One of the great allures of chess is that it has endured, unmodified, over centuries and across continents. It is run by a nonprofit and is funded by donations. Perhaps most remarkable of all: Lichess offers all of this without any ads and never asks for money. The mobile apps ( Android, iOS) recreate the browser experience, with the main limitation being your tolerance for examining a board on your screen. Lichess also produces a graph after each game to show you who was winning (according to Stockfish) at each move, and how much that advantage increased or decreased with each move. You can even explore past games by masters that most resemble the one you just played. Lichess includes a nifty feature where you can see how many top players have played the moves you and your opponent played, and the outcomes of those games. Considered the top chess AI in the world until it was dethroned by Google’s AlphaZero, Stockfish can quickly analyze positions and assess which side is stronger and by how much. feels clunky and formal by comparison.īoth and Lichess let you analyze your games afterward with the help of the renowned open-source chess engine Stockfish. Just fire up a new game, try some puzzles, or watch a chess streamer play three-minute games while listening to techno and chatting with the comments section. You can create an account, but if you’re not concerned with tracking your games and finding other players at your level, there’s no need to log in. The site has a simple appearance, and it seems built to get you where you want to go in as few clicks as possible. Lichess has all the same basic offerings as : a large community, many game types, tutorials, puzzles, and livestreams.