1000 point differences?

I am pretty sure I am close to or at novice or even beginner strength in chess since the only competition I ever won was the high school one a long time ago.(Truthfully that mostly a blitz chess tournentment and all the players are close to beginner level) On Chess.com my rating for blitz is 1500  and for 1700s bullet chess. So is it true that your online rating on chess.com is about 1000 points higher than your otb? Since I am pretty sure I am just moving the pieces half the time. My reason for asking this is because I am thinking of joining a local chess club,but I am not gonna go until my skill is at least in the 1000s fide. So my rating should about 500 right now right?

To get an official rating you need to play long games, not blitz, and you're not going to know how good you are that until you go and try.

Definitely not 1000 points, and there's no one formula that will give you the right idea.

With little standard or OTB experience, I'd guess that 1500 chess.com blitz translates to somewhere in the ballpark of 1000 OTB, plus or minus a few hundred points.

 I don't think it's such a huge diffrence. Myself I had a rating of 2036 at my peek when I was playing OTB some years ago. Now I think it would be about 200 points less or so and on chess.com my blitz is around 1750 (but I take these games very lightly) now I started to play snail mail(online) chess - that may be more accurate. I don't think that standard or online ratings are very far from truth.

Thanks I suppose I am gonna have to risk looking very bad afterall sigh.. Oh well thanks for your reply it seems like it unavoidable in a way after all.

It's worth it. Just try to make sure you are entering a tournament where there will be plenty of players your own level to play, and you'll be fine.

Kyle that the intresting part. Most of them are rated around 1500-1800 level players..well at least the members are at that level. So if I am a measly 500 I am probably just gonna get destroyed left and right. Oh well burn to learn.

You definitely aren't a 500. For practical purposes, 800 or so is about as bad as it gets in adult tournaments. You really only see ratings lower than that in scholastic tournaments, where the way the initial ratings are set forces them to be much lower.

I think that if you have a blitz rating around 1700 - your real strength could be anything between 1500 - 1700 OTB. But ofcourse you need to go out there and give it a try. I think you worry too much.

At my chess club, a new on-line player will come in about two or three times per year and claim to be 2000 or so and then get whooped by our 1500s. There is no comparison to practical decision-making under time pressure with no recourse to books or computer databases. On-line ratings are just plain bogus.

What Fezzik says seems about correct, on this occasion. Standard in Live Chess is a bit unclear because it's not very popular, and in particular seems to be shunned by master-level players.

OP is probably the first person in the history of the internet to underestimate their OTB ability based on net ratings :)

Depends on how you play OTB vs online...

If you take as little time to make a move compared to OTB chess, your online rating may be closer to your OTB rating, maybe even lower since your online opponents tend to be "stronger" by taking more time to analyze moves with the advantage of time, databases, opening books, analyze boards, etc.  

However, if it takes you 2 hours daily x 3 days per position to make 1 move, then yes I can see how one's online rating could easily be 1000 points higher than your OTB rating.  

In fact, I thought I saw a few guys whose OTB ratings were in the 1800-1900 range (by their own advertisement), yet they are like 2700-2800 on this site.  

Sorry, I doubt that is possible with honest play. Try to play taking 3 days to think on a move and you will see that the great majority of your moves will not be better than what you would come up with in a few minutes. Even if occasionally you come up with something better it will not be a 1000 points above your normal ability. And such a regimen of thinking would be very exhausting, especially for an amateur.

You are probably correct..."1000" is likely an exaggeration, certainly with lower-rated players like me, but even I could gain a few hundred points just by taking my time, accessing an opening book, and diligently testing a few lines on the analyze board over the 3-day period.   That way, at the very least, I'd avoid most simple opening traps, have a sound position after an opening ("sound" meaning I have not yet hung my rook or queen by move 15; good enough at my level or a little higher), and avoiding 2-4-move gross tactical blunders in the middlegame. 

But what about those who are closer to say FIDE Elo 1900-2100?  I'd imagine they can be quite good online.  

I think live standard corresponds best with OTB ratings.

I've been playing OTB for over a year (Though the number of games played hovers only at around 20), and though the experience is vastly different, I find strengths are comparable with live strength. 

It's just that OTB, you have to get used to having more time, the psychological pressure and the fact that playing for 3+ hours can be tiring.

Opponents blunder less, but so do you - the pressure is on and you have the time.

I certainly don't think that the ~ 1600 players I played OTB were much stronger than the 1600+ players I saw in live chess, playing at a minimum time control of 15 minutes, 10 second increment.

My blitz rating floats between the high 800's and low 900's, that's it. I'm the novice.

Blitz rating here = OTB rating elsewhere sounds about right. I'd say that you are plenty strong for club chess. 

This is what Chess Tempo thinks of my playing strength, but I think that their estimate is highly inflated, perhaps to make me feel good enough to continue spending money at their site. The tactics puzzles are not free.

Chess Tempo

Stats for standard tactics
Rating: 1449.7 (RD: 35.01)

FIDE Estimated Rating based on standard tactics: 1568

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Stats for blitz tactics
Rating: 1323.4 (RD: 36.45)

Need to do 82 more problems to get a blitz tactics FIDE

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I have not played Blitz in several months, but I have done a bazillion tactics puzzles during that time, frustrated with my lack of progress at Live Chess. Who knows, when I return to Live Chess, maybe I will crush the 800-900 rated players after the many, many hours of tactical exercises. That would be nice.

Chess = 99% Tactics

A new thought occurred to me regarding Internet chess ratings. The players over at ICC must pay to play. It's pretty hardcore, serious stuff. My rating is lower over there.

It's an international pool like here, but filled with more titled players. Could it be that a players rating over at ICC translates into a higher rating at their local chess club, where the pool is perhaps weaker and they might be the big fish in a little pond?

About the same? I like that. I've heard a lot about infalted ratings on internet chess, but you are saying that Blitz chess is a good indicator of one's real OTB/FIDE rating, even add 100-200 points? 

recklessfool (nice nickname)

1. You are well over 1000

2. You go to chess club to learn, play and talk about chess, the same reasons people come to this website. It has nothing to do with playing strength! You can enjoy chess no matter if you are a sub-1000 beginner or a 2700+ candidate for the world title.