Lichess
FreeA chess site where every feature is free — no membership tier, no ads
An open-source chess platform run by a French non-profit association and funded by donations. Online play, tournaments, Stockfish analysis, puzzles, the opening explorer, lessons and studies are all free, with no paid membership tier. Alongside the website there are iOS and Android apps, also open source.
Why we picked it
The server, lila, is AGPL-3.0 with 18,761 stars; the mobile app is GPL-3.0 with 2,560 stars.
Most chess sites run on a freemium model: a few puzzles a day, analysis limited to a few moves, ads taking half the screen, and a membership to lift the caps. Lichess states its promise on the donation page: "entirely free, forever, and for everyone." Patrons get a pair of wings next to their name and nothing else; no feature is reserved for donors.
What you actually get:
- Engine analysis. After a game, request server-side Stockfish analysis that marks mistakes and better moves, or run the engine locally in the browser.
- Puzzles. Drawn from real games and grouped by theme — forks, pins, endgames.
- Studies. Organize games, annotations and variations into chapters and share them; coaches and study partners use this a lot.
- Opening explorer. Move-by-move statistics from master games and games played on the site.
Some of it works without an account: playing the computer, using the analysis board, and sending a game link to a friend for a casual game. Rated games, tournaments and a saved game history need an account, which takes a username, password and email address.
To be clear about:
- Registration is optional rather than forced, but you need it for a rating, so the "no sign-up" badge is left off.
- It is an online service and your data lives on Lichess's servers. The privacy policy describes session cookies only, with no third-party advertising or analytics; IP and browser data are kept for a year for security.
- The interface is functional, without the animation and cartoon lessons of Chess.com.