Play chess against a 1200-rated computer

A 1200 player plays a sensible opening, rarely hangs a piece outright, and will find a tactic you allow. The mistakes come in long calculations and in the endgame.

75

average loss per move (centipawns)

4.2

big blunders per 100 moves

3.8s

average think, 10-minute game

4

moves it looks ahead

For comparison, real Chess.com rapid players around 1200 lose about 70 centipawns per move (measured on their own games, the same way). The bot is Tactical Priya (1200): see how the bots are built.

You beat beginners reliably and want a club-strength sparring partner.

1. 1Play for tactics: pins and discovered attacks catch 1200 players.
2. 2Know your openings 6-8 moves deep so you reach the middlegame equal.
3. 3Convert simple endgames: king and pawn endings decide many 1200 games.

Measured on 41 Chess.com players' public games, November 2026.

We picked random public Chess.com players rated 400 to 2000 and took their 5 most recent rapid games. Stockfish scored every move they played from move 5 on, comparing it with the best move, and we averaged the loss per move. We fitted a smooth trend through all the players so no single game sways a rating, then ran our bots through exactly the same measurement.

Correction: our first version used textbook reference values that overstated human mistakes; the bots are now tuned to these measured numbers.