Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Lichess

The complete chess experience, play and compete in tournaments with friends others around the world.

Lichess

Lichess Reviews and Details

This page is designed to help you find out whether Lichess is good and if it is the right choice for you.

Screenshots and images

  • Lichess Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-04

Features & Specs

  1. Free to Use

    Lichess is completely free to use, with no hidden fees or subscription models required to access its features.

  2. Open Source

    The platform is open-source, allowing anyone to contribute to its development or customize it according to their needs.

  3. Ad-Free

    Lichess does not run advertisements, providing a cleaner and more enjoyable user experience.

  4. Variants

    Offers a wide range of chess variants like Crazyhouse, Chess960, and Atomic, catering to diverse player interests.

  5. Community Features

    Features strong community elements such as forums, tournaments, and team play, enhancing social interaction.

  6. Analysis Tools

    Provides powerful game analysis tools, including Stockfish integration, to help players improve their skills.

  7. Accessibility

    The platform has a clean and intuitive interface that is accessible to both beginners and experienced players.

  8. Mobile Apps

    Lichess offers mobile applications for both iOS and Android, allowing users to play and learn chess on the go.

Badges & Trophies

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Videos

Review of LiChess, Chess.com, ChessClub, ICC, Playchess, chesscube Reviewed!

Learning from your mistakes - Lichess has best online chess features and it is free!

Introduction to Game Analysis on Lichess

Social recommendations and mentions

We have tracked the following product recommendations or mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you see what people think about Lichess and what they use it for.
  • Show HN: Chess bot based on the transformer architecture
    Hi HN! I build this project to explore an idea I got in mind for a long time : Is transformer a suitable architecture for a chess bot? I built a small model (11M parameters) and trained it on human games (Elite Lichess DB). Model alone is performing around 1500 elo, but I built an harness using Monte Carlos Tree Search (MCTS) using my model heuristics to improve the model to ~2100 elo (evaluated against... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement
    Lichess is incredibly well optimized [0] (and an amazing public service). I'm sure that this is very cost effective for TTT, so a win-win. [0] https://lichess.org/@/revoof/blog/optimizing-the-tablebase-server/MetV0ZQd. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Take Take Take and Lichess.org Announce Play Zone Partnership
    Https://lichess.org/@/Lichess/blog/lichess-and-take-take-take-sign-cooperation-agreement/DZS0S0Dy. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Any chess position with 8 pieces on board and one pair of pawns has been solved
    The actual blogpost: https://lichess.org/@/Lichess/blog/op1-partial-8-piece-tablebase-available/1ptPBDpC On a related note, anyone knows a Mastodon proxy that doesn't require JS and I can just pipe links through? - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • How to store a chess position in 26 bytes using bit-level magic
    Lichess uses a scheme which is probably more efficient on average, described on revoof's blog[0]. Basically, it's a variable length scheme where the first 64 bits encode square occupancies, followed by piece codes (including castling, side to move, and ep with some trickery), followed by half-move clocks if necessary. 0:... - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • How to store a chess position in 26 bytes using bit-level magic
    To extend this to entire game histories, here's the Lichess blog post, "Compressing Chess Moves Even Further, To 3.7 Bits Per Move": https://lichess.org/@/marcusbuffett/blog/compressing-chess-moves-even-further-to-37-bits-per-move/YgugQc42. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • 3x performance for 1/4 of the price by migrating from AWS to Hetzner
    Dedicated servers on a host like Hetzer and OVH surely beats any virtualization based cloud offering on price and performance. The tradeoff is availability. It's a great choice for entities that are optimizing on cost, but not a great choice if your business cannot tolerate downtime. A good example is a the big lichess outage from last year [1]. Lichess is a non-profit, and also must serve a huge user base. Given... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • No reachable chess position with more than 218 moves
    Https://lichess.org/@/Tobs40/blog/there-is-no-reachable-chess-position-with-more-than-218-moves/a5xdxeqs#checking-more-positions-to-make-things-less-slow describes how the author removed some more complicated rules in the first pass, and is willing to re-introduce them, if necessary. Ie if the solution found violates them. Interestingly, mixed integer linear programming solvers already support these. The... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Ask HN: What do you do to kill time that isn't social media?
    Chess, I play on Lichess[1]. I started about a year and a half ago. [1]: https://lichess.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Show HN: A Implementation of Alpha Zero for Chess in MLX
    Very interesting, I have been actually working on an AI Chess Coach to help explain moves of games: https://lichess.org/@/nightfox/blog/ai-chess-coach/4uMrWhR9. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2025)
    I'm a big chess buff, and will say that the hard part is not making an engine (which is hard!), but making an engine that plays poorly, well. What I mean is: engines are very smart and better than the best human. When you make a "dumb" engine, you are telling a chess god to intentionally make mistakes. The mistakes they make, however, are not the same mistakes a beginner chess player would make. Today, beginners... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • PlayQuoridor: A Free, Open-Source Real-Time Quoridor Server
    Read about it more here: https://lichess.org/@/Neodimi/blog/playquoridor-a-free-open-source-real-time-quoridor-server/qHDnpxlq. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Implementing zen mode in React
    Zen mode is a popular UX pattern that creates a distraction-free experience for application users. It's a simple approach where part of application interface is hidden on user's demand. I have encountered this mode in applications where the main functions are based on focus and tranquility. One of them is Lichess, the second chess platform in the World. I am a chess enthusiast and I am trying (with poor results)... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Mastering the Isolated Queen Pawn (IQP)
    Https://lichess.org is an excellent open source chess server with plenty of learning resources for pure beginners. As you progress learning resources sadly get more and more expensive indeed. Not to mention the cost of tournaments (travel and accomodation expenses add up very quickly). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Analyzing the World Chess Championship 2024: Empirical Synthesized Approach
    You don't have a good grasp of data analysis then. You used the data to tell yourself a story "the experts are biased!, not to gain a real deeper understanding". This story should already be suspect because the experts, when commentating, had access to the data you looked at. The eval bar was always there. But they interpreted it. Your assumption seems to be that by calculating some trivial statistics and not... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Gukesh Becomes the Youngest Chess World Champion in History
    This is about eval nuance, not how bots play Bots playing like humans is done by training them to play like humans: https://lichess.org/@/lichess/blog/introducing-maia-a-human-like-neural-network-chess-engine/X9PUixUA. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • GenChess
    Best place to play chess is still https://lichess.org/ !! - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Something weird is happening with LLMs and chess
    Here's a quick anonymous game against it by me, where I obliterate the poor thing in 11 moves. I was around a 1500 ELO classical strength player, which is, a teeny bit above average, globally. But I mean - not an expert, or even one of the "strong" club players (in any good club). https://lichess.org/BRceyegK -- the game, you'll see it make the ultimate classic opening errors https://lichess.org/ -- try yourself!... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Pi Chess Board
    > I wonder if another mechanism altogether could work a bit better -- a matrix of electromagnets embedded under the board, with a resolution of say 1/4", so that when deployed in sequence, they could move the pieces from one magnetic field to another and another, without any actual moving parts involved. A standard chessboard has squares of 2-2.5โ€, so this would require at least 4096 electromagnets. There was a... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • What happens when you make a move in lichess.org?
    > lichess only record moves with one-second accuracy According to this blog post, this hasn't been correct since at least 2017: https://lichess.org/@/lichess/blog/a-better-game-clock-history/WOEVrjAA "Move times are now stored and displayed with a precision of one tenth of a second. The precision even goes up to one hundredth of a second, for positions where the player had less than 10 seconds left on... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • AWS and Azure Are at Least 4xโ€“10x More Expensive Than Hetzner
    It is hard. Lichess admins are highly skilled and I'm sure they already have a well designed infrastructure. You can see what they use at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Si3PMUJGR9KrpE5lngSkHLJKJkb0ZuI4/preview The issue was on a network equipment that they didn't even manage. You can't load balance when your core network is down. There was nothing they could do as I understand it. More details at:... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

Summary of the public mentions of Lichess

Lichess, pronounced "lee-chess," is a popular online chess platform that stands out in public opinion for its unique approach to providing a comprehensive, community-driven chess experience. Unlike its primary competitor, Chess.com, Lichess is recognized for its open-source foundation, which has contributed to its reputation for transparency and community involvement.

One of the most appreciated aspects of Lichess is its focus on accessibility and fairness, a sentiment echoed across various user discussions. The platform is entirely free, without ads, as it's funded by donations, which users often cite as a significant advantage over subscription-based services like Chess.com. This financial model underscores the platform's commitment to inclusivity, allowing chess enthusiasts globally to enjoy high-level chess tools without financial barriers.

In terms of features, Lichess offers a robust set of tools for players at all levels. Its "Zen mode," for example, is praised for providing a distraction-free gaming environment, helping users focus purely on their chess games. Moreover, Lichess is commended for its AI capabilities, particularly the Maia chess engine, which attempts to mimic human play to provide more relatable training experiences for players. This human-like AI offers a more practical learning experience for beginners, addressing a common critique in AI development where engines typically play too perfectly even when attempting to simulate lower-level play.

Lichess is also acclaimed for its educational resources, such as interactive tutorials and puzzles, which are beneficial for players looking to improve. However, some users have noted that as they advance, they tend to face higher costs when participating in external tournaments, an issue unrelated to the platform itself but relevant to the broader chess ecosystem.

From a technical perspective, discussions around Lichess's infrastructure highlight its resilience and the competence of its administrative team. The platform's downtime scenarios are generally well-managed and communicated transparently, earning it respect within the tech-savvy segments of its user base.

Despite its strengths, Lichess does face challenges in user perception, particularly when compared to Chess.com. Notably, there's a ongoing debate regarding rating comparisons. Lichess's rating system is different from Chess.com's, leading to frequent discussions about their relative merit and how they translate into player skill levels. The consensus often recognizes that rating systems are inherently subjective, though Lichess is typically praised for its straightforward and consistent rating structure.

Overall, public opinion portrays Lichess as a modern, egalitarian platform championing accessibility and community involvement, with a technical backbone that highlights its independence and open-source values. As it continues to evolve, Lichess remains a cherished tool for chess players worldwide due to its price model, feature set, and dedication to fostering an inclusive chess community.

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Lichess discussion

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  1. User avatar
    Agent-reic
    ยท 9 months ago
    ยท Reply

    I like chess game, this is good!

  2. Cloodo WorkSpace avatar
    Cloodo WorkSpace
    ยท over 2 years ago
    ยท Reply

    best chess online

Is Lichess good? This is an informative page that will help you find out. Moreover, you can review and discuss Lichess here. The primary details have not been verified within the last quarter, and they might be outdated. If you think we are missing something, please use the means on this page to comment or suggest changes. All reviews and comments are highly encouranged and appreciated as they help everyone in the community to make an informed choice. Please always be kind and objective when evaluating a product and sharing your opinion.