Stockfish levels have no official Elo. Lichess doesn't publish ratings for its eight computer levels, and Stockfish's own Elo setting is calibrated against other engines, not people. So we measured them. We set an engine up exactly the way Lichess does for each level and gave it 720 rated Lichess puzzles. Level 1 performs like a 560 puzzle rating, level 3 like 1,600, level 5 like 2,010 and level 6 like 2,310. Levels 7 and 8 solved almost everything, which puts them above 2400, the top of the test. Use these as puzzle ratings, not game ratings: the sections below explain the difference and which level to pick.
Stockfish levels 1–8: Elo chart
This chart is for Lichess's "Play with the computer" levels, which is what nearly everyone means by "Stockfish level 1–8". The first three columns are Lichess's own settings, read from the source code of fishnet, the program that makes the computer's moves.1 The last two are our test results.
| Level | Skill Level | Search limit | Puzzles solved | Puzzle rating (95% range) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | −9 | 5 plies or 50 ms | 3.5% | 560 (450–630) |
| Level 2 | −5 | 5 plies or 100 ms | 11.5% | 840 (770–910) |
| Level 3 | −1 | 5 plies or 150 ms | 55.7% | 1600 (1540–1660) |
| Level 4 | 3 | 5 plies or 200 ms | 74.3% | 1910 (1860–1960) |
| Level 5 | 7 | 5 plies or 300 ms | 79.6% | 2010 (1960–2060) |
| Level 6 | 11 | 8 plies or 400 ms | 92.2% | 2310 (2260–2380) |
| Level 7 | 16 | 13 plies or 500 ms | 99.4% | Above 2400 (beyond the test) |
| Level 8 | 20 | 22 plies or 1000 ms | 100.0% | Above 2400 (beyond the test) |
Three things stand out:
- Levels 1 and 2 are far weaker than the rest. Level 1 solved 3.5% of the puzzles, and only 0.4% of the easiest ones (rated 600–1200). They use negative Skill Level values (−9 and −5) that only Lichess's engine build accepts, and those values make the engine pick a weak move on purpose most of the time. Their results barely change with puzzle difficulty, so read their numbers as "well below 1000" rather than as precise ratings.
- The big jump is from level 2 to level 3. Level 3 solved 55.7% and rates about 750 points above level 2. If level 2 is too easy and level 3 crushes you, that gap is the reason.
- Levels 4 and 5 are close. Both look only 5 moves ahead (half-moves, or "plies"), so the extra Skill Level adds less than you would expect: about 100 points in our test.
A puzzle rating is the Lichess puzzle difficulty a level solves half the time. It is not an Elo you can compare directly with your game rating. See why the numbers disagree.
What "Stockfish level" means on each site
"Stockfish level" covers three different systems, which is why answers online contradict each other.
Lichess levels 1–8
Lichess turns each level into three settings: a Skill Level, a maximum search depth and a time limit per move (the table above). One detail almost nobody mentions: when you play the computer on Lichess, the moves come from Fairy-Stockfish, a Stockfish variant, using its classical evaluation. Regular Stockfish with its neural network is used only for analysis.1 Fairy-Stockfish allows Skill Levels from −20 to 20, while standard Stockfish only goes from 0 to 20, and that is how Lichess makes levels 1–3 so weak.
Stockfish's own Skill Level 0–20
If you run Stockfish yourself, or use an app built on it, you will see Skill Level 0–20 or a UCI_Elo setting. Stockfish's documentation says this Elo was calibrated at 60 seconds + 0.6 seconds per game and anchored to the CCRL 40/4 engine rating list.2 The code converts an Elo into a Skill Level with a fitted curve and notes that Skill 0–19 covers about 1320 to 3190 on the CCRL Blitz scale.3 Running that curve backwards gives this table:
| Skill Level | Approx. Elo (CCRL Blitz scale) |
|---|---|
| 0 | ≈1350 |
| 1 | ≈1440 |
| 2 | ≈1570 |
| 3 | ≈1730 |
| 4 | ≈1950 |
| 5 | ≈2200 |
| 6 | ≈2380 |
| 8 | ≈2620 |
| 10 | ≈2790 |
| 12 | ≈2910 |
| 15 | ≈3060 |
| 18 | ≈3180 |
| 20 | Full strength, no limit (about 3,800 on CCRL Blitz) |
Treat these as engine-list numbers. CCRL ratings come from engines playing engines and don't translate one-to-one into human Elo. The lowest setting, about 1320, is still too strong for most beginners, which is why Lichess went below Skill 0.
Chess Move Finder's Play Chess levels
Our own Play Chess tool runs Stockfish 17.1 in your browser with four levels. We put them through the same 360-puzzle test:
| Level | Skill Level | Time per move | Puzzles solved | Puzzle rating (95% range) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 0 | 250 ms | 52.8% | 1590 (1500–1660) |
| Casual | 5 | 500 ms | 78.9% | 2020 (1930–2090) |
| Challenging | 12 | 1000 ms | 100.0% | Above 2400 (beyond the test) |
| Strongest | 20 | 1500 ms | 100.0% | Above 2400 (beyond the test) |
Our Beginner level lands close to Lichess level 3, and Casual close to Lichess level 5. If you need something gentler than our Beginner, Lichess levels 1 and 2 are weaker than anything we offer.
Chess.com
Chess.com doesn't number Stockfish levels. Its bots, including the named personalities, are powered by the Komodo engine, and each shows its own rating.4 Those ratings are Chess.com's labels and aren't comparable to the Lichess levels here.
Why the numbers disagree
You will find forum lists that put Lichess level 1 anywhere from under 400 to about 850, and level 8 anywhere from about 2250 to "3000".5 They are mostly guesses, and there are four real reasons they differ:
- Puzzles are not games. A weakened engine still calculates short tactics well and then throws the game away with a random bad move, so it can look stronger in puzzles than in a full game. Our numbers measure how often each level finds the best move in a rated position. That is repeatable, but it isn't a game rating.
- Different engines. Lichess's levels use Fairy-Stockfish with a classical evaluation; most apps use regular Stockfish. The same Skill Level number doesn't mean the same strength.
- Time per move. Levels 1–5 search only 5 plies deep. Give the engine more time or depth and it gets stronger at the same Skill Level.
- Different rating pools. CCRL engine ratings, Lichess ratings and FIDE ratings are separate scales. Read how Elo rating works for why ratings from different pools don't line up.
Why low levels play "weird" moves
Low Stockfish levels don't play like weak humans. With Skill Level below 20, Stockfish looks at several candidate moves at once and then, using a random number, sometimes picks a worse one. The lower the level, the bigger the random push toward worse moves.3 The result is an opponent that plays a sharp tactic one move and leaves a queen hanging the next. Humans make different mistakes, so don't expect a level to "feel" like a person with the same rating.
Which Stockfish level should you play?
Start from your Lichess puzzle rating, not your game rating, because that is what our scale measures:
| Your puzzle rating | Start at Lichess level | On Chess Move Finder |
|---|---|---|
| Below 700 | Level 1 | Below our Beginner level |
| 700–1,200 | Level 2 | Below our Beginner level |
| 1,200–1,750 | Level 3 | Beginner |
| 1,750–1,950 | Level 4 | Beginner, then Casual |
| 1,950–2,150 | Level 5 | Casual |
| 2,150–2,400 | Level 6 | Casual, then Challenging |
| Above 2,400 | Level 7 | Challenging |
Then adjust by results. If you win more than about two games in three, move up a level; if you lose most games, move down. The best training level is one you beat sometimes. Use the Elo calculator if you want to see what a given score means in rating terms.
How to beat Stockfish levels 1–4
These levels lose to simple, careful play:
- Check every capture for free material. Level 1 found the best move in only 3.5% of our puzzles, and level 2 in 11.5%, so they often leave pieces hanging. Before every move, ask whether something is undefended.
- Don't panic after a good engine move. Low levels mix strong moves with random bad ones. One sharp move doesn't mean a plan; keep developing and keep your pieces protected.
- Trade into a simple winning endgame. Levels 1–5 see only 5 plies ahead, so they misjudge long endgames. When you are a piece up, trade pieces, not pawns.
- At level 3 and 4, assume short tactics will be seen. They solved most easy puzzles, so set up threats that take more than five plies to pay off: slow pawn advances, improving your worst piece, attacking a weak pawn twice.
For a structured way to spot tactics, read how to find the best chess move.
Is maximum Stockfish beatable?
Not in a fair game. Lichess level 8 is Skill Level 20, which is no handicap, limited only to depth 22 or one second per move. Even so, it solved 100% of our puzzles and sits far above the test's 2400 ceiling. Full-strength Stockfish rates around 3,800 on engine lists, about 1,000 points above the best human. See how strong Stockfish is for the numbers.
How we tested
Positions: the 720 puzzles on our puzzles page, taken from the Lichess open puzzle database (CC0) with their Lichess difficulty ratings, 611 to 2392.6 For each puzzle we played the opponent's setup move and asked the engine for its move.
Lichess levels: Fairy-Stockfish 11.1 with Lichess's exact settings for each level (Skill Level, depth limit and time limit from fishnet's source), one thread, a fresh game for every puzzle. Lichess runs a newer Fairy-Stockfish build, so its levels may be somewhat stronger than ours, but it uses the same classical evaluation.
Chess Move Finder levels: the same Stockfish 17.1 lite build our site runs in the browser, with our Play Chess settings, on every second puzzle (360).
Scoring: a puzzle counts as solved if the engine played the first solution move or any checkmate. Each level's puzzle rating is the difficulty at which it solves 50%, fitted with the standard Elo curve; the range is a 95% bootstrap interval. When a level solved nearly everything, we report it only as "above 2400" because the test can't measure past its hardest puzzle.
Run: November 15, 2026, 2 CPU cores. 7,200 engine moves in total. Skill levels pick moves at random, so a re-run will give slightly different numbers within the ranges shown.
Frequently asked questions
What Elo is Stockfish level 1?
There is no official figure. In our test, Lichess level 1 performed like a puzzle rating of about 560, the weakest of all eight levels. It solved only 3.5% of 720 rated puzzles.
What Elo is Stockfish level 3?
About 1,600 on the Lichess puzzle scale in our test. Level 3 is where the computer starts to play real tactics: it solved 55.7% of the puzzles, against 11.5% for level 2.
What Elo is Stockfish level 6?
About 2,310 on the puzzle scale. Level 6 searches 8 plies deep and solved 92.2% of the puzzles.
What Elo is Stockfish level 8?
Beyond what a puzzle test can measure: it solved 100% of puzzles rated up to 2392. Level 8 plays at Skill Level 20, which means no deliberate mistakes, limited to depth 22 or one second per move. That is far stronger than any human.
Do games against Stockfish change my rating?
No. Games against the computer are unrated on Lichess, and Chess.com says the same for its bots and engine.4
Is Stockfish level 20 the same as Lichess level 8?
They share the same Skill Level (20, no handicap), but Lichess level 8 adds a depth and time limit and uses Fairy-Stockfish. Stockfish "level 20" on your own computer, with more time, is stronger.
Which level should a beginner play?
Lichess level 1 or 2, or Beginner on our Play Chess tool if you can already spot simple tactics. Move up when you win about two games in three.
Sources
- lichess-org/fishnet (GitHub): level settings in
src/api.rs; engine choice for computer moves insrc/queue.rs. Checked November 15, 2026. - Stockfish wiki: UCI & Commands, UCI_Elo and Skill Level options.
- Stockfish 17.1 source,
search.handsearch.cpp(theSkillstructure andpick_best), from the source archive we distribute. - Chess.com Help Center: Play bots on Chess.com.
- Lichess forum threads, for example What ELO are the various Stockfish levels?
- Lichess open puzzle database (CC0).