lichess • Online Chess Reviews

by Trgiacoma

Play on browser. When playing on lichessOnlineChess , I can’t tell you how many times I have lost games because of some form of lag? lichessOnlineChess will just sit there during the opponents turn, and a minute or so will go by and then next thing you know it sets the opponents clock back up a minute, sets your clock down a minute and then says that you forfeited because you “left the game”.

What’s worse is when it temporarily bans you from playing because it does it a couple times in a row and so the server thinks you’re intentionally running the clock out instead of resigning... even if you’re winning the game when it happens.

Going to have to play on a different app.

by Fiercey13

The developers won't do anything about players who cheat with an engine, and won't do anything about players who run around at the end of the game instead of resigning, and won't do anything about players who run out the clock on their last move instead of resigning... essentially condoning harrassment in the game. But if you message these players and TELL them they are being jerks then it is apparently a mortal sin on Lichess, and they will secretly block your ability to communicate without telling you, but make it look like you can still communicate. I tested this with some friends and sure enough they could not see any of my messages or my chat, but to me it looked normal. So cheating is perfectly OK and acting like a jerk is perfectly OK, but tell someone they are being a jerk and it is a terrible sin on Lichess. This is so backwards. Instead, the developers should treat players like adults who can block our own chats and messages if we don't like something, not like babies who can't handle the truth.

by Vizspring

The developers seem to have rewritten lichessOnlineChess , changing what were native controls and replacing them with a web interface. It is 100 steps backwards. The new interface frequently mis-judges the tapped square, literally ruining games with “mis-taps” that were not the fault of the player. The new UI doesn’t show you any game info while playing, including who your opponent is. There is no way to star a game after play. And nearly all animations and scrolling in lichessOnlineChess feels wildly “fake” and not native, with physics and curves totally botched. lichessOnlineChess developers should return to their native codebase. When you make a web view-driven app, the quality is lost.

by Why Is It Called A Nickname

Correspondence is fine and so is classical but it is nearly impossible to play 3+2 on mobile. It randomly will make some move for you, or when you go to click on a piece you want to play it will drag another piece that it said you clicked near it. Desktop is fine but the mobile app needs a lot of help. Plus sometimes it takes a few seconds to tell you to make a move, so you are regularly losing seconds every game, which can be very important near the endgame. I know it’s open source but there isn’t really a lot of oversight.

by Hegel1755

I have been using lichessOnlineChess for years, overall good application, lot of players from every corner of the planet, lot of tournaments for all strength levels, however the main shortfall of the application is timing.
Players over 2400 strength gain time after each move, it looks like the apps is programmed to favor these players. On the other hand In tournament levels weak players gain tremendous time during the game and you see players at 2200 or more strength loosing on time against a player at 1600 strength. This is so ridiculous when you a player at master level loose on time continuously against a weak player. When you play to a player more or less at your strength the time is about right. Developers need to fix this issue, on short games time is essential. I do have extremely high speed internet connection with no lag at all, so saying this has to do with internet connection has no ground to be based upon. Other than this playing long time games like 10 minutes or more you shouldn't have any issue.

by 1233$,&(&

I love lichessOnlineChess but I wish developers would make some kind of method where it would check to make sure the player is still engaged in the game. People will literally be losing and instead of them resigning like an decent chess player they would just let the clock time out to 0 in hopes that somewhere along that time their opponent would just quit because they become impatient in waiting for the player to make a move. My suggestion is to make a button that would send a prompt to the opponent asking them if they are still there and the opponent has a set amount of time to respond, for example 3 minutes. If they don’t respond then the game will automatically be forfeited. If they do respond then they have a set amount of time to make a move afterwards. It’s TROLLING when they have no intentions on making a move and they’re completely relying on their opponent to simply quit because they actually want to play and not willing to wait 15 minutes for the time to run out. Please make a change so the TROLLING comes to a STOP!!

by Daniel Mullins ♟

I love Lichess. I use Lichess every day, it’s a great application, and by far the most user friendly chess application I’ve ever used.
However, the newest update is riddled with problems that just can’t be overlooked.
For starters, the chat text box disappears when I try to type a message to my opponent. It’s a pain to not see what you’re typing, and to hope that everything looks alright before sending.
Secondly, opening the analysis board in correspondence games occasionally shows up “zoomed in,” where I can only see a portion of the board. This makes it impossible to properly analyze my next moves and renders the analysis board feature useless.
Finally, aesthetically I have a problem with the moves list being above the board within a game. I guess this is personal preference and will just take some getting used to, but certainly weird and it takes up about a third of the screen. Not a deal breaker though.
As for the other bugs, however, these are serious issues in my opinion and already I’ve felt a great deal of frustration using the new, updated Lichess, just in the last hour or so.
Hopefully these are temporary problems with easy fixes, as I understand with any new major app change, issues are bound to come up.

by Vynleren

Lichess is an amazing app with great, free features like unlimited analysis, opening explorers, puzzles, etc.

However, lichessOnlineChess used to feel very crisp and responsive when making moves, switching between simultaneous games, and receiving / viewing notifications. Something must have changed - after an update sometime this year, the performance has notably gone downhill, with laggy interfaces, phantom notifications or lack of notifications, switching between simultaneous games being unresponsive / slow to update, etc.

The pros outweigh the cons - especially since lichessOnlineChess is free - but the performance degradation has been a major drawback that my family and friends have noticed as well. lichessOnlineChess would be unmatched if these issues are resolved.

by Thisguys1

I’ve played lichess on desktop for years and as far as other chess mobile apps go, this one is not bad. However for what lichess can offer, there are some issues with functionality, namely the puzzles.

I can’t get them to sync. If I play through 10 tactics on desktop, and try to play some on my phone the next day, the tactics are the same ones I’ve seen on desktop, and solving them has no effect on my rating. As someone who mainly plays on desktop, this basically means I can’t play tactics on mobile.

The other gripe I have is the notification icon doesn’t sync well either. If I get a notification and then use lichessOnlineChess , the number stays there. For correspondence games I’ve played 6-7 moves and the notification number just keeps going up and up, even though I have no games that are pending my action.

by $_ethan_$

Overall, Lichess is a fantastic app to play and improve your chess skills. However, there are some thing ms that aren’t ideal about it. For example, the chat feature is very buggy, and I have to send my message multiple times for it to go through. Also, for some reason, when playing a correspondence game, it displays the score that I had when I started the game, even if I played another game in the middle, and my score changed. The analytics page isn’t very friendly, and there is no way to just look at my profile and see my rank.
But these are minor annoyances, since they don’t hinder gameplay, which is fantastic.

by Tintin 2011

I really like the concept of open source and free for all chess app, where everyone interested in chess can learn and improve their chess game. I especially like the "practice" section of the website, because it is so well organized and so useful for improving one's game. The only issue is this"practice" section does not exist in lichessOnlineChess . There is only "training" which is just random puzzles. Please bring this feature along with the videos to lichessOnlineChess , and then it will be a five star app, hands down. Thank you for creating such an amazing app.

by Rtw1819

- chat feature buggy as mentioned by other users
- the create a game button for a custom game in the home page is buggy. Often clicking directly on it won’t work and i have to click below and to the left.
- connection issues when reopening lichessOnlineChess after time away. Often I have to completely restart lichessOnlineChess for it to reconnect to the server

Otherwise great!

by Harrypotter5913

I am thoroughly impressed with Lichess. There is so much capable within lichessOnlineChess itself that easily trumps other software. The endless amount of tactical and positional puzzles as well as the unlimited analysis board. There are also other features such as the ability to watch top players’ games and learn from them, As well as the ability to import and analyze your own games with ease. I think it’s beautiful that the developers made it all non-profit, and instead for the beauty of Chess. There are no problems that I have perceived within the mobile app, as well as the website. I use lichessOnlineChess daily, and enjoy it very much. Keep up the great work!

by Coolwh1p

I love Lichess and everything the developers do to make it a fair and fun experience! For example...Lichess will detect if someone is cheating and refund your rating points. They also detect if someone has left the game and will allow you to claim victory so your not sitting there for however many minutes which really comes in handy for tournament play. There’s tons of high level players on it as well who are constantly making study’s to help the rest of us get better at the game which is just wonderful. Cant say enough good things about Lichess. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

by ShawnCross

This is the very best free chess app. The play is smooth and there are always games to play. You get a premium chess experience for free, there are no advertisements. The lag is better then similar apps but that can due to mobile connection and less the server. The updates are constant and the amount of value you get from this free service is just as good as some paid services. By now every good chess player knows about lichess.
I cannot recommend this application high enough.

by Ty57rob

Lichess has so many features for a mobile chess app. Online ranked games, many different modes, puzzles, visual customization, the ability to have two people play a game with one device, an easy way to share a link to start a match with a friend, game analysis, and a chess timer. All of my chess needs are satisfied with lichessOnlineChess, and the best part is that there are no in app purchases and no adds! A big thanks to Lichess and the creators of lichessOnlineChess!

by Cliff_Walker

If there is one app that should get five stars it’s this one. Besides being completely free with no ads, it is better than any chess app available. It is beautifully designed, easy to use, configurable, has plenty of players, provides after game computer analysis, includes excellent training, and is constantly being improved. And since it’s free, there’s no cost to trying it out.

by Rzzzvvs

I always loved Lichess. The stuff this platform has to offer is absolutely ridiculous and I love it for it. The clock they added is so convenient! The board and animation and flow of lichessOnlineChess is just great! So much functionality and it’s all free.

One thing i think developers could improve on. you know how when you open the left side menu to click on something? Say you scroll down and click “board editor”. i feel like when the user goes back to open up that menu again, it should begin with where you left off (i.e scrolled down). not start up from the very beginning again. anyways, great app.

i’m studying CS in college and I wish I could intern (for free) at lichess!

by Perrytheply ;D

lichessOnlineChess is amazing and wayyy better than Zyngas "Chess With Friends," and their newer version as well! The only thing I seem to have a problem is with the messaging or "mail" as you call it. If you can improve that to be more reliable as a messaging source (not saying turn it into a messaging app) but sometimes there's bugs such as backing out onto the messaging page over and over. Everything else seems amazing!

by NotingToSeeHere

Simply an amazing accomplishment. lichessOnlineChess is great for most things, and there are more features available through the browser interface. Lichess is an incredible contribution to anyone who wants to learn and play chess at any level. Nothing compares and it’s completely free, no ads no up sell. Is there some room for improvement on the mobile app, sure and it’s happening all the time. There are constant releases and it just keeps getting better. A rare and awesome achievement, I can’t imagine how anyone could give it any less than all the stars. I’d give it the stars of the other chess apps too if I could.

by Czentovic64

lichessOnlineChess is very nice when it works: easy to use and a good bet for finding a suitable opponent. In a prior review, I criticized lichessOnlineChess because when I tried to open it, it was usually offline. So I had to uninstall and reinstall it, and maybe one time out of four I was actually able to play games online. Then it started working most of the time, and I posted an improved review to reflect that. Now I can’t get online at all. So from my standpoint, it’s an unusable app. I hope that you have better luck with it, but if not, I recommend the PC version, which works just fine.

by Asn8745

It’s a great app that allows you to get a quick game or a puzzle in any time you want. I actually enjoy using lichessOnlineChess more than playing on my PC. However there are still issues with lichessOnlineChess simply refusing to work, disconnecting, etc. I’ve usually went and tried a computer when this happens and I can usually play there, so it’s probably an app issue as opposed to a server issue.

by JOhkonut

Love lichessOnlineChess . I have a couple of minor requests. When cycling through the moves of a game with the << and >> buttons, it often skips through 2 or 3 moves ahead even thought I only pressed the >> button once. Can you please fix?

Another bug I have noticed is that I receive double notifications. And the badge number is way higher than it should be.

My last request is to make the 3D piece sets available on mobile. Thanks!

by Jadegreens

Great overall app (especially love lichess tv) but The new update has flaws:
The timer countdown to play first move covers all of the back row pieces so it’s hard to see what you will be moving. I do not like that you can’t see the full board to begin the game. Also, the graphics on the standard queen design are not symmetrical, with the black queen having different lines than the white- could confuse some new players.

by Elmir.

I still don’t understand why some people give lower stars for lichessOnlineChess . I believe this is a very good, functional product. Yes, nothing is perfect and there are some flaws in it. There’s always room for improvement. But all the features on lichessOnlineChess are free. So come one people, pay some respect to the developers who built this product for you to enjoy for free of charge. Thank you everyone on Lichess!