What Is Chess Accuracy? Does It Even Matter?
If you have been playing chess, more particularly if you have been playing it online, for any amount of time, you will have heard of the term chess accuracy now. Literally, every chess forum out there has a bunch of people arguing about it.
So what is chess accuracy, and why does it really matter; that’s what we will cover in this article.
Chess accuracy is the measurement of how similar your moves are to the moves that the computer determined to be the best possible moves you can play against your opponents. The higher the accuracy is, the more perfect your game is.
If you want to know the whole answer about chess accuracy and how accuracy is calculated, you just need to keep reading.
What Is Chess Accuracy?
Chess accuracy is a measurement of the similarity between the moves you play and the best possible moves that the computer determines. Your moves should be as close to 100 as possible, so the higher your score is, the more ideal your moves are.
Here is an example from the same game the screenshot above was taken from:
Usually, the higher your rate is, the more accurate your moves should get. You can notice that when a player with a high rate plays with a player with a lower rate, the first player’s score is much higher.
How Is Accuracy in Chess Calculated?
Accuracy in chess is calculated based on the number of moves made and how close every move is to the ideal moves determined by the computer.
You will likely have high accuracy if your moves are good or close to the best ones possible. It’s not about the accuracy of the moves, so you can make mistakes and still have a high accuracy rating as long as your game is filled with something other than blunders.
Your accuracy can also rise and falls depending on how good of a player your opponent is, so if there is no challenge in the game and you can easily find strong moves, you may have a higher score.
Are Chess Accuracy and ELO Rating Correlated?
Most of you reading this already know what an Elo rating is, but some of you don’t, so let’s briefly explain that.
An ELo rating is basically a method for calculating the chess players’ skill level and is named after its creator, the American physics professor Arpad Elo. The ELo rating is used by other games, by the way, but its most famous use is in chess. You can learn how to get an ELo rating yourself here, and it’s not that hard, honestly.
The ELO rating for a player is represented by a number that can change because it depends on the outcome of the games you played; what happens is that the winner takes points from the person who lost.
For instance, if the two players have two different rates and the lower-rated player wins, they can take many points from the high-rated player, but when the opposite happens, the high-rated player only takes a few points. You can also learn what is a good chess rating here.
There is a correlation between chess accuracy and ELO; however, it has a huge variance.
Chess accuracy determines how accurate each move you play, so eventually, you can get much higher accuracy when you are playing with someone who has a lower rate than you, while in the ELO rating, you only take a few points from your opponent if you have a higher rate.
If your game is extremely complicated and you can still get 90%, it’s a great sign that you are a strong player, so you need both accuracy and an ELO rating in your game, not only accuracy. If you find yourself stuck at a certain rating, I have a quick guide on what you can do to improve your rating here.
What Is Good Chess Accuracy?
Good chess accuracy can start from 90%; however, it also depends on your rate and your performance in any given game; if you have an average rate such as 1600, then 80% accuracy is actually considered pretty good, but the higher your rate gets, the higher your accuracy should get as well.
For example, if your rating reaches 1800 or 1900, then 80% accuracy won’t be good accuracy.
However, that doesn’t mean that a low or average-rated player can’t get high accuracy; many new players get high accuracy initially because it eventually depends on their moves and overall game.
You don’t need an insanely high IQ to have a high rate or accuracy; you just need to practice, play regularly, learn your blunders, and try not to repeat them, with time you will find yourself not making as many blunders as you used to do and can see better moves and tactics.
Chess is like any other sport; it needs consistency, time, and effort, and you will soon see your improvement.
What Is The Average Accuracy of A Chess Grandmaster?
The average accuracy of a chess grandmaster is usually around 95-98. Grandmasters with the highest chess accuracy include Magnus Carlsen, with a score of 98.54; Bobby Fischer, with a score of 97.59; and Gerry Kasparov, with a score of 97.5.
However, as I’ve mentioned before, you can still get high accuracy, such as 95%, without being a grandmaster. You can also be a high-rated player and still get less than 90% because it depends on many factors.
Is There 100% Accuracy in Chess?
There is no 100% accuracy in chess; there is 99% to 99.7% accuracy at best. An average-rated player (1500-1700) can play with 80% accuracy and up to 90%; a higher rating, such as 1800-1900, should at least have 95% accuracy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, accuracy is a simple metric that determines how accurately you played a certain game according to the engine. High accuracy demands precise calculations, strategic planning, and astute decision-making.
While you can use accuracy in chess as a simple metric to measure your performance, you should remember that there is much more to chess than a simple metric and that your performance in one game or even a tournament does not say much about your actual strength as a chess player.
You should also remember that chess is just a game at the end of the day and that it is meant to be enjoyed, so please don’t let a loss or a metric get in your head much, and enjoy the game!
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