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Chess.com vs. Lichess

siddhesh.substack.com

181–190 of 221 posts

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#181
post #136
post #88

I think lichess.org is far superior in that it has a super-polished UX in ways that are not immediately obvious. After I made the switch from chess.com in 2014 (I had the paid features), it was always extremely annoying to come back. Also lichess.org gives you most of what chess.com tries to upsell you on, for free. As it happens I've re-validated this over the last few days with dozens of games on chess.com. A singl…

The tournament UI has been broken on iOS for years. It doesn't register taps properly and some UI elements are not shown where they should be. OTOH, the website works pretty well on mobile, scrolling aside. In general, I also had the feeling that the lichess UI is a bit more immediate, it was easier for me to get around. But I think a big difference is not in features or UX, but the behaviour of the players. Because…

> severe lack of gentlemanly behaviour. As an example, I don't think I've ever seen someone concede a game, it's almost always a bitter fight way past the point a reasonable player may accept defeat.

I almost never concede at my (low) level: at my level it's very possible that someone lets me go into a stalemate which is preferable to a loss.

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#182
post #88

I think lichess.org is far superior in that it has a super-polished UX in ways that are not immediately obvious. After I made the switch from chess.com in 2014 (I had the paid features), it was always extremely annoying to come back. Also lichess.org gives you most of what chess.com tries to upsell you on, for free. As it happens I've re-validated this over the last few days with dozens of games on chess.com. A singl…

Chess.com does benefit from their collection of training bots with different strategies and more forgiving play style which are pretty neat to play against. Though most of them are behind a paywall so eh.

Lichess only offers stockfish levels when it comes to bots, and even the lowest level seems more brutal than bots with x2 its ELO on chess.com.

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is called “Zen mode” for those trying to find it. I’ve had it active and it’s a good psychological edge. You should always just play the pieces coming at you and not think, "wow, this person’s 250 points better than me, I should expect to lose and play for a draw", but by hiding ratings you don’t introduce any chance to think like that.

Zen mode is only to hide things during the game. What I mean is under "Preferences", "Site settings", "Show player ratings". If it's "No", then no ratings are shown anywhere .

Ah, nice, thanks for the correction.

Site Settings only appears on the website, for Lichess app users like me who couldn't find it. But once you change the setting there it will apply in the mobile app if you're logged in.

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting perspective. I have subscriptions to both and my first reaction was the exact opposite of yours. Chess.con is so far ahead of lichens that it wasn’t debatable. What in your opinion leads you to believe that lichess is eating chess.com’s lunch. For me games are far easier and quicker to setup with chess.com. The drills are better at chess.com and so are the lessons, both in-depth and breadth. I can’t reall…

> I have subscriptions to both I'm not sure how you have a subscription to Lichess when it's a free site. Do you donate? > My Elo rank on lichess is a full 500 points higher on lichess than chess.com The ratings difference on lichess is arbitrary. Everyone starts higher (1500 vs 1200), so the average is higher. > For me games are far easier and quicker to setup with chess.com Unless I've missed something on chess.com…

Yes I donate to lichess. But as others have pointed out you can subscribe to YouTube channels with no money paid.

You really are trying very hard to find something wrong with my comment so you can defend lichess…..why?

> Unless I've missed something on chess.com this makes no sense at all

Yes you have:)

Not sure why you typed so much about the game setup.

All I said was that chess.com games start much faster than lichess:) That's it:)

Though I love how invested you are in defending lichess!!

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#185

It's worth noting many of these points are subjective, and I disagree with all of the bullets in favor of chess.com. I'm 2100 Elo on Lichess for what it's worth. 1. I prefer the way Lichess handles right clicks, knight movement tracking, and tracking arrows. 2. 4-player chess: The author mentions that it's their favorite variant to watch. I can't say I've heard that opinion before. Personally I tend to stick to vanil…

> This is simply because chess.com pays streamers with the money they receive from premium users, whereas Lichess is free.

Not only that but they also hold tournaments (ie: PogChamps which was a great success IMO) and they also have tournament analyses (ie: 2021 World Championship). They even have good production value! (outside of covid related limitations).

That being said, I agree with your diss of chess.com and will mention that I only play on lichess.

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't play that much chess, but: If a player has 60 minutes for all their moves, then spend less then a minute for each move, until they are so far behind that in your mind, the game is over, now, they are spending 20 minutes on one move. And I have to still sit in front of the computer, because if I leave, they might make a move just before their timer runs out, hoping that I have already left the room, and now I…

Play a different time format then. I don’t understand players, several in this thread alone, who complain when their opponent uses some/all of the time that was allotted under the rules of the game that are agreed upon at the start. (I am similarly against the awarding of extra time.)

There's a wide gray area but surely there's some point where you think a person is just being rude.

Eg if someone mouse slips and blinders their queen on their 5th move in a 90 minute game. You have no concern with having to sit there for 1.5 hours where your opponent makes no further moves?

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#187
post #88

I think lichess.org is far superior in that it has a super-polished UX in ways that are not immediately obvious. After I made the switch from chess.com in 2014 (I had the paid features), it was always extremely annoying to come back. Also lichess.org gives you most of what chess.com tries to upsell you on, for free. As it happens I've re-validated this over the last few days with dozens of games on chess.com. A singl…

Chess.com does benefit from their collection of training bots with different strategies and more forgiving play style which are pretty neat to play against. Though most of them are behind a paywall so eh. Lichess only offers stockfish levels when it comes to bots, and even the lowest level seems more brutal than bots with x2 its ELO on chess.com.

Stockfish level 1 can be beaten by a novice playing their 4th or 5th game ever. Also on Lichess there are other bots you can play against, for example the maia series which is an LC0 bot with a neural network trained on Lichess games of a particular rating level. Maia feels much more like a real person than any bot based on stockfish.

https://lichess.org/blog/X9PUixUAANCqFRSh/introducing-maia-a...

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I play billet games on my phone almost daily. Maybe try to reinstall your app if or crashes or won’t let you play because I’d definitely should.

It doesn't crash; it's sluggish. It's hard to quantify but it's like there is a quasi animation effect that you can't turn off. In something like 3|2 it's not terrible but in 1 minute games its a real issue. I thought for a while that maybe I was just used to the lichess interface but I don't have the same sluggish feel when playing on my phone on the website vs the app.

Interesting. I've never seen that, perhaps I'm just lucky, or not as good as you that i notice the lag:)

Re: Chess.com vs. Lichess

#190
The author is mentioning "multiple premoves" as a reason Chesscom is better, which makes the mistanken assumption that more is somehow better. In my (and most strong Bullet players I've talked to) opinion, it changes the Bullet meta for the worse, because it adds more noise. I'm rated 2600 in Bullet on both sites, for what it's worth.

"One premove" could just as well be a reason why a site is better than the other than "Multiple premoves". I also think that the chessboard and playing UI is much smoother on Lichess, as opposed to the author - it's a matter of opinion.

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