lichess.

org
lichess.org is a completely free, open-source chess
platform - exclusively powered by volunteers and
donations.

In 2010, Thibault Duplessis began work on Lichess as

a hobby project. Gradually, the site improved and the
user base grew as an enthusiastic volunteer staff
assembled over time to help Thibault build and
maintain the site.

Today, Lichess users play more than a million games

every day. Lichess is one of the most popular chess
websites in the world while remaining 100% free. With
no investors demanding profits, and a commitment to
never show advertisements or charge for features,
Lichess staff can focus on improving the site as their
only goal.

All photos in this press kit are courtesy of lichess.org and are
available for free use when credited. press kit 2018
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Despite Lichess's humble origins, playing a chess
game is far from the only thing you can do on Lichess.

After finishing a game, you can request computer

analysis using the latest Stockfish chess engine and
learn from your mistakes or compare your game
against a massive database of chess masters’ games.

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8 chess variants are also available
Crazyhouse Chess960 Antichess Atomic

Place captured pieces Random starting Win by losing all your Pieces explode when
back on the board. position for the back pieces – captures are captured, taking their
rank pieces. forced! neighbours with them.

Racing Kings King of the Hill Three-Check Horde

Get your king to the Get your king to a Just check three times A normal chess army
other side of the board central square first. to take the victory. against a horde of
first. pawns.
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You can watch top players battle it out live and

discuss the game with your friends; even World
Champions play on Lichess!

Lichess users Bombegranate (GM Fabiano

Caruana) and DannyTheDonkey (GM Magnus
Carlsen)

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Players looking to improve can hire a
coach and also use real-time collaborative
“studies” to share games, positions,
annotated variations and chat.

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A site the size of Lichess requires a significant number of people to maintain it. It also requires money for
expenses, such as servers and other hosting services. The number of people who have contributed to these
things is difficult to count precisely but fall into the following categories:

Volunteers - Lichess would not exist

without the thousands of hours of time from
volunteers, both from devs, who create new
features and/or bugs, and our administrative
team, who police the site and help with
long-term vision.

Patrons - Patrons are regular users who

donate money to Lichess and provide a
steady stream of income to the site,
sufficient to run the servers and handle
expenses.

Players - Finally, the players who come

to Lichess to have fun, relax and learn,
without whom this would all be pointless!

Lichess meet-up 2017

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18,000 active registered users at one time 98 different languages

28,000 simultaneous active users 1,000 moves per second

1,000,000 games per day 918 verified FIDE and national titled players

1150 Patrons donating to Lichess

Figures correct as of February 2018 press kit 2018

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Users can also support Lichess through our store at lichess.org/swag

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github.com/ornicar/lila

@lichess

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discord.gg/hy5jqSs

contact@lichess.org
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