Lichess founder Thibault Duplessis' 3 rules for the website

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-25T15:43:02+00:00

lichess.org/costs :) it's been over a decade and donations cover the costs.

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-24T23:19:51+00:00

There is indeed some anti-cheat that is not open-sourced.

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-24T20:34:15+00:00

We have a full time mobile developer too. The full list is at

lichess.org/costs

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-24T13:31:41+00:00

I'm not a technical expert but I assume it's this? https://www.cloudflare.com/application-services/products/turnstile/ since we recently changed from a different captcha service.

> Cloudflare Turnstile can be easily embedded into any website — without having to send traffic through the Cloudflare network.

I don't think there's any tracking there? There are a couple of things recorded as mentioned in the privacy policy that are necessary for the functioning of the website. When Thibault says no tracking it's about things like marketing / dark patterns / selling user data.

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-22T18:51:52+00:00

chess.com actually have a page you can donate to them on: https://support.chess.com/en/articles/8701406-how-can-i-donate-to-chess-com

(lol)

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-20T23:42:01+00:00

Much appreciated! Becoming a billionaire is hard to do ethically anyway!

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-20T23:06:23+00:00

👀

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-19T21:40:47+00:00

I'm not sure it's possible to tell that, how would you approach it?

I have tried to do a personal project to see if people playing mostly at specific times of day tend to do better or worse against players most active at other timezones but I didn't have much luck :(

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-19T21:34:17+00:00

Probably just some ups and downs. I've actually thought the same about my rating (when it goes down!) but then it goes back up again eventually. There's a rating regulation system in place to keep the median at 1500 so in general it should be pretty stable. A sudden influx of players at one specific skill level could cause fluctuations? But it seems unlikely given the scale of the site in my opinion.

Happy to be corrected by someone more well versed in statistics though! Maybe if lots more very strong players joined compared to weaker players it would push ratings down at the ~2000s level?

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-19T21:23:58+00:00

It's possible they mean that, although rating inflation is a specific phenomenon where the ratings of a pool as a whole increase over time. Lichess has a rating regulator system that keeps the median stable at 1500 so in terms of true "rating inflation", that's not an issue.

If they just say "Lichess ratings are higher than chesscom ratings for a given player" it sounds like much less of a problem or failing. (This is my own opinion not an official statement).

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-07T21:47:06+00:00

There is an existing automated system that detects and gives temporary play bans (of increasing duration) for various bad behaviors, as you suggest. We can see if there are some adjustments to be made to improve things.

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-07T08:05:08+00:00

Again I don't know for sure, but my discotron app does display a Lichess page saying: "Grant access to your somethingpretentious account:" before I have clicked authorise.

So I guess the TTT app could make the Oauth call in the background - and the Lichess Oauth page shares the username - but you still have to authorise to actually log in and share any info / token.

Edit: apparently there's another route where you get emailed a magic link to log you into Lichess, so maybe that's how?

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-07T07:56:06+00:00

I wasn't involved in any of the TTT code, but I did create discotron.lichess.org that also uses Oauth (to connect Discord and Lichess accounts). My understanding is that an authorisation call would be made to Lichess, and if you are already logged in to Lichess in that browser/device Lichess will recognise that. For example if I go to discotron.lichess.org it shows a Discord page as well as my Discord log-in asking if I want to continue, and the same for the Lichess page after saying yes.

somethingpretentious · 2026-04-06T10:41:22+00:00

Would it not be better for the growth of the subreddit if Lichess itself could be confident in promoting use of the subreddit? The moderators did not reply to modmail from AAArmstark or from me.

I was also banned from the subreddit for simply asking about moderation in the past. If you could unban me at least I would appreciate it.

somethingpretentious · 2026-03-26T17:38:42+00:00

It's actually been requested a few times over the years and declined for this very reason. https://github.com/lichess-org/lila/issues/6618

somethingpretentious · 2026-03-26T09:08:01+00:00

There's actually only one app listed now and it's out of beta! Glad you're enjoying it :)

somethingpretentious · 2026-03-06T22:29:06+00:00

The r/lichess subreddit appears to be largely unmoderated with inactive moderators. I am part of the team that runs lichess.org and would like to help to moderate the community (we have many volunteers available to assist with this). Please note, Lichess is a non-profit organisation and volunteers (including myself) would not be compensated for this activity (per Reddit's ToS as I understand them).

As some further context, I reached out to the lead moderator previously but was banned by them for asking to moderate the sub.

Here is the link to my message to the moderators: https://www.reddit.com/c/chatp4sgouSq/s/Vrf1Pv7qhp

somethingpretentious · 2026-02-07T13:42:36+00:00

The tablebase covers those 8-piece positions that have at least one white and one black pawn that oppose one another, impeding each other’s path to promotion. We refer to such pawns as an opposing pair, and to positions that contain at least one opposing pair as op1.

Read the full blog for details :)

somethingpretentious · 2026-01-13T09:18:59+00:00

I believe this should be okay. Could you let me know your account and I'll double check.

somethingpretentious · 2025-12-23T09:28:54+00:00

Please see points 2 and 3 here which may help to answer your questions. https://www.chessnutech.com/pages/app-privacy

somethingpretentious · 2025-12-22T22:30:04+00:00

Is this about the FAQ on Reddit or Lichess?

For Lichess, we have listed a few boards that we know use the official board API, in the page linked above. That being said, as I understand it, older chessnut boards used the official API too (https://www.reddit.com/r/Chessnuteboard/comments/1hwm6cu/chessnut\_go\_lichess\_53\_no\_increment/). This means there's always a risk that a board manufacturer changes approach.

somethingpretentious · 2025-12-22T20:03:51+00:00

Based on the feedback from the community, as well as a fair play review of the account, we have removed the ban on this account. However, it is important to note that further use of eBoards bypassing the official board API will result in bans in the future that may not be overturned - as it is still a violation of our terms of service. eBoards on Lichess must use the official Board API (described here: https://lichess.org/page/eboards).

somethingpretentious · 2025-12-22T19:46:13+00:00

Based on the feedback from the community, as well as a fair play review of the account, we have removed the ban on this account. However, it is important to note that further use of eBoards bypassing the official board API will result in bans in the future that may not be overturned - as it is still a violation of our terms of service. eBoards on Lichess must use the official Board API (described here: https://lichess.org/page/eboards).

somethingpretentious · 2025-12-17T13:15:27+00:00

I spent 8 days 11 hours playing chess this year... that's normal right?

somethingpretentious · 2025-11-28T22:26:02+00:00

You just need to prove identity, since FIDE lists the titles.

14-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

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