OTB players: calculate your new FIDE rating - and much more!

Most over-the-board (OTB) players are obsessed about their FIDE rating: "How many points do I gain if I win against my next opponent? And if I lose?" they constantly wonder. Or they might just want to see their new rating before the monthly FIDE list is updated. Until then the only way to get an answer was to get on the painfully outdated FIDE chess rating calculator which I won't even share a screenshot of.

In case you wanted to calculate your rating change after several games, well... you were out of luck! You needed to calculate each rating individually and do the sum yourself. Not very user-friendly if you ask me.

I am glad to report that thanks to my friend Owen Rees and his main contributor Timothy Armes... that monstrosity is a thing of the past!

EchecsFrance's rating calculator

First of all, let's link to the actual calculator: echecsfrance.com/elo.

The page looks like this:

Do you notice that button on the bottom right? It allows you to add another game to calculate a cumulative rating change. And the best about it: this calculation is persistent! If you visit the page with the same browser, you'll be able to add your results during the whole month and see your live rating in a matter of seconds. When the new month begins you can just clear the results and start fresh!

As a bonus if you played a tournament in France: you can choose a tournament, then a player and see how their rating evolved in the course of said tournament:

This is a killer feature and I want to thank the developers for a very well-made tool which I use every month. OTB players should definitely bookmark it!

However the goodness doesn't stop here.

Find a chess tournament in France

If you are anything like me, you are always on the lookout for OTB tournaments. You might know which tournaments happen around you each year at a given time, but sometimes you might want to broaden your horizon! As far as I know, that is what ÉchecsFrance was originally made for: check out the map at https://www.echecsfrance.com/en/tournaments to find a tourney that fits your preferences: be it blitz, rapid or classical time control. You can also filter by date if you have a specific week in mind for instance. You can also zoom into the area of France which interests you:
I wish such a map were available for neighbouring countries! I know I have used https://chess-calendar.eu/ in the past and I am thankful for it but it is definitely not as user-friendly.

Find a chess club in France

The same map exists to find a chess club in France: it can be very useful for people who are settling there or, as a German friend wrote me a few months back, for tourists looking to play a game with the locals. That is probably the least-used feature but I have tried it myself as I was traveling around France. Feel free to give it a go!

What other simple tools do you recommend?

Some of the best tools out there are not trying to re-invent the wheel. In this case, EchecsFrance.com 's strength is to present information in a very user-friendly way - that's it! As I mentioned I wish it also existed for Germany, Spain, and many other countries which have a strong chess culture. Maybe it exists already? Please share your little-known life-savers in the comments! Bonus points for open-source websites.> > > > Disclaimer: I am a Lichess moderator and team member but this blog post only reflects my own thoughts and opinions.*