Name: lichess • Free Online Chess
Rating: 4.10 (3248 reviews)

Rory Smith

4 years ago

Great app. Best Android chess app. My one complaint: I play mostly blitz, and I notice that during games when I have inferior material the opponents clock seems to run dramatically slower. End-of-game Blitz timing continues to be an issue. Just finished a game where a player made 10 moves with less than 3 seconds left. Numerous moves from my opponent did not take any game time according to clock. Needs to be addressed

bleen

4 years ago

Arguably the best chess app/platform out there, but two problems with it are how the last games in a tournament, if it goes past the set time, does not count and how unreliable the touch controls are. An overtime option needs to be added, where nobody gets paired but games still count. And the touch controls. Moving pieces around by tapping on them and then an appropriate square works fine about 25% of the time, forcing you to use the the still imperfect drag and drop method—which is annoying.

Rana Banik

4 years ago

Very good chess app. Probably the best. Some features I loved most: 1. Analysis section, gives the name of openings, which is helpful to remind/memorize openings, traps, gambits. 2. Clock! While playing with friends I used to have separate clock app. But the clock in this app is amazing, user defined. 3. Study feature of chess is great. Overall really good app! 5★

Austin Critchfield

3 years ago

The desktop pc browser version of lichess is perfect. The experience there would easily be 4 stars. The problem is the mobile app isn't good. I've lost 2 games tonight on time (I would have lost anyway even without this problem, but still) because I move my piece on my screen but the server doesn't register the move on time so it undoes the move that on my screen was clearly played in time. It's extremely frustrating. The mobile version isn't good. Stick to desktop.

David Reynolds

4 years ago

Love the app, the only issue I am having is that on my new phone (Samsung Fold 2) while in full screen mode (both screens) i can't access the options at the bottom of the screen. For example, when doing puzzles, I can't get to the replay option, as they are behind the phone menu and I don't see any way of scrolling down the page.

Kane Fanning

4 years ago

PLEASE PLEASE add a takeback feature after being checkmated when playing the computer. I like to play the computer to practice and being able to quickly take back one move after being checkmated would be an invaluable learning tool for improving my endgame and recognizing mating patterns. I know that I can open the analysis and select "play from position," but taking back one move would be much easier.

Andrew Sherman

3 years ago

Lichess is awesome. The app? Not awesome. Will often show I am connected to games without actually being connected, a huge problem in bullet when you lose 1/6 of your time "waiting" for your opponent's move. Recent update has created a new issue -- when up significant material the screen can lock up on you trying to resize itself to show captured pieces, a ridiculous way to lose on time.

Justin Kennedy

4 years ago

Almost perfect but the tapping on certain squares near the edge can incorrectly open a menu or select an option. This can be a big deal when a game is down to seconds! Less importantly, it can cause an incorrect answer while training or studying a game. Please fix this if only because it's a real shame to when the app is otherwise the #1 chess app out there!

Robert McCullough

2 years ago

No support for scaling to wider aspect ratios yet, on devices like the Fold 4 I am unable to see all the options without forcing the app to run in 16:9 with letterboxing. Also the adaptive refresh rate on my old phone, the S21+, would not recognize that I had piece move animations on, meaning the animations would run in 15 fps, to the point where it looked very ugly and felt unresponsive. I hope this app gets better because it is my favorite site to play chess.

Erick Flynn

5 years ago

This is the best chess app I have ever played. Features bots to play by yourself or even a friend online. You can play against randoms and there's a lot of people always playing. I get lost sometimes, playing hours in just one sitting. You can watch others play as well. Lots of tutorials and everything is free. Personalization is great with the choice of the backgrounds and pieces to choose from. No pop-up adds or promotions. Can play both on computer or mobile. User friendly, would recommend.

Stephen Deane

4 years ago

Love the app and the site, play all the time on both. Computer analysis is available for all games which is worth four stars all by itself! Love the app 😀. The addition of conditional pre-moves on the app is exciting! But one suggestion, I would like to see it minimized once you go into analysis instead of it being the first thing you see.

A Google user

6 years ago

i like the app, I like the different modes and that it keeps your ranking score. But, there needs to be a WAY larger penalty for leaving games and not returning once you know you've lost. This is very very annoying and seems to be happening all the time now... as soon as a player is at a significant disadvantage they just leave the game and you have to wait for the clock to time out.

Cedrick Ondra

2 years ago

Lichess is great, but this app needs work. It used to be fine, but now pretty often near the end of games when time is running down, the app just freezes up and I end up getting flagged. It's really frustrating. If they fix that, I'll up my rating to four stars. Only four instead of five because you can't access everything on the app that you can on the website. But for now, please fix that endgame bug!

A

5 years ago

Probably the best free chess app available. Puzzles, online games, offline games against the computer. Still some bugs here and there. I just made a custom game and set the minimum rating to 2000 wanting to be crushed. I got a 1300 something instead (and won). Maybe next time I'll try minimum 1900. Edit: Also, sometimes an opponents move won't register until I leave the app and come back to it. I've watched my opponents time run out only to get a message that I've lost on time. Twice.

A Google user

5 years ago

Alright. This game has always been stellar. Unfortunately as of late the quality had fallen DRASTICALLY. I have a Google Pixel 3A and moving pieces during games is incredibly difficult. Sometimes it'll move a piece where I don't want it to go, not move the piece at all, or just simply ignore my input. I've lost many games because of it and it never happened pre-update. This is a very serious issue especially in blitz and bullet games, or any timed end game. As of now, most of this is unplayable.

Allen W. Jones

1 year ago

One of the better cross platform chess apps out there. Works well from Wi-Fi and cellular (3g or better). There's a lack of consistency between mobile app, web app, and desktop versions. Needs to have better social features as it's hard to find your friends and chat notifications are non-existent. Android version freezes after playing from a notification (versus launching the app).

J. Miles

4 years ago

Best platform for chess around (and it's free w/ no ads!). Some issues: (1) Searching (advanced) seems to regularly produce a server error. _____(2) I'd LOVE the ability to access the learning exercises through the app (checkmate patterns, etc). That's one of my main interests at this point. _____(3) Would also enjoy being able to view the current evaluation, only, without seeing the moves as well.

Ze Za

1 year ago

To make it absolutely perfect, please add the option to add an outside chess engine like komodo and to be able to save in favorites the friends I follow... by the way, it has chess 960 (Fischer Random Chess) among so many other things... puzzles, it rates you, beautiful boards and peaces, play online, etc etc... oh, and NO ADS, absolutely free, open source... Awesome!

Danny SG

1 year ago

App lacks a lot of features compared to the web version and is very buggy. For example, it's very disappointing there isn't a lobby feature in the app but a correspondance feature that less people use than the lobby feature. This is why I tried playing in the web version in mobile but the screen zooms in and out in ultrabullet. Unfortunately, I have low hopes and expectations this message will get through. Thanks.

Julian Desens

1 year ago

I love the app, but I'd like to suggest a function. For the puzzles, it'd be helpful to know how many moves are required for the solve. That might make it too easy so I suggest a hint button similar to the "view solution button" but to tell you how many moves to plan for. Sometimes showing the next move helps, but it can lessen the challenge too much, or it seems unintuitive because there's a series of 5 moves to account for when I expect to do it in 1-2 more moves. (Sorry for 1 star review)