<abstract><p>An associative Artinian ring with an identity is a chain ring if its lattice of left (right) ideals forms a unique chain. In this article, we first prove that for every chain ring, there exists a certain finite commutative chain subring which characterizes it. Using this fact, we classify chain rings with invariants $ p, n, r, k, k', m $ up to isomorphism by finite commutative chain rings ($ k' = 1 $). Thus the classification of chain rings is reduced to that of finite commutative chain rings.</p></abstract>