---
title: "Rating performance in chess"
url: "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/rating-performance.md"
canonical_url: "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/rating-performance"
last_updated: "2026-11-07"
type: "reference"
summary: "A rating performance is the rating a player seems to have played at in one event. Your rating is a long-run estimate."
related: ["https://georgelichess.com/glossary/norm.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/grandmaster-norm.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/k-factor.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/tiebreak.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/fide-rating.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/category/tournaments-ratings-titles.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary.md"]
---

# Rating performance in chess

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A rating performance is the rating a player seems to have played at in one event. Your rating is a long-run estimate.

A rating performance is the rating a player seems to have played at in one event, found by adding a score-based adjustment to the average rating of their opponents.

Your rating is a long-run estimate. A rating performance, often called a performance rating, describes a single tournament. You take the average rating of your opponents and add or subtract a number that depends on your percentage score. FIDE publishes the conversion table for that number in clause 8.1.1 of its Rating Regulations and again in clause 1.4.9 of the Title Regulations.

At 50 percent the adjustment is zero, at 60 percent it is plus 72, at 75 percent plus 193, and at 90 percent plus 366. The table is antisymmetric, so a score of 40 percent subtracts 72. Performance rating matters most for [title norms](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/norm.md), where the Handbook sets the required level, such as 2600 for a [Grandmaster norm](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/grandmaster-norm.md), together with limits on the opponent mix.

It is a noisy statistic over nine games, so one hot event says little about your true strength. Use our performance rating calculator for the arithmetic, and read the entries on norm, [K-factor](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/k-factor.md) and [tiebreak](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/tiebreak.md).

Also called: performance rating.

Rating and title terms like "Rating performance" matter once you know your next step, and the [improvement plans by rating band](https://georgelichess.com/improve.md) set out a weekly routine for each rating range.

## Related terms

- [Norm](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/norm.md)
- [Grandmaster norm](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/grandmaster-norm.md)
- [K-factor](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/k-factor.md)
- [Tiebreak](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/tiebreak.md)
- [FIDE rating](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/fide-rating.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

- FIDE Handbook B.02 FIDE Rating Regulations, effective 1 March 2024 (Clause 8.1.1), read 2026-10-21: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B022024
- FIDE Handbook B.01 FIDE Title Regulations, effective 1 January 2024 (Clauses 1.4.8 and 1.4.9), read 2026-10-21: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B012024

[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

- [Norm in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/norm.md)
- [Grandmaster norm in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/grandmaster-norm.md)
- [K-factor in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/k-factor.md)
- [Tiebreak in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/tiebreak.md)
- [FIDE rating in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/fide-rating.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)