Lichess is probably the best site to play chess online currently. Free & full of features, it’s good for chess players of all ages.

We faced a serious pandemic that forced people’s everyday life to change. All sports were also put to stop because of the restrictions that came with this pandemic. But chess was lucky enough to be one of the sports that can continue online.

During the pandemic, chess players cannot meet and interact face to face; this forced them into using online platforms.

While these platforms already exist pre-covid, they were not used as much as they are being used now.

One of the main platforms that we as chess players used and still use is lichess.org. You have not heard about it? Click here to go to lichess

Lichess is a chess platform that offers various chess players multiple chess-related features that they can use. All the features are available to all chess players for free.

Here is a breakdown of all those features:

Chess Board

A Lichess chessboard is a primary object that is found within other features.

To match users’ preferences, the board comes with multiple color codes and also different types of chess pieces.

Users also have the option to change the chessboard from two dimensions to three dimensions.

Premove is a feature that enables players to make a move before it is their turn. This feature is mainly useful in a time-troubled situation. You can learn more about chess terminology here.

Computer users also have the option to draw arrows and circle squares, which is a useful feature when coaching or explaining positions to an audience.

Create a Game in Lichess

This option allows users to create a game according to their specific needs.

These needs include the type of variant, time control, rating arrangement, and whether it should be a rating game or not.

In most cases, the pairing system will find an opponent quickly, as there are many users on Lichess who are always playing online.

In the case that there is no opponent found, you will be placed in the lobby. Players who do not know the type of match they want to play might pick your game up.

Variants

Variants are games that are similar to chess, and in most cases follow chess rules.

Lichess offers a total of eight variants, namely:

• Crazyhouse: A two-player game that follows the normal chess rules; however, when you capture an opponent’s piece, you can reintroduce them back into the game as your own. The only way to win is via checkmate.
• Chess960: This variant aims to reduce the number of draws found at top-level chess. All the chess rules are the same. The only difference from normal chess is that all the pieces behind the pawns are reshuffled (king, queen, bishop, knights, and rooks)
• King of the Hill: While all the chess rules are the same, players have an extra method of winning, which is by placing their king on any of the center squares (e4,e5,d4,d5)
• Three-check: All chess rules are the same with the only difference that to win, you have to deliver three checks on the king first.
• Antichess: In this variant, you have to lose all your pieces or get the stalemate to win. All pieces move like normal chess pieces and, in a situation where they have to capture, it is a must to do so.
• Atomic: The goal of this variant is to win by exploding your opponent’s king first. These explosions occur when you capture a piece.
• Horde: Black starts with normal chess pieces, while White starts with only pawns. The goal for White is to checkmate, while Black only has to capture all of White’s pawns.
• Racing Kings: The objective of this variant is to make sure that your king reaches the 8th rank first.

Tournaments in Lichess

Chess tournaments show 3+ chess players taking part in an event where they are competing for a specific prize, or rather for the fun of being in the top three after the tournament is over.

Lichess tournaments can be either Swiss tournaments or Arena tournaments.

Swiss Tournaments: When playing this type of tournament, all players who start an event play the same amount of pre-determined rounds. Players are paired according to their points, and it is impossible to play the same opponent twice.

Arena Tournaments: You can play as many opponents as possible, even if you have played them before in the arena. Time determines when the tournament will end.

The Arena tournaments have been a Lichess specialty; and Lichess offers tournaments in blitz, rapid, bullet, and classical for all variants.

Normally, these tournaments are available every hour. Also, players have the option to create their tournaments.

To make Arena tournaments more interesting, Lichess implicates a feature called Berserk, which means that players can half their time, and if they win, they get an extra point added to their tournament points.

Puzzles

Puzzles are a great way to practice your chess and also study and memorize chess positions that might arise in your future games.

Lichess puzzles are all derived from previous games played by Lichess players.

To make puzzles interesting, Lichess does not only have the normal timeless puzzles but also:

1. Streak: This is where you play puzzles for a streak; the moment you get a puzzle wrong, the streak restarts.
2. Storm: Here you have to solve puzzles within a certain time allocated by Lichess, usually 3 min.
3. Racer: You are competing with other players to see who can solve the most puzzles faster.

Lichess compiles your puzzle database. This section is the puzzle dashboard. You get all the analytics on your strong and weak points, also areas where you have improved, and the puzzles you have completed in case you want a re-run.

Watch

In this section, you get to observe other chess players from different countries according to your specific needs.

Lichess TV

Here you get to observe the games of the highest-rated players online. There are TVs for most time formats, including variants and also chess bots.

Streamers

This is a section where people from different countries do live chess activities, be it playing games on Lichess or simply commenting. External tools like Twitch and YouTube are used, but Lichess will always notify you when there is a stream going on.

Broadcasts

These are live tournaments by Lichess. Usually, big chess events like the World Chess Championship can be found in this section.

Video Library

In this section, we find pre-recorded video lessons mostly from top chess players, Lichess elects the videos that they think will educate players better.

Blog

It is always important to let chess players know what’s happening in the chess world.

While Lichess mostly focuses on updating players as to what’s happening to their site, they now also allow other chess players to write news, and articles.

Chess Engine

Lichess has the last version of Stockfish. The current latest version is Stockfish 14, which is considered to be much better than Magnus Carlsen or any other chess player in human history.

The chess engine is useful for multiple things on Lichess:

1. Analyzing your completed games to check for blunders, inaccuracies, and mistakes.
2. Analyzing positions from live games by top chess players
3. Detecting cheaters on the site
4. Playing with human chess players in casual games

Moderators

Lichess is a big chess site and, as such, moderators need to be present at all times. The rules are the followings:

Cheating

Cheating is a big thing in terms of online chess. It can come in multiple forms, including using an engine, rating manipulation, and having multiple users using an account.

You must report when this situation occurs and moderators do an investigation into the situation, and then take further action, mainly banning the players.

Cyber Bullying

Cyberbullying normally occurs in the chats, possible in a big tournament, or when a player loses a match and decides that bullying is a way to take out their frustrations.

A player can lose his lichess account for this behavior.

Conclusion about Lichess

Lichess probably is the best chess site currently. While it is free, they do not have ads, which people consider to be annoying also.

To function, they mainly depend on patrons and other donations given to them by the chess community. Patrons are people who donate to Lichess whenever they want. In return, they get a special badge to show that they are patrons.

Lichess is not only a good platform for older players, but it is also child friendly. When creating an account for your under-eighteen students or children, there is a “kid’s mode” option. This protects young players from other players on the platform and restricts other things that might not be child friendly.

While the features that are currently available are sufficient, it would be nice to have other cool features, e.g. using voice recognition to make moves.