What do you say when people ask how good at chess you are ?

Thats an easy answer. First I hardly ever tell anyone I play chess so it would be very difficult for a stranger to ask me how good I am, but still if someone does then I reply "not good". If Im asked about my rtg I simply answer with around 1400/1500 that is the truth

  Well if the person asking has a rating you can just tell them your rating, if they don't chances are compared to them you are very good.

I say I am a master and a tactical beast like Tal. Check this game for example:

Or this:

hmm nobody has ever asked how good i am but if they did, my reply would be "yes thats correct" .......

it is a stupid question and deserves a stupid answer.

"good" is a relative term in this case. for example, compared to the greats like fischer, kramnik, kasparov and co, i would have to say i am a "challenged" (cant say retarded any more), player.

compared to some of the obviously "challenged" (still cant say retarded any more) people on this forum, i would rate myself as genius plus .....

But not lately on here - you haven't played a game for over a year. ;)

I answer it depends who you compare me with.

people always thought I suck in chess because of my figure but during the match every move I play against them , they raised their eyebrows towards me .I wonder what they mean.

I say: " compared to Fischer, I suck!", then normally they would ask: "who is Fischer?"; my reply to them then would be: "compared to you, I am hot as hell!!" . If they know Fischer, i just reply " well that should give you your answer"..... (normally they don't ask me again) 

Wore my Chess.com cap to a coffee shop in Hendersonville, TN this morning and the barista said, "Oh you must be good at chess since you got that hat!" "I want to play!" "Will you come back?"

(It's black so it matched my black shirt perfectly.)

I was like, "I don't know, what's your Chess.com username?" He told me part of it but said he couldn't remember the rest so I said, Well, I'm learningthemoves so look me up and we'll play. He pulled out his iPhone and apparently had the mobile app loaded to put a profile with the face.

After a couple of minutes, I ask, by the way, is someone making my drink or did you all forget about me? He was making it. ha ha.

Earlier he had handed me the drink that belonged to the woman who ordered before me so we shared a laugh.

But he really seemed to be impressed with the hat. (I must admit it is a nice one as far as caps go. Very reasonably priced at the Chess.com store too.)

I don't know if today's experience qualifies as someone asking me how good at chess I am since he said he just assumed I was good because I was wearing a Chess.com cap, but I do think it's  a good example of how each of us can do our part as members to evangelize the good news about Chess.com in our local area and help give back to the community that has given so much to us already, don't you?

do you think people care about how good someone is at chess ?

I say every master was once a beginner

You get what I mean? :D

Tell him to look up the 1993 fide tournament champion? He would go looking thinking it's you?  

"Good" at chess is all relative.  

I sometimes say, I'm a bit "above average" in online chess now, but if I'd ever read a Chess Book, I'd have been a Brilliant player!

Out of the 10 games on your page, 2 games went for 57 moves, 2 for 40, 2 for 30 and 2 for 26 - very unusual.

Thanks!

Non chess players who ask how good are you (you are?) at chess, usually are asking how smart are you. They think chess as a strategy game where a person have to be really smart to be good at... So you can safety answer i am pretty smart .. (at this game).