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Can anyone provide a simple formula to convert the elo rating provided by the chess program Shredder to actual FIDE rating. I am only looking for an approximate formula, maybe something like: FIDE_rating = a * shredder_rating + b, where 'a' and 'b' are numbers. The purpose of this is to get a good estimate of your FIDE rating without actually participating in a FIDE rated tournament and to give people a feel for their chances of success before enrolling in a FIDE rated tournament.

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    There's no reliable formula.
    – Tony Ennis
    Feb 19, 2014 at 23:53
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    Your performance rating vs. a computer is going to effectively only tell you how well you can play vs. a computer! A myriad of other skills (psychological, playing to tournament rules, clock management, endurance-based as well as mental toughness) beyond just skill over the board are what regular tournament players are equipped with. I've yet to see a only-plays-with-computer player start on the live circuit and NOT have his expectations dashed to the ground by players 400-600 points below some "lofty" assumed rating level that the player thought he could play at.
    – shivsky
    Feb 20, 2014 at 0:28
  • Related question: chess.stackexchange.com/questions/189/…
    – user2001
    Feb 20, 2014 at 10:44
  • Does Shredder actually use the Elo rating system?
    – user2001
    Feb 20, 2014 at 11:09
  • @Rauan Sagit: The Pocket Shredder app does provide a ELO estimation, as vague as that sounds. A fairly misguided feature of most chess software applications is to give you warm fuzzies about your potential ELO/FIDE rating assuming you even had the commitment to play rated OTB.
    – shivsky
    Feb 20, 2014 at 12:41

1 Answer 1

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I don't think it is possible to convert the Shredder rating to a FIDE Elo rating.

In general, the rating system has the purpose to create a relative ranking of all players based on their results against one another. Your rating from playing games with classical time controls makes it possible to say something about your level of play. Already at this point it is difficult to compare ratings from different time controls (e.g. blitz versus classical).

My point is that you can use your online blitz rating to estimate what FIDE blitz rating you could get over the board (OTB). Yet, it is harder to use your online blitz rating to estimate your OTB rating with classical time controls.

One way to get an estimate of your OTB rating is

  1. Register on a serious online blitz site
  2. Play rated blitz games with the minimum time control of (5 min or 3 min + 2 sec per move)
  3. Ask your opponents what their OTB rating is
  4. Make notes on your results and the opponents' OTB ratings
  5. Calculate your performance rating.

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