After taking a break during the World Championship (congratulations to Magnus and Fabiano for a very tense match), the Lichess Titled Arena resumes normal scheduling on the 15th of December, at 19:00 UTC. Will Magnus Carlsen try to claim back the arguably more important accolade of Titled Arena Champion?

This event will also celebrate the 1 year anniversary of these Titled Arenas! The team welcomes any birthday cakes sent to Lichess HQ.

Continue reading this post

Tickets for the final day of the World Championship match, the rapid tiebreakers, had only been on sale for 36 hours when the VIP tickets, priced at 600 pounds, were declared sold out. (General admission was a bargain at only 120 pounds.)

Continue reading this post

Last Saturday, Lichess held a Meetup in London, in a pub near the World Championship Venue. People turned up en masse, from beginners to seasoned players, making the evening a huge success, as demonstrated by this heartwarming reddit post. Thanks to all the players that took part in our blitz tournament, and congratulations to the top 3 finishers: Robbie Cahar, Anil Cengiz and Eric Rosen, who all got a limited edition London Meetup hoodie.

While the team didn't have time to work on Lichess features for this Meetup, we still had time to take some pictures, enjoy our selection below.

Continue reading this post

It is not often that the chess world unites to criticise Magnus Carlsen, but on Monday evening in London the World Champion had few supporters after his decision to squander a highly favourable position and offer a draw to his challenger Fabiano Caruana as soon as legally permissible in the final classical game of the world title match in London.

Continue reading this post

“This will not be a draw!” declared almost every pundit in the packed World Championship press room after 20 moves of the tenth game between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana but – it seems inevitable in the 2018 title match – defence triumphed and a tenth consecutive draw was the result.

Continue reading this post

Standing on the platform at Holborn underground station in central London, a short walk from the World Championship match venue The College, two young Norwegians are in animated discussion about the game they have just seen, where challenger Fabiano Caruana - for the second time in three games - went close to knocking over World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Continue reading this post

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a World Championship match which starts with a run of draws will see that run broken by a win from the challenger.

In his 1995 match against Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand scored the first win in game 9, in 2016 Sergey Karjakin broke through against Magnus Carlsen in game 8, and Boris Gelfand followed six draws against World Champion Anand with a game 7 win in 2012. (Did I mention that after these deadlock-breaking wins, the challengers did not win another game and all lost their matches?)

Continue reading this post

This Saturday 17th November, the Lichess4545 league is organising a 15+15 tournament for its 3rd year.

The league is for people who want to play slow chess, improve, and meet other chess players but with the convenience of the internet. Starting as little more than a few dedicated enthusiasts and a Google spreadsheet, we now have over 300 actively playing members and many more who remain part of the community. Along the way the league has formed its own website with its own TV page of league games, developed its own league bot @chesster, started a league newsletter Lichess4545 Ledger, created several ancillary leagues, compiled end of season awards and funded and highlighted games for end-of season video reviews with several prominent youtubers and streamers. Thanks to the hard work of several developers and volunteers as well as the enthusiastic players who actively participate in all aspects of the community, we have been able to continually improve and develop a place for fun, comradery and serious study of chess.

Continue reading this post

The action began early on Tuesday, so early that it preceded the start of Game 4.

Continue reading this post

Surfing on the World Chess Championship happening in London from 9th to 28th November, Lichess is organising a community meetup in London on Saturday 24th November, come see us!

Continue reading this post