As far as FIDE Online Arena goes, it is actually a serious thing. Do not be fooled by the 1100 rating to get the Arena Candidate Master (ACM) title. All those titles are FIDE official titles and to stand a change to get an ACM title, you need to be about 1800 on Chess.com to have any chance there.
First, players have to pay to play FOA rated games to earn the titles. With that in mind, the players are stronger and the competition is stiffer.
Second, each titles are achieved by maintaining the required rating while 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games.
Arena Grandmaster (AGM) is the highest online title. It is achieved by a series of 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games with a performance rating of over 2000.
Arena International Master (AIM) is achieved by a series of 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games with a performance rating of over 1700.
Arena FIDE Master (AFM) is achieved by a series of 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games with a performance rating of over 1400.
Arena Candidate Master (ACM) is achieved by a series of 150 bullet games, 100 blitz games or 50 rapid games with a performance rating of over 1100.
Arena titles can be achieved on FIDE Online Arena, the official FIDE online gaming platform.
Unfortunately, their marketing sucks! That’s the reason why they are so unpopular in both sense of the word.
Before finding this meme, I didn’t know that Correspondance Chess was a thing. You can also be a Chess Grandmaster there. International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (title created by FIDE) sounds like music to my ears. Only one month into chess and I’m already dreaming of titles!
However, chess bots and engines are legal in the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) since it wouldn’t be possible to legislate anyway. So what’s the point of playing if a fuckin’ bot does all the heavy lifting for you???
Nonetheless, correspondance (daily) are appealing to me. Since I wouldn’t make that much stupid blunders and mistakes – despite playing 30 min. classical games – if I had all my time.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_Online_Arena
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Correspondence_Chess_Federation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Correspondence_Chess_Grandmaster
