Hikaru Nakamura shared his opinion on FIDE titles and online ratings. Nakamura believes that they do not fully reflect a player’s chess ability. Hikaru cites 17-year-old Iranian FM Artin Ashraf as an example.

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

World's No. 2

“FM Artin Ashraf… He is basically GM strength though. Don’t be mistaken. Don’t look at the title and think that he’s some bad player.

He’s definitely GM strength. I’d say he’s probably, in normal chess, around 2550–2600, depending. That would be my guess. 2550–2600, in that range.

Don’t look at the rating and be like: “Oh, he’s some FM.” Of course, that’s the other thing we’ve learned in recent times, is that the titles and ratings are not reflective in the way they used to be of your ability, as it relates to chess.

It used to be, because there were so few online tournaments. You’d be like: “Someone’s 3200 and they’re unknown — it’s not possible.” But now it’s like everybody and their brother is 3200.”

FM Artin Ashraf’s FIDE Classical rating is 2470 points. His online rating is 3181 points in Blitz on Chess.com. Artin needs to gain at least 30 Classical points and complete 3 GM norms to achieve the Grandmaster title.

Credit: Lennart Ootes