Lichess
Hacker ApprovedOnline chess platform in Games & consoles
Free, ad-free chess site with puzzles, lessons, play against people worldwide and an open API. Critics mainly say it is habit-forming.
Free, ad-free chess site with puzzles, lessons, play against people worldwide and an open API. Critics mainly say it is habit-forming.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 42
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 42 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Free with no ads
“this is lichess, who literally provide a free chess website for anyone who wants to play or learn chess”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Partial 8-Piece Tablebase” “No ads, no subs, incredible performance, low-toxicity, fully featured, free API, European.”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Chess.com Leak Exposes 7.3M Users, Evidence Points to Scraping” “Open source, no ads, super clean interface and super functional website.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement” - Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Chess.com Leak Exposes 7.3M Users, Evidence Points to Scraping”
- Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Child-free 'Disney adults' are transforming the company's theme parks”
Puzzles, lessons, and play worldwide
“Love lichess - I downloaded their chess puzzle database and built a simple app for my son to learn mate-in-3 puzzles.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement” “lichess.org's mobile version is great, you get the "play people worldwide" as well as puzzles and lessons etc”
Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Ask HN: Best worldwide / classic phone games?” “this is lichess, who literally provide a free chess website for anyone who wants to play or learn chess”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “Partial 8-Piece Tablebase” - Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Go grandmaster Shin defeats AI KataGo with a two-stone handicap”
Clean, fast, well-optimized interface
“it just appeared superior in all aspects and it, in my opinion, look way better.”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Chess.com Leak Exposes 7.3M Users, Evidence Points to Scraping” “lichess looks and feels a thousand times better and clearly has a richer api”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Lichess.el – Play Lichess Inside Emacs” “Open source, no ads, super clean interface and super functional website.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement” - Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement”
Open, well-documented API for developers
“they are the only platform I have worked with where so much is so easily accessible in terms of their APIs”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement” “The openness is mainly what makes Lichess so powerful for organizers and developers.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Lichess and Take Take Take Sign Cooperation Agreement” “lichess looks and feels a thousand times better and clearly has a richer api”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Lichess.el – Play Lichess Inside Emacs”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Habit-forming, hard to stop using
“I do make the excuse that it's at least using my brain and I have gotten much better at chess.”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Doomscrolling ourselves to death” “domains that I've realized I'm addicted to (ahem, lichess)”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “I made my phone slow on purpose” “I'd call it my main internet vice after lichess”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Doomscrolling ourselves to death”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LichessThis page | 42 | 4 | 91% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Chess.com | 7 | 15 | 32% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
38 of the 51 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I can play it on a pixelated screen just as much as on chess.com or lichess.org”
“Lichess and Whatsapp before FB acquisition are the biggest examples I know of making good products with limited resources.”
“Supposedly it takes 10,000 of intentional practice to reach true expertise.”
“Lichess is fun to just drop on a stranger in a random chat room at times.”
“No login required and the matching system is very decent.”
“it just appeared superior in all aspects and it, in my opinion, look way better.”
“No ads, no subs, incredible performance, low-toxicity, fully featured, free API, European.”
“Lichess is much better platform now.”
“I ain't paying so much for something I can get in lichess for free.”
“I do make the excuse that it's at least using my brain and I have gotten much better at chess.”
“I'd call it my main internet vice after lichess”
“You can play those chess bots on Lichess for free.”
“i prefer it over their app”
“Lichess has a checkmate captcha that I think is cute.”
“domains that I've realized I'm addicted to (ahem, lichess)”
“lichess.org's mobile version is great, you get the "play people worldwide" as well as puzzles and lessons etc”
“If a business had real values then they would never sell out (see lichess).”
“I like their narrated game reviews slightly better than Lichess's purely centipawn-driven mistake practice system”
“And I thank him for it, because lichess is awesome.”
“Lichess is amazing. Love it.”
“Thank you, Lichess, for everything you do.”
“It also seems to have significantly better availability than chess.com”
“The openness is mainly what makes Lichess so powerful for organizers and developers.”
“Love lichess - I downloaded their chess puzzle database and built a simple app for my son to learn mate-in-3 puzzles.”
“Open source, no ads, super clean interface and super functional website.”
“they are the only platform I have worked with where so much is so easily accessible in terms of their APIs”
“Big fan of Lichess here. Such a great and underrated service.”
“I'm a Lichess patron and happy to see them get support”
“hosts so many millions of players and games”
“I love Lichess more than anything”
“incredibly well optimized”
“This is huge, congrats to the lichess team.”
“I play on lichess (it's free)”
“this is lichess, who literally provide a free chess website for anyone who wants to play or learn chess”
“The Lichess entry links to a non-existent HN thread”
“lichess looks and feels a thousand times better and clearly has a richer api”
“Lichess is much better than commercial chess sites.”
“each move you make adds a history item, lichess.org/analysis#1, #2, and so on. Pretty annoying.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.