between two ratings predicts the expected score, and wins and losses move each player's rating up or down. How "Glicko rating" applies to your own results depends on where you stand now, and the [improvement plans by rating band](https://georgelichess.com/improve.md) show what players near your rating work on. ## Related terms - [K-factor](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/k-factor.md) - [Provisional rating](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/provisional-rating.md) - [Online rating](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/online-rating.md) - [Elo rating](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/elo-rating.md) - [Rating system](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/rating-system.md) ## Guides that go further - [Chess ratings explained](https://georgelichess.com/chess-ratings-explained.md): 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](https://georgelichess.com/chess-rating-percentiles.md): What share of active Lichess players are rated above 800, 1200, 1500, 1800 or 2000, by time control. - [Chess rating calculator](https://georgelichess.com/tools/rating-calculator.md): Work out how a FIDE rating changes after a run of games. ## Sources - Lichess FAQ (FAQ answer on ratings), read 2026-10-21: https://lichess.org/faq - Mark E. Glickman, Example of the Glicko-2 system, 22 March 2022 (Introduction), read 2026-10-21: https://www.glicko.net/glicko/glicko2.pdf - FIDE Handbook B.02 FIDE Rating Regulations, effective 1 March 2024 (Clause 8.3.3), read 2026-10-21: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B022024 - US Chess, The US Chess Rating System (Glickman and Doan), dated 6 April 2026 (Section 4.2), read 2026-10-21: https://new.uschess.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/us_chess_rating_system_specs-2026-04-06.pdf [Book your first lesson](https://georgelichess.com/book.md) and George Li reviews your games and builds a study plan around them. Questions about lessons: write to hello@georgelichess.com. ## Related - [K-factor in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/k-factor.md) - [Provisional rating in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/provisional-rating.md) - [Online rating in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/online-rating.md) - [Elo rating in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/elo-rating.md) - [Rating system in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/rating-system.md) - [Chess terms: Tournaments, ratings and titles](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/category/tournaments-ratings-titles.md) - [Chess terms glossary: plain definitions](https://georgelichess.com/glossary.md)