Questions about NM, FM, GM badges on Chess,com

As my level has (slowly, painfully) improved on here, I find myself sometimes playing titled players.

There seem to be a few titles: FM, NM, IM, (GM but never played them and likely wont!). And also sometimes there are "W" before these, which I guess means women's player.

Here are my questions

1. How do you get these added to your chess.com account? Over the board play?

2. What is the rating range for each title?

3. Why is it that some players with titles are not that strong? I played some of these titled players and won, quite easily!  Is it possible they are retired players who are just getting old?

1. OTB, yes. Titles obtained vary by national federation.

2. Generally speaking,

NM - 2200 national rating

CM - 2200 FIDE / Youth championships

FM - 2300 FIDE / Youth championships

IM - 2400 FIDE + 3 Norms (You get a norm by playing really well, against strong opposition, basically.). iirc NAYCC (North american youth chess championships) offered IM title to the winner of the whole thing but I could be wrong.

GM - 2500 FIDE + 3 Norms

3. OTB rating measures otb strength. Online ratings measure online strength. If you get matched with a titled player, chances are you guys will have similar online ratings. Thus, chances are that they will play on a similar level of strength to you online. It is likely that they are old, or that they simply do not play online often, and thus have worse board vision online.

Thanks for the reply! So I assume that when you get the title, you get a certificate or some kind of ID number and you just ask chess.com to add it? (Not that I expect I will get a title)

Also, and I guess you maybe dont know, but there is a new website called FIDE online arena. https://chessarena.com/

They claim you can get a title by playing there but I am not sure if it is just a gimmick unofficial title. It probably is, because think how many cheats there are in online games

I'm not entirely sure on the process, but there are ways to verify.

If I remember correctly, to verify the title for chess.com you need to post a picture of yourself holding a sign that says your username, and also link your federation profile. For example, I have my own USChess profile:

Scrolling down you can find the part where it would list my titles (if i had any!)

And if you were an NM, instead of "1st category" it would say "National Master", for example.

Online titles aren't recognized by anyone except the people who want to get them basically

Thanks for the feedback. I just tried that FIDE online arena and the level seems MUCH higher than on here. I am rated 1800 Blitz / 2000 Rapid on here. Went over to the FIDE Arena and played a guy rated 1180. I got a win but it was much the same level I am used to!