{"slug": "lichess", "name": "Lichess", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "Free, open-source online chess server for playing, puzzles, lessons, and game analysis.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 8, "warners": 0, "score": 5.277, "rising": -1.64, "first": "2026-01-07", "latest": "2026-09-16", "why": "HN commenters love Lichess for its mobile web version and PWA, its puzzles and lessons, and quick bullet and blitz games.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Mobile and PWA", "Fast time controls"], "caveat": "Missing variants", "short_quote": "", "icon": true, "domain": "lichess.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://lichess.org", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Lichess"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters love Lichess for its mobile web version and PWA", "cites": [{"id": 778256064, "item_id": 48641004, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48641004", "by": "ahriad", "date": "2026-06-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Lichess pwa, i prefer it over their app.", "excerpt": "I use Lichess pwa, i prefer it over their app.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Do you use web apps on your smartphone?"}, {"id": 772227632, "item_id": 48264227, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48264227", "by": "doncrl", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "lichess.org's mobile version is great", "excerpt": "lichess.org's mobile version is great, you get the \"play people worldwide\" as well as puzzles and lessons etc, as well as the \"improve over time\" aspect.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess, puzzles", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best worldwide / classic phone games?"}]}, {"text": ", its puzzles and lessons", "cites": [{"id": 772227632, "item_id": 48264227, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48264227", "by": "doncrl", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "lichess.org's mobile version is great", "excerpt": "lichess.org's mobile version is great, you get the \"play people worldwide\" as well as puzzles and lessons etc, as well as the \"improve over time\" aspect.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess, puzzles", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best worldwide / classic phone games?"}]}, {"text": ", and quick bullet and blitz games.", "cites": [{"id": 744449392, "item_id": 46528087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46528087", "by": "huevosabio", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Play bullet chess on Lichess!", "excerpt": "Play bullet chess on Lichess! It's fun, and quick!", "context": "", "use_case": "quick chess games", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do you use 5\u201310 minute gaps productively?"}, {"id": 794283008, "item_id": 49642688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642688", "by": "SecretDreams", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I hit about 2k Elo on lichess playing the 3+0/5+0", "excerpt": "Main thing I took away from chess when I used to play is it's just another exercise to work parts of your brain. I preferred 3+0 and 5+0 chess because of the low time commit, ease to move next, and the tradeoff between most correct move and most optimal move to cause the opponent to expand more of their time trying to figure out what you were doing. I hit about 2k Elo on lichess playing the 3+0/5+0 and I have no regr", "context": "former chess player", "use_case": "playing online chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stockfish 19"}]}, {"text": " Complaints are few: one commenter misses bughouse and Chess.com-style custom variants", "cites": [{"id": 763290880, "item_id": 47705680, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705680", "by": "NickC25", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Love Lichess.", "excerpt": "Love Lichess. The only thing I love about chess.com is the ability to create custom variants, edit them, and unleash them into the wild. Been loving minihouse lately, such a cool variant. Would love to see Lichess add bughouse, as its cousin Pychess recently debuted it and it seems to work fine. Chess.com has bughouse.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement"}]}, {"text": ", and another worries the brand could be absorbed by corporate money.", "cites": [{"id": 763275840, "item_id": 47704740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704740", "by": "yewenjie", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Lichess more than anything", "excerpt": "I love Lichess more than anything, and I hope this brings a lot of donation to them that they can use independently, and that the Lichess brand does not get subsumed by Take Take Take and their corporate money.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Mobile and PWA", "summary": "The mobile site and PWA are well liked, with one user preferring the PWA over the app.", "quotes": [{"id": 778256064, "item_id": 48641004, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48641004", "by": "ahriad", "date": "2026-06-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Lichess pwa, i prefer it over their app.", "excerpt": "I use Lichess pwa, i prefer it over their app.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Do you use web apps on your smartphone?"}, {"id": 772227632, "item_id": 48264227, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48264227", "by": "doncrl", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "lichess.org's mobile version is great", "excerpt": "lichess.org's mobile version is great, you get the \"play people worldwide\" as well as puzzles and lessons etc, as well as the \"improve over time\" aspect.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess, puzzles", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best worldwide / classic phone games?"}]}, {"label": "Fast time controls", "summary": "Bullet and 3+0/5+0 blitz games are fun, quick, and need little time.", "quotes": [{"id": 744449392, "item_id": 46528087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46528087", "by": "huevosabio", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Play bullet chess on Lichess!", "excerpt": "Play bullet chess on Lichess! It's fun, and quick!", "context": "", "use_case": "quick chess games", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do you use 5\u201310 minute gaps productively?"}, {"id": 794283008, "item_id": 49642688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642688", "by": "SecretDreams", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I hit about 2k Elo on lichess playing the 3+0/5+0", "excerpt": "Main thing I took away from chess when I used to play is it's just another exercise to work parts of your brain. I preferred 3+0 and 5+0 chess because of the low time commit, ease to move next, and the tradeoff between most correct move and most optimal move to cause the opponent to expand more of their time trying to figure out what you were doing. I hit about 2k Elo on lichess playing the 3+0/5+0 and I have no regr", "context": "former chess player", "use_case": "playing online chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stockfish 19"}]}, {"label": "Strong affection", "summary": "Some commenters express deep fondness for the site and hope it stays independent.", "quotes": [{"id": 763290880, "item_id": 47705680, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705680", "by": "NickC25", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Love Lichess.", "excerpt": "Love Lichess. The only thing I love about chess.com is the ability to create custom variants, edit them, and unleash them into the wild. Been loving minihouse lately, such a cool variant. Would love to see Lichess add bughouse, as its cousin Pychess recently debuted it and it seems to work fine. Chess.com has bughouse.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement"}, {"id": 763275840, "item_id": 47704740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704740", "by": "yewenjie", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Lichess more than anything", "excerpt": "I love Lichess more than anything, and I hope this brings a lot of donation to them that they can use independently, and that the Lichess brand does not get subsumed by Take Take Take and their corporate money.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement"}]}, {"label": "Puzzles and lessons", "summary": "Besides worldwide play, it offers puzzles, lessons, and a sense of improving over time.", "quotes": [{"id": 772227632, "item_id": 48264227, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48264227", "by": "doncrl", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "lichess.org's mobile version is great", "excerpt": "lichess.org's mobile version is great, you get the \"play people worldwide\" as well as puzzles and lessons etc, as well as the \"improve over time\" aspect.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess, puzzles", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best worldwide / classic phone games?"}]}, {"label": "Board tools", "summary": "Its demo board is handy for tracking a position on the side.", "quotes": [{"id": 795591441, "item_id": 49724465, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49724465", "by": "zahlman", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used a Lichess demo board to track the position in another tab", "excerpt": "Just now I tried prompting logged-out ChatGPT (which at least claims to be 5.6-Luna) with: > Let's play a game of chess. You can take White. Please draw an ASCII rendition of the board after each move, so that we can be clear about the position. (I hoped the latter requirement would help it be \"not blindfolded\"; last time I used a Lichess demo board to track the position in another tab, because I have no talent for b", "context": "", "use_case": "tracking chess position", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why I'm still bearish on LLMs after Navier-Stokes"}]}, {"label": "Reusable assets", "summary": "A developer building a Thai chess server plans to reuse several Lichess assets.", "quotes": [{"id": 787806944, "item_id": 49237934, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49237934", "by": "sunsetSamurai", "date": "2026-08-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "inspired by lichess.org, in fact, I plan to use several of their assets", "excerpt": "I got laid off recently and finally decided to dedicate some time to learn Rust, I started to work on an an idea I've head for a while, to create a game server to play Thai chess inspired by lichess.org, in fact, I plan to use several of their assets. I'll use Rust for the backend even though it's probably an over kill, but it's the best way to learn for me, doing something with the language. I have some of the front", "context": "recently laid off, learning Rust", "use_case": "inspiration for Thai chess server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Missing variants", "summary": "It lacks bughouse and the custom variant creation that Chess.com offers.", "quotes": [{"id": 763290880, "item_id": 47705680, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705680", "by": "NickC25", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Love Lichess.", "excerpt": "Love Lichess. The only thing I love about chess.com is the ability to create custom variants, edit them, and unleash them into the wild. Been loving minihouse lately, such a cool variant. Would love to see Lichess add bughouse, as its cousin Pychess recently debuted it and it seems to work fine. Chess.com has bughouse.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement"}]}, {"label": "Independence concerns", "summary": "One fan worries the brand could be subsumed by corporate money.", "quotes": [{"id": 763275840, "item_id": 47704740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704740", "by": "yewenjie", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Lichess more than anything", "excerpt": "I love Lichess more than anything, and I hope this brings a lot of donation to them that they can use independently, and that the Lichess brand does not get subsumed by Take Take Take and their corporate money.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement"}]}], "who": [{"by": "SecretDreams", "context": "former chess player", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642688", "date": "2026-09-10"}, {"by": "sunsetSamurai", "context": "recently laid off, learning Rust", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49237934", "date": "2026-08-09"}], "tags": ["for blitz and bullet players", "for mobile play", "for chess learners", "for building chess apps"], "use_cases": ["playing chess", "tracking chess position", "playing online chess", "inspiration for thai chess server", "playing chess, puzzles", "quick chess games"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47702499", "title": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49715927", "title": "Why I'm still bearish on LLMs after Navier-Stokes", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49599992", "title": "Stockfish 19", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49233423", "title": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48640748", "title": "Ask HN: Do you use web apps on your smartphone?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48257769", "title": "Ask HN: Best worldwide / classic phone games?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 795591441, "item_id": 49724465, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49724465", "by": "zahlman", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used a Lichess demo board to track the position in another tab", "excerpt": "Just now I tried prompting logged-out ChatGPT (which at least claims to be 5.6-Luna) with: > Let's play a game of chess. You can take White. Please draw an ASCII rendition of the board after each move, so that we can be clear about the position. (I hoped the latter requirement would help it be \"not blindfolded\"; last time I used a Lichess demo board to track the position in another tab, because I have no talent for b", "context": "", "use_case": "tracking chess position", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why I'm still bearish on LLMs after Navier-Stokes"}, {"id": 794283008, "item_id": 49642688, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642688", "by": "SecretDreams", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I hit about 2k Elo on lichess playing the 3+0/5+0", "excerpt": "Main thing I took away from chess when I used to play is it's just another exercise to work parts of your brain. I preferred 3+0 and 5+0 chess because of the low time commit, ease to move next, and the tradeoff between most correct move and most optimal move to cause the opponent to expand more of their time trying to figure out what you were doing. I hit about 2k Elo on lichess playing the 3+0/5+0 and I have no regr", "context": "former chess player", "use_case": "playing online chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stockfish 19"}, {"id": 787806944, "item_id": 49237934, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49237934", "by": "sunsetSamurai", "date": "2026-08-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "inspired by lichess.org, in fact, I plan to use several of their assets", "excerpt": "I got laid off recently and finally decided to dedicate some time to learn Rust, I started to work on an an idea I've head for a while, to create a game server to play Thai chess inspired by lichess.org, in fact, I plan to use several of their assets. I'll use Rust for the backend even though it's probably an over kill, but it's the best way to learn for me, doing something with the language. I have some of the front", "context": "recently laid off, learning Rust", "use_case": "inspiration for Thai chess server", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}, {"id": 778256064, "item_id": 48641004, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48641004", "by": "ahriad", "date": "2026-06-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Lichess pwa, i prefer it over their app.", "excerpt": "I use Lichess pwa, i prefer it over their app.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Do you use web apps on your smartphone?"}, {"id": 772227632, "item_id": 48264227, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48264227", "by": "doncrl", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "lichess.org's mobile version is great", "excerpt": "lichess.org's mobile version is great, you get the \"play people worldwide\" as well as puzzles and lessons etc, as well as the \"improve over time\" aspect.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess, puzzles", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best worldwide / classic phone games?"}, {"id": 763290880, "item_id": 47705680, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705680", "by": "NickC25", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Love Lichess.", "excerpt": "Love Lichess. The only thing I love about chess.com is the ability to create custom variants, edit them, and unleash them into the wild. Been loving minihouse lately, such a cool variant. Would love to see Lichess add bughouse, as its cousin Pychess recently debuted it and it seems to work fine. Chess.com has bughouse.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement"}, {"id": 763275840, "item_id": 47704740, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704740", "by": "yewenjie", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Lichess more than anything", "excerpt": "I love Lichess more than anything, and I hope this brings a lot of donation to them that they can use independently, and that the Lichess brand does not get subsumed by Take Take Take and their corporate money.", "context": "", "use_case": "playing chess", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement"}, {"id": 744449392, "item_id": 46528087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46528087", "by": "huevosabio", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Play bullet chess on Lichess!", "excerpt": "Play bullet chess on Lichess! It's fun, and quick!", "context": "", "use_case": "quick chess games", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: How do you use 5\u201310 minute gaps productively?"}]}