What’s a good winning percentage? - Chess Forums (2024)

Not very important, just curious.

Anything over 50% is pretty good. It means you belong at your rating and if it’s over 50% then you may be a bit underrated.

Thanks.

100% is good.

A winrate over a period of a few years doesnt really show much since you will likely have a rating improvement and thus always have a higher winrate than loserate. but over a shorter period of time such as 30 or 90 days will mark your rate of improvement. for me i've won/loss about the same amount (45/46W - 9D - 45/46L) because i have not improved in the past 30 days. but to answer your question strive to get more wins and you will improve.

Exactly - as long as we are going by rated games only. Many chess streamers and people who play unrated a lot have much higher win percentages than 50% because they are frequently playing players much below their rating. This is especially true when the streamer/player is a titled player. This is because statistically speaking, most chess players are way below their rating, so most of the time, they will win. If a GM plays other GMs frequently, then their winning percentage will be a lot closer to 50% though.

Depends on rating. Let's presume that on average, you play against players at the same ability level as you. At lower rating about, 48% win rate is good with 4% drawn. This should tend towards 0% as you approach perfect play, with 100% drawn.

my winning rate is like 54% ish and like 8% drawn in blitz, i dont get why im 700 then!

This could happen if some games you play are unrated and against lower rated players (which you are more likely to win against) and this inflates your winning percentage slightly. If you only play rated against players around your level, then you could still be 700 rating and the 54% winning percentage just means you have potential and your rating will slowly increase over the long-term. 54% isn't a lot more than 50% and might even be natural variance. If you played 100 rated games (that is a lot!), then you'll be estimated to win about 54 of those. That is only 4 games more than loss/drawn. It takes a long time to gain rating at this pace. Chess takes most people many years of experience to get really good at.

The key isn't to worry about rating, but rather to keep learning and improving this way. 54% winning percentage is just where you are at now, but if you learn more things and apply them to your games, there is no reason your winning percentage won't go up and you'll gain rating at a faster pace than this

you have a 54% winrate because you were ~200 when you started and you have to win more games than you lose to get to 700.

Sorry, I know it's an old thread but had a question.

How is someone with a 19% win rate in 42 games rated higher than me when I have 68% win rate in 54 games?

Not even a sneaky brag, I suck, I'm rated 505 and the other example is 519.

Soooo... Wtf is that about?

The rating system on chess.com is a mess. In your case, you started at a very low rating (I honestly don't know how), but you are better than that, so you win more than you lose and thus you climb. As for the other guy, there are many different scenarios that could have happened, it's impossible to say which one.

The best winning rate percentage is 50% or less.
If your winning percentage is over 50% then you play too weak opponents.
If your winning percentage is under 50% then you play too strong opponents.

@tygxc I thought when you hit 50% win rate you hit the elo you "should be", without trying to improve.

@magipi I said I was a beginner when I first signed up, I am; I've been playing barely a month and I play maybe 1-3 games per day(depending on what the wife and kids allow lol). What if the guys said he was an "expert" at the start? Would it put him at 1000 and then he loses his way back down?

Yes, that's a strong possibility.

55%+

Winrate just means how strong your opponents are. If you get lucky and paired up against weak opponents, your winrate will be high, and vice versa.

I would agree anything over 50% is pretty good

Once you’ve got a statistically significant number of games, you’ll be right around 50% forever unless you reach the stratosphere and there aren’t higher rated players to match you with and you proceed to win 100% from then on because you’re the best player in the world. The system insures 50/50 over the long haul.
Even big streaks get corrected by a high loss rate when it ends. I once went something like 18-2 and shot up 150 points but that bubble burst when I was matched with way better players and took a pounding for a while.

If you’re a true beginner, you do want >50%, until you reach your “true” level. When I started at 534, I had a high win rate till the 700’s. But that doesn’t last long.