Lichess.org

Chessalutations!

     About a month ago, I finally checked out the chess server lichess.org!  My immediate impression was this is a great server to play and learn chess.  Here are some of the features that I like:

1)  Free!  It does not cost anything to play, and never will according to the developer.

2)  Can be played on a computer or through a mobile app (iPhone and Android).  However, there are some features the mobile will not have access, but good for playing on the go.

3)  Tactics Trainer!  Called "training" from the Learn menu, or main list on the app version, you will be presented with a tactics problem to solve, typically several moves to play, and given a rating based on getting the problems correct or incorrect.

4)  Arena Style Tournaments!  Different than your typical tournament, you are in a pool of players for the length of time of the tournament to play as many games as you can as you are paired with people.  Wins are two points, Draws are one point, Losses are zero.  If you manage to win two games in a row, you start a streak, where wins are now worth four points and draws are worth two until you lose again.  There is also an option to go Berzerk, where before your first move, you can choose to cut your time in half, but gain one extra point for a win or draw.

5)  Speaking of first move... a nice feature is that your clock does not start running until you have made your first move to give you time to say hello to your opponent, or collect your thoughts.  However, you do have a 20 second window to begin the game, else it will be aborted.

6)  Study!  This is a very, very cool feature of lichess.org that allows you to create your own interactive lesson with notes, arrows, circles, etc. to teach others or show your own games with annotations.  Many people will post and your can browse through their content.

7)  Post game analysis and Learn from your mistakes features!  When you finish a game, you can have a computer analysis done fairly quickly to identify inaccuracies, mistakes, and blunders to see key moments where you could have made a better choice.  Even better, by selecting the Learn from your mistakes feature, the game will pause at moments where the computer found a better option, and let your test out a different choice before you let it reveal to you the better move.

8)  Lichess TV!  You can select this option to watch high rated players online in the different formats of chess:  Bullet, Blitz, Standard,...

9)  Other variants of chess!  Play several other variants like Crazyhouse (no two player bughouse yet), Suicide Chess, Three Checks, Atomic, Horde, Chess960, King of the Hill, Computers, or Racing Kings.

10)  Many YouTube chess videos are organized by opening, player, theme, etc. in the collection of videos you can watch.

11)  Practice!  Newly added, are lessons on basic chess themes and positions that you can practice vs a computer to test your skills and improve your chess knowledge.

12)  Ability to export games and diagrams to blog posts....  speaking of which, part two of the An Unusual Response to the Caro-Kann series will be my next post....

May your kings always have a safe square!