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Lichess or chess.com?
We have talked a lot about both sites, chess.com is an incredible platform that offers a lot of content, and lichess.org is not bad either. But which one is the best? Today we will end the discussion.
First of all, we have to mention that this post is not intended to make you abandon or enter one of these platforms. Both have good qualities, you must choose the one you feel better with.
I think these sites are intended for different publics, their nature is different and they have different policies. I must say, which site is better will completely depend on the type of player you are, which makes this question practically impossible to answer.
This post is intended to make you understand what lichess or chess.com offers you, and conclude by yourself which is the best (for you).
Remember, before reading this post set your expectations for it, or better said, set your needs: Do you want a chess site to play often? All of the time? O you want a chess site to train? Review games?
Of course, it’s difficult to find one single site that covers all of these necessities.
What is the best platform for beginners?
If a had to choose between lichess or chess.com for one of my students first entering chess, I would recommend lichess.org. The reason is simple, this site offers a more relaxed experience to chess than chess.com, let’s see why:
- Lichess has everything a beginner chess player needs, has tactics trainer, online games, tournaments, database, and analysis board. This could even be more than enough (let’s be real they don’t analyze games in the database). All of this for free.
- All of lichess.org chess resources are free, perfect for those players that are starting, and don’t have a rushing interest for
- Online chess servers are excellent, this is the best platform to play bullet or rapid games, with legless fluency.
- The platform has a free code, that everyone sees, this way, if you know something about programming, you can see how the site works. And also, this assures the privacy of the player and makes servers more secure.
This answers the question. Lichess or chess.com? At least for some of the players.
Lichess is the best site for those who enjoy chess often, or don’t really see it as a serious competition, and are looking to play chess professionally. Now, everything changes in a different scenario:
What is the best platform for advanced players?
In this spot must be the giant chess.com, and is simply because of all of the content it offers. Chess.com has more features from any aspect. Take into consideration that all the features will be unlocked only if you pay for the membership.
Let’s suppose you paid membership on chess.com, let’s have a look at the benefits of chess.com:
- com allows you to analyze your games with the best interface available. It labels the moves and makes the process easy and comfortable for anyone. It has replaying features, the best modules, and everything is intuitive.
- It has the best tactics trainer on the internet, offering harder chess puzzles every time you advance in your “tactics rating”.
- It has chess lessons from titled players and all kinds of content for players of all levels.
- It has the function of the drill, which allows you to play preset chess positions, to improve your technique for converting the advantage.
There are far more functions you can use, so many that are difficult to name all, this is why the subscription is worth it. It offers excellent resources for learning. If you are an advanced player, after looking at the benefits of chess.com, you should not keep wondering “lichess or chess.com?” anymore.
Alternative to chess.com and lichess
There is a good option you can use instead of lichess or chess.com, also offering great content. FICS (Free Internet Chess Server) is one of the best alternatives to both sites.
This server has a simple interface, and it does have some advantages, and the chess servers are fast and easy to use. Different from other webs, this one does not offer any chess puzzles or more features.
You can also analyze your games and see the mistakes. There is also an interactive feature, unique among chess sites. The “teaching ladder” is a part in which we can have your games reviewed by stronger players and see results.
You can also be part of the reviewer’s panel, where you will see all of the games to analyze, you will have a soon response after submitting yours.
Conclusion
Lichess.org has been growing consistently into fame, nowadays it seems even more popular than the old chess.com. There is always a special kind of public for different websites, and more people feel better with lichess.
“Should I play on lichess or chess.com” is not the correct question to ask, you’d better ask “Do I want the best free or paid?”
Let’s be real, if we have to decide which site is better, realistically, the answer is chess.com. Chess.com offers far more content than any other chess site on the internet and is backed up by serious chess organizations like FIDE itself.
This is why we have seen official chess events celebrated on chess.com and not on lichess.org. The fact that chess.com needs to be paid a fee to have access to all of the features is not bad.
That payment is what makes it possible for the page to keep growing and offer those amazing tools, nothing is free. For the player who really wants to improve chess.com is heaven, for a small fee, you have a great deal of content to do it.
However, if you are not a player who is THAT interested in getting better, then you should definitely go for lichess.org. There is no point in paying for all of those features chess.com offers if you are not going to use them.
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