I’m sorry if this question has already been asked, but I’m just wondering, what your opinions are about lichess and chess.com? Lichess is a nonprofit and open-source and seems more ethical to me, but chess.com has more features. I’ve been using chess.com for years, but thinking of switching over to lichess or some other application.
lichess is goated. maybe I’ll even end up running your stockfish analysis.
I feel like chess.com is always trying to sell me stuff it’s annoying
I’ve used lichess exclusively for a few years now. I’ve never looked back. I was a diamond subscriber on chess.com for a long time because I wanted access to game analysis and unlimited puzzles. I get that for free on lichess, and as you mentioned, they’re a more ethical org.
I honestly can’t imagine why anyone would ever use anything but lichess except for ignorance or because they’re literally being paid to use chess.com.
chesscom bad lichess good
I always feel chess.com is too much a for profit. Yes, it has many features, but you have to be a subscriber to access those (especially game analysis which can be quite useful while you’re starting to understand chess). I’ve played for a few months on chess.com before moving permanently to Lichess which has almost the same features and the missing ones (such as theoretical level of your game and move ratings) can be added via browser’s ads-ons.
Which browser add-ons are you using with lichess?
I love lichess. It’s a brilliant platform and easily the most ethical online chess platform alternative out there.
That said, I’m really not a big fan of Danny Rensch, so I kind of see chess.com as the evil option.
In what sense is chess.com unethical? Genuine question.
Both have/had their issues with cheaters. I personally have a bad experience with chess.com’s costumer support (paid for but didn’t receive the membership). So when I want to play online casually lichess is my first choice. You can use both at the same time and see how they differ when it comes to puzzles, ratings, and all the extra content.
I think personally both are great, and both are great for the community; in different ways. Chess.com is a bit “pay pay pay please” for my taste but they do host a ton of events and sponsor many things. The interface is quite good and the cheating control is quite good.
Lichess is better though, in my view. It is much more open, the interface is lightyears better in my view and the study / analysis tools are better too. However, reporting is much more cumbersome, because on mobile for example, you have to get a share link to the game, then use the website to report and actually explain in prose why you suspect foul play, even though simple click reports should be at least partially useful for trend analysis. However, their actual detection seems good too.
All told, both are great ways to play chess, both use good rating systems (Glicko 1 and 2), both control cheating pretty well, and both suck the life out of me one bullet game at a time.
