Wikipedia
Lichess is an Internet chess server created by Thibault Duplessis, a French programmer. The software running Lichess and the design are open source under the MIT license.
The main feature of the website is supporting games of live and correspondence chess against other players at different time controls. The website does not require registration, since anyone can play anonymously. However, for registered players Lichess employs a rating system, as well as the ability to compete in tournaments, post in the forums, and use the Stockfish chess engine for analysis of played games. Registered and non-registered users can also play against the engine.
Lichess has training features, including tactics training, chess coordinate, and chess opening puzzles.
As well as the ability to play blindfold chess, the website supports the following chess variants:
- Antichess ( Losing chess)
- Atomic chess
- Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess)
- Crazyhouse
- Horde (a variant of Dunsany's chess)
- King of the Hill
- Racing Kings
- Three-check chess
Lichess has features to assist visually impaired people to play chess on the website. It also has a chess puzzle-based CAPTCHA system.
The website enables streaming via twitch.tv, hitbox.tv, and YouTube, and features many established players such as Grandmaster Eric Hansen, International Master Greg Shahade, International Master John Bartholomew, amongst many other online chess celebrities.
On February 11, 2015, an official Lichess mobile app was released for Android devices. An app for mobile devices running iOS was released on March 4, 2015.
As of 7 August 2016, lichess.org had the global rank 3,598 at Alexa, with most of its visitors coming from the United States, Russia, Iran, Italy, and Spain. Lichess is ranked second only to Chess.com as one of the most popular online chess servers in the world.