5 ms·

100%. Lichess is an astounding achievement of FOSS and I wish it got more love in general. I can't think of any other open-source website with as much traffic a

100%. Lichess is an astounding achievement of FOSS and I wish it got more love in general. I can't think of any other open-source website with as much traffic and with as much complex functionality.

Scarblac 5y ago
And with multiple paid employees, funded _only_ by small donations. No ads, no corporate sponsors, no investors etc.
darepublic 5y ago
to dogpile more -- the lichess open source library is amazing and the site itself is a joy to use.
- User23 5y ago
  I also clicked through simply to say lichess is amazing.
jmarcher 5y ago
Presentation from the original author about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZgyVadkgmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZgyVadkgmI
axaxs 5y ago
I'll vouch for that. I hadn't even heard of lichess, just went looking for an Android chess game to play to pass the time. The app is stellar, and not full of garbage like the others. My only complaint is how it's pronounced. Can't help but think of leeches.
- ycombinete 5y ago
  I defaulted to “lie-chess”, and that’s where I’m staying.
  - axaxs 5y ago
    That's how I pronounced it initially, and I'm sticking to it also.
- yewenjie 5y ago
  The website is very lightweight and fully responsive on mobile, and usually has some extra features than the apps.
- thih9 5y ago
  > Can't help but think of leeches. Too much fantasy here and “lichess” makes me think of a female lich.
bluecalm 5y ago
Also quality. Lichess has by far the best interface and smoothest experience. Well financed commercial players like chess.com, chess24, chessbase were never able to replicate it. Lichess which was a one man show for a long time has beaten them all in engineering department and not by a small margin. The difference is just night and day, like driving 30 years old car and modern one. It's one of the examples of how you can't pay your way to good software. There was a discussion about Discord lately and how it's about userbase only and how you could recreate it spending a fraction of what its valuation is. I don't think you could. I mean apparently you can't even pay your way to get somewhat playable chess site. Btw, check the git log (or run one if those punch card scripts on the repo). The main programmer is a machine. It's humbling what kind of output a great programmer with great work ethics can achieve.
- krisgenre 5y ago
  True. Bullet is unplayable for me on chess.com because of latency but works really well on lichess.
- rtwall 5y ago
  chess24 needs to work on page load performance, but I find watching tournaments more pleasant on chess24 than on lichess. chess24's default chess board is easier on the eyes than the flat design lichess one. lichess is amazing for playing though.

100%. Lichess is an astounding achievement of FOSS and I wish it got more love in general. I can't think of any other open-source website with as much traffic and with as much complex functionality.

Scarblac 5y ago

And with multiple paid employees, funded _only_ by small donations. No ads, no corporate sponsors, no investors etc.

darepublic 5y ago

to dogpile more -- the lichess open source library is amazing and the site itself is a joy to use.

User23 5y ago
I also clicked through simply to say lichess is amazing.

jmarcher 5y ago

Presentation from the original author about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZgyVadkgmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZgyVadkgmI

axaxs 5y ago

I'll vouch for that. I hadn't even heard of lichess, just went looking for an Android chess game to play to pass the time. The app is stellar, and not full of garbage like the others. My only complaint is how it's pronounced. Can't help but think of leeches.

ycombinete 5y ago
I defaulted to “lie-chess”, and that’s where I’m staying.
- axaxs 5y ago
  That's how I pronounced it initially, and I'm sticking to it also.
yewenjie 5y ago
The website is very lightweight and fully responsive on mobile, and usually has some extra features than the apps.
thih9 5y ago
> Can't help but think of leeches. Too much fantasy here and “lichess” makes me think of a female lich.

bluecalm 5y ago

Also quality. Lichess has by far the best interface and smoothest experience. Well financed commercial players like chess.com, chess24, chessbase were never able to replicate it. Lichess which was a one man show for a long time has beaten them all in engineering department and not by a small margin. The difference is just night and day, like driving 30 years old car and modern one. It's one of the examples of how you can't pay your way to good software. There was a discussion about Discord lately and how it's about userbase only and how you could recreate it spending a fraction of what its valuation is. I don't think you could. I mean apparently you can't even pay your way to get somewhat playable chess site. Btw, check the git log (or run one if those punch card scripts on the repo). The main programmer is a machine. It's humbling what kind of output a great programmer with great work ethics can achieve.

krisgenre 5y ago
True. Bullet is unplayable for me on chess.com because of latency but works really well on lichess.
rtwall 5y ago
chess24 needs to work on page load performance, but I find watching tournaments more pleasant on chess24 than on lichess. chess24's default chess board is easier on the eyes than the flat design lichess one. lichess is amazing for playing though.