Vietnamese IM Minh Le (mutdpro) defeated a very strong field of 226 players to win the Lichess Titled Arena 7. Le opened up a lead of 10 points by the end of the tourney but the fighting for the final spots was fierce up until the final moments. Finishing second was Armenian GM Zaven Andriasian (Zaven_ChessMood) who had a very strong showing in his first Titled Arena. Finishing third was former Titled Arena Champion and current World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen, (ManWithAVan) who was running late and played the tournament from his phone .

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It's been a month since GM damnsaltythatsport (Magnus Carlsen) reclaimed the most important throne by winning the sixth Titled Arena, and now it's time for the next one! Since Magnus donated his prize back, the winner takes home $1000 this time! At fashionably late notice, the next Titled Arena will take place Friday, September 7th.

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Congratulations to Bojun Guo (aka noobpwnftw) and Ronald de Man (aka syzygy) for completing the first free 7-piece tablebase and generously sharing it with the world! Lichess now provides online access on the analysis board and in studies, practice against tablebases, a public API and a mirror for downloading the full tablebase files.

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(Authors: okeizh and LegionDestroyer; editor: FischyVishy)

2018 marks the second iteration of the Crazyhouse World Championship (CWC) organized by chess variants pioneer FischyVishy on lichess.org. The inaugural championship in 2017 saw 8 Candidates qualify for a Candidates Tournament (results displayed courtesy of crosky).

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GM Magnus Carlsen ("damnsaltythatsport") won his 5th Lichess Arena title by a comfortable 20-point margin. He gained revenge for a disappointing showing in the previous edition. Finishing second was GM Daniel Naroditsky ("RebeccaHarris"). Third was GM Oleksandr Bortnyk ("Night-King96"). Fourth was IM Vincent Rothuis, who is the only non-GM to consistently compete for a prize in these events. Fifth place, and the final prize, was won by a single point. GM Ashkat Chandra just barely edged out GM Andrew Tang who took his turn having a bad tournament after spectacularly conquering the field last time.

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Yesterday the Lichess team hosted a public meetup in Montreal. It took place at the scenic Mount Royal Park. These events have been getting steadily more popular and this was the biggest one yet. Many thanks to everyone who participated!

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In May, GM Andrew Tang won the Lichess Titled Arena 5 tournament, and took home the 1st prize of $3,000. In total, 232 titled participants competed for a prize pool of $3,600. It was the first Titled Arena won by a player other than Magnus Carlsen. Watch the 5th Titled Arena with commentary by IM Christof Sielecki (ChessExplained) here.

After a short Summer Break, we are now announcing the Lichess Titled Arena 6, which will take place on Saturday, August 4th.

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This Friday, July 13, a Horde match will take place at 18:00 UTC. The match will be contested between svenos, a French FM who has been rated as high as 2826 in Horde, and StubenFisch, a young chess player who is one of Horde’s most active (and perennial top 3!) players and probably the “face” of Horde. The match format will be as follows:

2x 15+10 4x 10+0 6x 5+0 10x 3+0 15x 1+2 5x 1+0

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Do you want to hang out with other Lichess community members? Meet the Lichess team and convince them to implement bughouse? Find your way to Montreal on the afternoon of Saturday, July 28th. Bring a chess set and clock or just hang out with food and drinks available. We will be meeting at the picnic tables near Smith House in Mount Royal park from 2pm to 5pm. Stay tuned to Lichess social media for updates and a back-up plan in case of rain.

Please RSVP with the Facebook event if possible

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This Saturday, May 12th 18:30 UTC, a match will take place between two of the best bullet players on Lichess. GM Paco Vallejo and GM Andrew Tang will put their chess skill and mouse speed to the test. They will play 12 games of 1+0 and 12 games of 2+0. The public will be able to watch both players in real time on their live streams and listen to their thought process (to the extent that fast chess allows).

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