Chat Etiquette

Lichess is a place for chess friends all over the world. You may have seen users timed out in public chats for “public shaming”, “spamming in the chat”, “disrespecting other players”, or “inappropriate behavior”. This page describes Lichess's chat guidelines. Moderators time out messages that violate these guidelines.

Please treat chat like you would treat a good friend: with politeness, respect and kindness. Please also avoid sensitive topics such as religion and politics.

Most tournaments, simuls and games on Lichess have a public chat room.

Public shaming

Do not publicly shame other users for actual or suspected cheating.
Do fill out https://lichess.org/report to report another account if you think they have violated our Terms of Service (by for example cheating / using external assistance). Although we cannot discuss any actions that were taken due to a report, please be assured that our moderators continuously review and process user reports. No report is ignored.

Do not say things like "... is a cheater?", "... is an idiot", "... is a noob", "... is a loser".

Spamming in the chat

Do messages like "Hello", "Good evening", "How are you ... ?", and "how does ... work?" are perfectly fine.

Do not say things like "Heeeeeelllllllooooooo", "asdasdlaisdjalsdjasdljö", "hahahahahahahahahahhaha", "???????????????????".
Do not post links to tournaments or teams that are not related to the event.
Do not post links to your stream or someone else’s stream.
Do not post messages like "Join my team ...". You can advertise your team or other links in your own profile (https://lichess.org/account/profile) or in your own team.
Do not beg for followers or subscribers.

Disrespecting other players

These are OK: "Good game ...", "Well played ...", "Congrats ...".

Do not use swear words directed at other users like “f*** you”, or general insults like "you are an idiot", "looooser" or "run noob".

Inappropriate behavior

Always be kind, polite and friendly to other users, just like you would be to your friends, or to someone you just met.

Do not post material that could be considered threatening, bullying, offensive or illegal.
Do not send death threats or wishes such as “kill yourself”, "kys", "get cancer".
Do not send racist messages to anybody.
Do not post sensitive material intended to shock other users.
Do not use words like "rape" as an analogy for defeat or humiliation - e.g. "this game was a rape" or "you got raped".

Messages like these will result in a timeout, warning or even a sitewide communication ban depending on severity, frequency, and the user's previous history.

If you're not sure whether you're allowed to post something, it's better to ask a moderator on Lichess or in the official Discord #support channel.

If you see an inappropriate message, please click on the "warn" button next to the chat or go to https://lichess.org/report.

Users can block other users by clicking on the "block" button, or by reporting them via the ️"warn" button in the inbox.