The best players can be awarded specific lifetime titles by the world chess organization FIDE:
Grandmaster (shortened as GM; sometimes International Grandmaster or IGM is used) is awarded to world-class chess masters.
Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain.
Before FIDE will confer the title on a player, the player must have an Elo chess rating (see below) of at least 2500 at one time and three favorable results (called norms) in tournaments involving other grandmasters, including some from countries other than the applicant's.
There are other milestones a player can achieve to attain the title, such as winning the World Junior Championship.

International Master (shortened as IM).
The conditions are similar to GM, but less demanding.
The minimum rating for the IM title is 2400.

FIDE Master (shortened as FM).
The usual way for a player to qualify for the FIDE Master title is by achieving a FIDE rating of 2300 or more.

Candidate Master (shortened as CM).
Similar to FM, but with a FIDE rating of at least 2200.

All the titles are open to men and women.
Separate women-only titles, such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM), are available.
Beginning with Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978, a number of women have earned the GM title, and as of 2020, all of the top ten rated women hold the unrestricted GM title.

As of 2018, there are 1725 active grandmasters and 3903 international masters in the world.
The top three countries with the largest numbers of grandmasters are Russia, the United States, and Germany, with 251, 98, and 96, respectively.

FIDE also awards titles for arbiters and trainers.

International titles are awarded to composers and solvers of chess problems and to correspondence chess players (by the International Correspondence Chess Federation).
National chess organizations may also award titles, usually to the advanced players still under the level needed for international titles; an example is the chess expert title used in the United States.

In order to rank players, FIDE, ICCF, and national chess organizations use the Elo rating system developed by Arpad Elo.
Elo is a statistical system based on the assumption that the chess performance of each player in his or her games is a random variable.
Arpad Elo thought of a player's true skill as the average of that player's performance random variable, and showed how to estimate the average from results of player's games.
Broadly, a difference of 200 Elo points represents an expected result of 0.75, i.e. a player rated 2200 who played 10 games with a player rated 2000 would be expected to score on average 7.5 / 10.
The US Chess Federation implemented Elo's suggestions in 1960, and the system quickly gained recognition as being both fairer and more accurate than older systems; it was adopted by FIDE in 1970.
A beginner or casual player typically has an Elo rating of less than 1000; an ordinary club player has a rating of about 1500, a strong club player about 2000, a grandmaster usually has a rating of over 2500, and an elite player has a rating of over 2700.
The highest FIDE rating of all time, 2881, was achieved by Magnus Carlsen on the March 2014 FIDE rating list.
The best players can be awarded specific lifetime titles by the world chess organization FIDE:
Grandmaster (shortened as GM; sometimes International Grandmaster or IGM is used) is awarded to world-class chess masters. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Before FIDE will confer the title on a player, the player must have an Elo chess rating (see below) of at least 2500 at one time and three favorable results (called norms) in tournaments involving other grandmasters, including some from countries other than the applicant's. There are other milestones a player can achieve to attain the title, such as winning the World Junior Championship.
International Master (shortened as IM). The conditions are similar to GM, but less demanding. The minimum rating for the IM title is 2400.
FIDE Master (shortened as FM). The usual way for a player to qualify for the FIDE Master title is by achieving a FIDE rating of 2300 or more.
Candidate Master (shortened as CM). Similar to FM, but with a FIDE rating of at least 2200.
All the titles are open to men and women. Separate women-only titles, such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM), are available. Beginning with Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978, a number of women have earned the GM title, and as of 2020, all of the top ten rated women hold the unrestricted GM title.
As of 2018, there are 1725 active grandmasters and 3903 international masters in the world. The top three countries with the largest numbers of grandmasters are Russia, the United States, and Germany, with 251, 98, and 96, respectively.
FIDE also awards titles for arbiters and trainers.
International titles are awarded to composers and solvers of chess problems and to correspondence chess players (by the International Correspondence Chess Federation). National chess organizations may also award titles, usually to the advanced players still under the level needed for international titles; an example is the chess expert title used in the United States.
In order to rank players, FIDE, ICCF, and national chess organizations use the Elo rating system developed by Arpad Elo. Elo is a statistical system based on the assumption that the chess performance of each player in his or her games is a random variable. Arpad Elo thought of a player's true skill as the average of that player's performance random variable, and showed how to estimate the average from results of player's games. Broadly, a difference of 200 Elo points represents an expected result of 0.75, i.e. a player rated 2200 who played 10 games with a player rated 2000 would be expected to score on average 7.5 / 10. The US Chess Federation implemented Elo's suggestions in 1960, and the system quickly gained recognition as being both fairer and more accurate than older systems; it was adopted by FIDE in 1970. A beginner or casual player typically has an Elo rating of less than 1000; an ordinary club player has a rating of about 1500, a strong club player about 2000, a grandmaster usually has a rating of over 2500, and an elite player has a rating of over 2700. The highest FIDE rating of all time, 2881, was achieved by Magnus Carlsen on the March 2014 FIDE rating list.
Chess