Since the release of the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” in 2020, chess has seen a surge in popularity. Many new players turn to playing on chess websites, which offer a variety of tools beyond a physical chess set: you can play games against people from around the world and train using puzzles, game reviews, the opening explorer, and more.
As an avid chess player for over 10 years now, I’ve played games across five different chess websites, including both chess.com and lichess.org. While I see most players at Sequoia using chess.com, the world’s most popular chess website, I can definitively say that lichess.org is the superior chess website. Here’s why.
Accessibility for Tools
Many players using chess.com quickly encounter a discouraging barrier: the paywall. Unless you are willing to pay for one of the subscription plans, which cost $50 to $120 per year, chess.com’s free plan significantly limits access to its features: three puzzles per day, one full game review analysis per day, just four moves in the opening explorer, and annoying advertisements across your screen, to name a few.
“I’m not a serious chess player, so I’m not going to pay for premium,” senior and chess.com user Eli Schlager said. “It’s annoying that I can’t play more than three puzzles.”
On the flipside, Lichess is a completely free, open-source, and non-profit chess website with no advertisements, no paywall, and no user data collection. It offers unlimited access to all of its features for free, including unlimited puzzles, unlimited game analysis, and infinite opening explorer.
“If I want to play puzzles and not an actual game, then I go on to Lichess,” Schlager said.
There are still some, very minor features that chess.com has over Lichess, such as the hint for its puzzles.
“[Lichess puzzles] don’t have the hint, they only have ‘show solution,’” Schlager said. “Sometimes I don’t want the solution, I just need to know what piece to move then I’ll see the tactic. I like that in chess.com.”
Interface
I find Lichess’ interface much sleeker and more user friendly than chess.com’s. You can queue for matches directly from Lichess’ homepage, making it really easy to send and receive challenges from friends. At the top are dropdown menus allowing access to its aforementioned features. The default color scheme is really clean but also customizable, with neutral colors such as white, black, a gray-scale, gold, and a creme-and-brown board. Both dark and light UIs are available.
As for chess.com, the homepage contains a weird mixture of buttons to its various features along with annoying advertisements. A sidebar menu allows access to its features as well, but the flashy icons and non-neutral colors make it feel disorganized, especially with aggressive advertisements across your screen. You are only able to send and receive challenges while in the “Live Chess” page, and challenge requests only appear as a small pop-up in the bottom right corner, making it very difficult to queue for matches against your friends.
Still, many chess.com users find its interface more preferable simply because it is what they are used to.
“[Lichess] doesn’t feel as targeted,” Schlager said. “Chess.com feels like it’s a video game to get kids to play. It’s good at engaging the audience. Lichess is just chess.”
Gameplay
The most significant difference between the websites’ gameplay is premoving, which is the ability to queue a move during your opponent’s turn that will play instantly once your opponent makes a move. On Lichess, you can only queue one premove at a time, but you lose no time when it is played out. On chess.com, you can queue up to eight premoves during each of your opponent’s turns, but each one removes 0.1 seconds from your clock. While a tenth of a second may seem insignificant, it is actually very important for speed chess players like myself when we have only a few seconds left on the clock during endgames.
“I think it’s ridiculous that you lose a tenth of a second when you do a premove,” senior and chess.com user Adam Trinklein said. “That should be instant. But I really do like the fact that you can make multiple in a row [on chess.com].”
Overall
With more accessibility, an easier-to-navigate interface, and better gameplay, Lichess emerges as the superior chess website. However, as much as I’ve tried to convince others to switch over to Lichess like I switched over in 2019, it seems that too many people have already firmly established their accounts in chess.com.
“The reason that I use chess.com is that it was one that I started using,” Trinklein said. “All my friends use chess.com, so it’s easier to play against them. My brother plays on chess.com so we can do friend matches super easily.”
Additionally, the Elo rating that players accumulate on the platform leads to a lack of incentive to change sites.
“[Chess.com] has trapped me,” Schlager said. “I started playing there, so now I don’t want to change because I’ve already got my Elo there and everything. It’s like when you buy your first Apple phone and then you buy Apple forever. You never switch to Android even though it may be better.”
However, I may have been successful in my Lichess crusade with one person.
“I always used chess.com because that’s what everyone else was on,” sophomore and chess.com user Tav Gur said. “But I would definitely say that Lichess is better because it has more resources and no paywall for accessing more advanced analysis and puzzles.”