I created this tool to estimate your rating! I used the formulas from here for ratings and here for norms.
First, select the # of games you played and put in your total score. Then put your opponents’ ratings. Bam! That simple!
The US Chess Federation awards players permanent titles to recognize a player for outstanding performances at tournaments. There are 7 official titles you can achieve, as shown in the following table. In order to be awarded a title, you need to earn 5 “norms” for that rating level – norms are basically certification of “a high level of performance in a chess tournament” (as per Wikipedia). In addition to getting 5 norms, you must be above the respective rating level to become a Candidate Master, Life Master, or Senior Life Master. (Note: titles are permanent. Even if your rating falls below the threshold, once a “master” you’re always a master.)
For example, say you are working towards becoming a candidate master. You would need to play in 5 tournaments where your game results are sufficiently impressive for a 2000-rated player (i.e. 5 norms) and your rating must be above 2000 (read the official documentation for more details on how “sufficiently impressive” is calculated).
| Rating Level | Title | Rating Requirement? |
| 1200 | 4th Category | No |
| 1400 | 3rd Category | No |
| 1600 | 2nd Category | No |
| 1800 | 1st Category | No |
| 2000 | Candidate Master | Yes |
| 2200 | Life Master | Yes |
| 2400 | Senior Life Master | Yes |
The tournament must be an in-person USCF regular-rated event and at least 4 rounds. Moreover, you can’t play the same opponent more than twice. In other words, you cannot earn a norm at an online Blitz, Quick-rated-only, or Correspondence chess event.
Yes! You can earn norms even if you are unrated or provisionally-rated. However, you must have an established rating in order to earn a title.
Cover Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich from Pexels
