I switched to Lichess for 7 days, Here is what I found
Ever since I have started playing chess in 2020 I have been played exclusively on Chess.com, which is natural. But I've decided to give the second best platform a try. For a week I played all of my games on lichess, including analysis. Today I am going to share my experience on lichess.
Table Of contents
- Gameplay
- Analysis
- User Interface
- Conclusion
Gameplay
Now as being two different sites about the same game gameplay wouldn't differ a lot, but believe me, when you play on Lichess, you can immediately tell the difference, For example, lets take a look at premoves.
The first major difference between chess.com and lichess is the premoves and how they work. On chess.com you can make an unlimited amount of premoves as long as the moves are legal, but on lichess you can make one at a time. The drawback is that it takes 0.1 seconds for premoves to register on chess.com, so if you have a forced mate in seven with 0.6 seconds left, you will be flagged. But on Lichess you wont at all cost any time for premoves.
The problem with lichess though is that its about internet connection. At any given time at lichess, I have a ping of 300 ms. This means that any information means that any information that will be relayed from lichess to me will take 0.3 seconds. This doesnt mean that premoving a mate in 7 with 0.6 seconds on your clock is impossible, but it does rely on your opponent taking more than 0.3 seconds at each move they take so the information is relayed on their clock. In the circumstances that it would matter, your opponent will try to flag you, so if they premove too, it will render your 0 second premoves useless if you dont have a good internet connection. But it totally has a connection to where you live in the world. Lichess has its servers in France so if you are anywhere in Europe you will have an advantage in a time scramble as opposed to someone in South America. The thing with Chess.com is that your ping doesnt matter after the first premove. If you ping is 300 ms, your first move will take 0.4 seconds, the rest of them are 0.1 seconds.
One thing I have to say is that players at the upper end of the pool feel more inconsistent in Chess.com than Lichess. A 1100 and 1500 might be the same on Chess.com, but at Lichess playing in the 1600 or 1700 range it felt like it was much more challenging. The problem at chess.com is probably a big cheating problem, so extremely good players lose to chess.com cheaters and get lower elo and creates a big elo gap. Compared to Lichess, I feel like Lichess has a more fair and honest policy concerning Cheaters.
One cool feature that Chess.com also doesn't have is definitely the Beserk feature. At any time during an arena tournament in lichess, You can take 50% off time off your clock to get an extra point in the arena. This is a super cool feature that Chess.com should have had. Another good thing is that you can change arena presets during Tournaments. this thing you can't do in Chess.com.
Lichess might not have good premoves but they also make up with a lot of other features than Chess.com. I would say that Lichess may be a cut above Chess.com in the gameplay department
Analysis
Chess.com offers you a decent amount of choice in engines, but so does lichess. But while lichess only allows stockfish editions, Chess.com also allows toch and Komodo. You can also adjust the depth of the engine, how many lines it comes up with, and how many time it should spend to calculate lines. Chess.com has a lot of customizing options than lichess, but Lichess also has the feature that Chess.com doesn't have that being the Show Threat feature, in which you can see what your opponent threatens to play if you dont prevent it.
Game Review
While Lichess doesnt have an extensive game review system, hands down Chess.com takes the cake when it comes to game review. The best thing about this is it identifies your mistakes, and grades it, and gives you ample time to practice the mistake and make sure it doesnt happen again. The problem is that its mostly for paid members, and free members only get to use it once per day. Another thing that is a major drawback is the performance rating system. The performance rating system always has problems with it and keeps grading people either too high or too low, and some moves inaccuracies while they are completely fine.
User Interface
I would say that yet again Chess.com is amazing when it comes to UI. Chess.com has amazing UI and layout. The interactive animations are very great when it comes to Chess.com's gameplay. The clocks are placed great, the rating also shown clearly, and when you win you have a great game animation and aesthetical value. All of the buttons that are eyesores like switching the board or enabling premoves are tucked in the corner. The player profile page is great, with player profile and information shown clearly, and the page is not overcrowded and user friendly. I also prefer the taskbar located on the side allows smoother navigation as we have to scroll vertically when we are using the site. We can change all the backgrounds of chess.com pages, piece themes, board themes, and even sound packages, while we can also use flairs for users. Lichess on the other hand, are much less user friendly. Meanwhile when you win a game in chess.com, analysis of games are encouraged as we have the big green button saying game review, while the small buttons of playing again and rematching also hidden.
Conclusion
Chess.com might be a little stronger than Lichess, but in my opinion that Lichess is admirably better than Lichess, but if you think of it for free users I would recommend Lichess. If you disregard all of chess.com's features that are paid, Lichess is considerably better. I didnt include community as 7 days gives you no idea of a chess community. Thanks for tuning in to this blog, and tune in next time for another blog!
