Are you looking for the best site to play a chess game, but you cannot choose between Lichess or chess.com?

In this chess world, there are two main platforms that people mostly use to play chess online.

These platforms are lichess.org and chess.com. There has always been a debate over which platform is better.

We will look at each of the features in greater detail they have, and then you decide on which is better overall.

History

Chess.com: This chess platform was founded in May of 2007 by Erik Allebest and Jay Severson. Over time, it acquired other chess projects and it has had 77 million users during its existence.

Lichess.org: The platform was founded in June of 2010 by Thibault Duplessis. This site is considered to be open source, meaning everyone has access to all the codes used to program it.

1. Alexa Ratings

Alexa is a platform that analyzes and ranks websites according to traffic or amount of users that visit the website.

Chess.com: According to Alexa, chess.com is ranked number 196 on the global rankings and number 1 when it comes to chess websites.

Lichess.org: According to Alexa, lichess.org currently ranks number 1967 on the global rankings and number 2 when it comes to chess websites.

2. Device Availability

Chess players want to have access to chess on all devices, be it a phone, laptop, or tablet or any other computing device:

Chess.com: The chess server is available on the web and there are apps available for Android and Apple devices on the respective app stores.

Lichess.org: The chess server is also available on the web and there are apps available for Android and Apple devices on the respective app stores.

In the video lesson below, GM Igor Smirnov will share with you a really powerful opening trap in the Alapin’s Opening, which happens after the first moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Ne2:

3. Chessboard

A chessboard is the most important feature on any chess platform as it enables players to actually play the game and do other chess-related stuff like puzzles.

Chess.com: The chess.com board has graphical features. Visually, it looks excellent with the graphics. But from experience this makes the pieces seem a bit hard to pick up.

Lichess.org: The lichess.org board is just simple; it doesn’t have any graphical features to it. This has given it the advantage of being lighter, allowing players to easily move pieces.

3. Pre-moves

Chess pre-moves always come in handy when under time pressure. This is the feature that allows a player to make a move before it’s their turn. Meaning a player will only have 0.1 seconds deducted from their time to complete the move instead of 1sec+.

Chess.com: They have mastered the art of multiple pre-moves. Chess.com is the only platform that allows players to do more than one pre-move at a time. This is part of the compensation for the heavy pieces.

Lichess.org: lichess.org only offers one remove at a time. This is compensated by the fact that the pieces are light.

4. Variants

These are different types of games that are derived from chess. The main advantage of having these games is that players who are not good in chess can probably excel in them.

Chess.com Variants:

1. 4-Player Chess
2. Bughouse
3. Fog of War
4. Giveaway
5. Atomic
6. Automate
7. Horde
8. Chess960
9. Three Check
10. King of The Hill
11. Crazyhouse

Lichess.org Variants:

1. Crazyhouse
2. Chess960
3. King of the Hill
4. Three Check
5. Antichess
6. Atomic
7. Horde
8. Racing Kings

5. Tournaments

Chess tournaments are basically competitions that see three or more players competing for a certain prize or for final standings.

Lichess and chess.com allow chess players to play all kind of tournaments with opponents at the other side of the world.

Chess.com: chess.com offers the following types of tournaments:

• Swiss (All players play the same amount of games with no possibility of playing the same opponent twice)
• Daily Tournaments (Players play random opponents, and the tournament ends when the time allocated is finished)
• Variant Tournaments (These are tournaments that incorporate a specific variant)
• Thematic Tournaments (These are tournaments that see players starting from specific positions)

Podium finishers of any chess.com tournaments get special medals which they can display on their profiles.

Lichess.org: lichess.org offers the following type of tournaments:

• Swiss (All players play the same amount of games with no possibility of playing the same opponent twice)
• Hourly Tournaments (Players play random opponents, and the tournament ends when the time allocated is finished). Players have the option to berserk. This means they can half their time and, if they win, they get an extra point added
• Variant Tournaments (These are tournaments that incorporate a specific variant)
• Thematic Tournaments (These are tournaments that see players starting from specific positions)
• Marathon (These are tournaments that test a players stamina; they usually have a duration of 24 hours)

6. Theory

In order to improve at chess, you need to learn chess theory. Teaching that is what a chess teacher like GM Igor Smirnov does for students.

In Lichess and chess.com, chess theory is basically texts in the form of articles or books that help you learn about different chess positions; mainly on how to approach them to be it the opening, middlegame, or endgame.

Chess.com: Most of the theory found on chess.com is only available to premium users. Meaning that you have to pay a certain fee in order to access them for the period you paid for.

Lichess.org: All lichess.org theory is free. That means players can either contribute or rather have access to it without paying any amounts.

7. Monetizing Methods

This is how these websites make money in order to continue running the servers, paying employees and advertising, etc.

Chess.com: Chess.com’s sources of income are advertisements and offering certain features for a certain fee. After the period of your subscription is done, all the features will revert back to being locked.

Lichess.org: lichess.org has been free from day 1. They don’t have any ads or subscription fees. They generate their income via donations made by users.

8. Puzzles

Chess puzzles are pre-made positions that are given to players to solve. They help chess players to increase their positional memory.

Both Lichess and chess.com offer a wide variety of chess puzzles.

Chess.com offers these types of puzzle formats:

• Puzzles: These are your normal chess puzzles and, for every puzzle that’s solved, your rating either decreases or increases depending on if it’s correct or not.
• Rush: Players are given 3 min from the start and they have to solve as many puzzles as possible. If within the 3 min, players get three puzzles wrong, then the rush stops there. There is a leader-board that finds all the top players of this format on the list.
• Daily Puzzle: This is a nice way in which players can bond. This puzzle will be available to all players in the world who use chess.com for 24 hours.
• Battle: Two players are paired against each other and given three minutes to solve more puzzles than their opponents. Players can also lose by getting 3 puzzles incorrect within the time allocated.

Lichess.org offers these types of puzzle formats:

• Puzzles: These are your normal chess puzzles, and lichess.org gives players the option to either make them rated or unrated.
• Dashboard: In this section, lichess.org allows players to analyze their past games and how they performed.
• Streak: In this section, the players are given puzzles consecutively until they get a puzzle wrong. Basically, you need to keep getting the puzzles correct.
• Storm: Players are given an initial time of 3 min, and they must solve as many puzzles as they can within that time allocated. To make things interesting, if they solve a certain amount of consecutive puzzles, more time is added.
• Racer: This is where users face off against each other to see who can solve the most amount of puzzles within the allocated time.

9. Anti-cheating

When it comes to online chess, players tend to cheat. The reasons behind cheating may include wanting to get a higher rating or wanting to win tournaments.

As such, online platforms must insert a system that will ensure that the amount of cheaters is reduced.

Chess.com: In order to encounter cheaters, chess.com has a system that detects and automatically blocks all accounts that seem to be cheating.

In the case that the system is wrong or doesn’t detect a cheater immediately, there is a 16 person anti-cheating team.

The team will do check-ups to ensure that a certain decision against a user is correct and retract the decisions that are incorrect.

Lichess.org: Lichess also has a system that detects suspicious accounts and automatically blocks them.

In the case the system is incorrect or hasn’t detected reported users, a team of moderators is always in place to double-check the claims.

Learn how to play chess and doing it well is the dream for many people around the world. Now you can take your choice between Lichess and chess.com to put your skills to the test!

Conclusion

Both websites have their own unique features. From the features they each have, it is very hard to pick which one is best.

Users will have to choose according to what they prefer in the long run. Chess.com continues to be a leading site because of its comfortability in how it operates.

Even users who don’t pay for premium accounts still enjoy using it mainly because of the competition available.

The majority of the players there play solid making it a comfortable place for players who want to improve on their game.

Lichess has been growing over the years. What makes it relevant when talking about the bests is the fact that it’s open-source, meaning users have the option to add what they want in the long run.

Again, critics have been pointing out that the features that you pay for on chess.com, like bots and analysis etc., can be found on Lichess for free.

Both platforms are continuing their growth. Time will tell what new features will be added in the long run and which site will come out on top.