user853: I don't play club chess or tournaments, how can I determine my ELO strength? 
I often play on chess.com how well does it compare to the FIDE system? (I am aware that one cannot account for people cheating online)

user4362: The only way to get an accurate estimate of your Elo strength is to actually get an Elo rating. 
If you accuracy isn't that important you could take a test like this. There are surely others somewhere. For example in some books (unfortunately I only know a non-English example).
Concerning the chess.com rating: In my experience your Elo should be a bit higher than your chess.com rating, but tournament games and internet blitz can be very different.

user291: This is going to sound tautological, but Elo is inherently a measure of how you do in tournaments. Your question is sort of like asking "I don't run, how can I determine how fast I can run a mile?" We could guess from how generally fit you look, but in reality you just have to go run a mile to find out.
There are correlations between various online ratings and a FIDE rating, but they're just correlations; the context of how you play online is very different from playing live (for one thing, online games are usually much faster).
I can tell you that the first time you play in a live tournament you will likely perform 100-200 points worse than you might expect from such a correlation, just because you're not used to the environment of a face-to-face tournament (moving real pieces, using a clock, writing down your moves, having your opponent right there in front of you, being distracted by other games). Luckily it does not take long to settle in.

853: <p>I don't play club chess or tournaments, how can I determine my ELO strength? 
I often play on chess.com how well does it compare to the FIDE system? (I am aware that one cannot account for people cheating online)</p>
 4362: <p>The only way to get an accurate estimate of your Elo strength is to actually get an Elo rating. </p>

<p>If you accuracy isn't that important you could take <a href="http://www.elometer.net" rel="nofollow">a test like this</a>. There are surely others somewhere. For example in some books (unfortunately I only know <a href="http://www.amazon.de/Lehr--%C3%9Cbungs--Testbuch-Schachkombinationen-Colditz/dp/3283003025/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" rel="nofollow">a non-English example</a>).</p>

<p>Concerning the chess.com rating: In my experience your Elo should be a bit higher than your chess.com rating, but tournament games and internet blitz can be very different.</p>
 291: <p>This is going to sound tautological, but Elo is inherently a measure of how you do in tournaments. Your question is sort of like asking "I don't run, how can I determine how fast I can run a mile?" We could guess from how generally fit you look, but in reality you just have to go run a mile to find out.</p>

<p>There are correlations between various online ratings and a FIDE rating, but they're just correlations; the context of how you play online is very different from playing live (for one thing, online games are usually much faster).</p>

<p>I can tell you that the first time you play in a live tournament you will likely perform 100-200 points worse than you might expect from such a correlation, just because you're not used to the environment of a face-to-face tournament (moving real pieces, using a clock, writing down your moves, having your opponent right there in front of you, being distracted by other games). Luckily it does not take long to settle in.</p>
