What even is a chess beginner?

I've been playing chess on and off my whole life and would say I know enough to not be classified as a true beginner. I've been teaching some young children who are surely going to slaughter me soon enough, and feel like I have more than enough knowledge to not really be a beginner, but my rating doesn't really reflect that.

If I'm practicing/studying my true strength is probably around 1200 (my claim to fame is beating a 1400 in USCF, yeah no big deal), but I just play for fun and don't really care too much about rating. I feel like a decent amount of the posts here still apply to me which is crazy considering what I know about chess, but I know it's a very complex game.

Then again I see people posting here that they have reached 1800+ in various time controls which seems way above beginner. What ELO range are we talking here?

For me, anything below 1400 rapid on chess.com is a beginner

Hi there

What is the point of creating a new account for this? Ridiculous.

A beginner is someone who makes funny moves.  An experienced low rated player usually just gets outplayed. Maybe?

On this site, people consider anyone below them to be "beginners". Hence, you see people rated 1800+ asking questions as if that's completely normal.

I got this,...

A chess beginner is anyone a few hundred points lower than your rating

Joking aside, there is no clear-cut definition. You are a chess beginner if you consider yourself to be. There is no threshold to pass to be officially considered past beginner level although some people might claim certain ratings based on statistics. 

I'd say a chess beginner is anyone newer to chess or anyone really low rating (and likely learning). How "newer" and how "low rating?" Again, there isn't a divider to tell.

Usually people consider sub-1000 or sub-1200 rating a beginner. 1800+ or 2000+ tends to be considered advanced. Everything in the middle seem to be considered intermediate. Notice I cite these guidelines by what many believe, but with no specific ratings. Interestingly enough, most people never reach even 1400 rating, yet this rating is comfortably in the Intermediate category by this range. If most never reach that rating, shouldn't one consider that "advanced?" 

Ratings and estimates can be confusing. I say you are a beginner if you consider yourself to be one and you aren't a beginner if you don't consider yourself a beginner

I would say under 1200

I always assume ratings a couple of hundred points above mine know what they are doing.... And from 500 to where I am now it's always the same.... When you get to that couple of hundred points higher you realise they (and me) don't really have a clue either

I'd consider people who have been playing chess for less than two years as beginners. Says myself who has been playing for only half a year, so it may be far from correct.

Another bot thread with a post taken from reddit

Another new account troll.