Our December 2024 free and open databases are now available for download, bringing the total number of rated games to over 6.2 billion in standard chess and 125 million across variants!

Congratulations to GM Daniel Naroditsky for winning our Blitz Titled Arena January! IM Suyarov Mukhammadzokhid took 2nd place, ahead of GM José Martínez Alcántara in 3rd place.

Our January 3+0 Warm-up Arena starts at 18:00 UTC! You will have the chance to play against some of the titled players before they enter the Blitz Titled Arena!

In December, Lichess had 41 people who contributed code across 17 of our repos! See what was worked on in the updated changelog and discuss the changes in our feedback forum thread.

Our Game of the Month December Contest is underway: Share your best Lichess standard game played in December 2024 until 5 January! The winner will be announced on 14 January, followed by a blog post with commentary on the game.

The FIDE World Blitz Championship 2024 ended with GMs Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi as co-champions in an unprecedented decision by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, after Carlsen suggested to Nepomniachtchi that they share 1st place. GM Ju Wenjun is the new Women's World Blitz Champion for the first time in her career, defeating GM Lei Tingjie in the tiebreaks!

The final stage of the FIDE World Blitz Championship 2024 starts at 19:00 UTC! GM Magnus Carlsen, who has returned to play after withdrawing from the Rapid event, meets GM Hans Niemann in the Quarter-Final and GM Ju Wenjun faces two-time and reigning Women's World Blitz Champion GM Valentina Gunina in the Women's tournament, among others.