February 23rd, 2021

• Stockfish 13 implemented for local analysis. Note that some browsers will default to a previous version. More details are available here.
• fishnet v2.2.5 released, which now uses Stockfish 13.
• Zen mode is now possible for puzzles.
• Team leaders will now see a link to a team etiquette page on team pages.
• Established accounts can now only join 50 teams. New accounts will have a maximum of 15 that slowly rises over time. More info here.
• It's now possible to enter Lichess game IDs as the source for a broadcast. Up to a maximum of 64 can be entered.
• Daily puzzles will now be more difficult.
• A privacy preferences menu option for receiving PMs was changed from "never" to "only existing conversations" to better communicate what it does.
• Deleting a private message thread now prevents new posts if the user's preferences are set to "only existing conversations."
• The text that appears to explain puzzle up/down voting will no longer appear once the user's puzzle rating is established.
• Fixed a small bug with the practice icon for "Checkmate Patters IV."
• Fixed a bug with the 3-move delay on live game API exports that was causing new moves to arrive inconsistently.
• Added support for non-standard "won on time" termination tags in chess.com PGNs.
• Fixed a bug with chat timeouts.
• Data from a user's Puzzle Storm dashboard can now be accessed via the API.
• The Patron page was changed to make it clear that if a user donates while logged in their patron status will be public.
• Fixed a bug with the patron page where users were not redirected back after logging in to donate.
• Bot accounts will now get a "Bots can't join tournaments" message if they try to join.
• Fixed a bug with insights movetime filters.
• New translations via Crowdin.

February 9th, 2021

• Added Horsey Piece Set and board.
• Fixed a bug that was briefly giving the wrong result for games that ended with one player running out of time. More info here.
• Failed puzzles will now be filtered to the top of the puzzle storm ending page.
• Fixed a bug that was showing the wrong color for BOT titles on puzzles.
• Fixed a bug with selecting the time control in anonymous games.
• Fixed a bug with game completion percentage.
• Only BOT accounts will now be able to use the BOT-related reasons for declining a challenge.
• The API to start the clocks of games can now only start API created games.
• It's now possible to start all the clocks of a bulk API challenge at once.
• It's now possible to send a custom private message along with the API call that makes a challenge for a user.
• Entering an incorrect password to join a tournament will now show a message saying "incorrect password."
• Fixed a bug that was causing the ratings tags of imported games to not import.
• Added official under-1300 Hourly tournaments.
• Fixed a bug that caused the capture sound to not play for the opponents moves during Puzzle Storm.
• Forum posts in team forums will now be featured for longer.
• Fixed a rare bug that could occur when both players offered a draw during a three-fold-repetition.
• The board resize handle is now hidden after a Puzzle Storm run begins.
• It's now possible to cancel a team join request.
• Fixed a bug with the "playing" filter on broadcasts.
• Fixed a bug that was causing fishnet nodes to crash.
• Tweaked server analysis to make it more efficient.
• BOT accounts now able to play API bulk-challenged games.
• Bulk paired API games no longer count for sandbagging detection.
• Character limit for team descriptions raised to 4000 from 2000.
• New translations via Crowdin.

February 5th, 2021

• Reworked studies entirely to work around a MongoDB bug that had forced us to disable them. The study changes broke multi-board previews but they will be fixed with the next site update. Requested analysis will also be fixed.
• Bulk pairings now possible with the API. More than one challenge can be sent with a single API call.
• Weekly analysis limits raised to 150 from 120.
• New API endpoint to update team battles.
• The page that finds puzzles taken from the games of a certain user will no longer show puzzles from closed accounts.
• Fixed a bug with the "go deeper" button on computer analysis.
• Sped up the ending animation for Puzzle Storm.
• Games served via the API should now arrive 50% faster.
• Ongoing games will now be given for all game exporting APIs with a small move delay.
• Puzzle Storm runs now expire after 2 minutes if not started.
• The message that users receive when they look for puzzles from their games and find none will now include "You have no puzzles in the database, but Lichess still loves you very much."
• Fixed a bug with mouse wheel scrolling in puzzles.
• Fixed a bug that was giving incorrect team performances for team battles.
• Added a link to a page about different ratings systems to the FAQ section about what rating system Lichess uses.
• Small change in wording for the description of the "Discovered Attack" Motif.
• Added a link to the BOTs blog post to the page for community BOTs.
• Clicking on a user's puzzle rating no longer takes you to your own puzzle dashboard.
• Closing a team now automatically denies all open join requests.
• Puzzles arrived at via a direct link are now unrated.
• Removed the Bongcloud Trophy.
• New Translation via Crowdin.

January 28th, 2021

• New Feature: "Puzzle Storm."
• A new drop-down menu on the homepage called "Puzzles" featuring Puzzle Storm and the Puzzle Dashboard. Regular Puzzles have also been moved to this section from "Learn."
• Puzzle Storm attempts added to user activity feed.
• Fixed an XSS vulnerability in the study topic tagger. (Thanks to bhavi at Hackerone)
• Fixed an authentication bypass in study sockets. (Thanks to bhavi at Hackerone)
• The API now sends a complete list of teams for team battles.
• New translations via Crowdin.

January 23rd, 2021

• The maximum number of teams in a team battle has been raised to 200. This should be considered a public beta, we don't know how stable these bigger tournaments are yet.
• The team battle interface has been changed to accommodate more teams. You will now only see the top 10 teams and your own team (if playing) on the tournament page with a link to another page with the full standings.
• The puzzle dashboard is now linked on a user's profile. You can click on the puzzle rating to open it.
• Bots can now show a reason for declining challenges.
• Fixed a bug where hovering over your opponent's clock did not show the correct tooltip.
• Fixed poor wording on the contact page explaining how to file a user report.
• Swiss tournaments will now show notifications for any streamers currently playing.
• The puzzle dashboard no longer says "Train these to optimize your progress!" when no puzzles has been attempted. It now says "Nothing to show, go play some puzzles first!"
• Tournaments linked on the homepage now have a maximum countdown time of 24 hours.
• New Translations via Crowdin.

January 20th, 2021

• Mobile app version 7.7.0 released.
• Stockfish 12 now available on the app for standard chess and all variants.
• Fixed the OTB clock display in the app.
• Added The California piece set to the app, updated the Maestro and Cardinal set.
• Updated app translations.
• NNUE toggle added to the app analysis board.
• Fixed multi-board view for broadcasts.
• More Checkmate puzzles themes; "Arabian Mate," "Boden's Mate," etc.
• New Translations via Crowdin.

January 15th, 2021

• New Puzzle Dashboard added at https://lichess.org/training/dashboard/30/dashboard with "Improvement areas," "Strengths," and a full puzzle history.
• Added 3 new puzzle themes; "Master," "Master vs. Master" and "Super GM."
• Added a "play with the machine" button after a puzzle attempt is made. This allows you to play out the position against Stockfish.
• New puzzles added, now over 1 million puzzles in the database.
• Fixed a bug where puzzle history was stored locally after logging out.
• Fixed some bugs with Puzzles on the app.
• Team Leaders can now set a password to allow joining a team.
• Added a section for featured bots on https://lichess.org/player/bots.
• Improvements to which games are chosen for "top game" on https://lichess.org/tv.
• Added Chess960 variant tournaments and tweaked variant tournament scheduling to make more hourly variant tournaments.
• Self-mentions (with "@") are no longer possible in chat.
• Fixed a bug where BOT accounts were incorrectly shown offline.
• New Translations via Crowdin.
• Fixed session fixation with magic login links and added an OAuth scope to create login links.
• Added text shadow when using a transparent background to make the text more readable.
• The privacy policy has been updated and a link is now included on the signup page and the email confirming a new account.
• Fixed a bug that caused some lag when passing 120,000 concurrent users.
• Released fishnet 2.2.1 The minimum required version necessary for fishnet clients is now 2.1.3, so all standard games are now analysed using NNUE.
• Fixed a bug that had broken embedded interactive lesson chapters in studies.
• "Can I change my username?" added to FAQ.
• Added a logout URL for users with very old browsers that cannot access the menus on the homepage.
• Fixed a bug with anonymous correspondence seeks.
• New URL for the changelog: https://lichess.org/changelog. The changelog is also now linked on the website in other documentation like Lichess.org/about.
• Improvements to the non-visual user interface for blind users.
• The maximum amount of study topics is bumped up to 64 from 32
• The maximum number of cores for local analysis has been raised to 32 from 16.
• Added language that clarifies that playing (for example) Stockfish level 8 is still using Stockfish version 12.

December 30th, 2020

• Added a list of upcoming or ongoing tournaments that each user has registered for. It can be reached by going to your profile and clicking on "tournament points," then "upcoming."
• The swiss tournaments featured on https://lichess.org/swiss will now be more recent tournaments and exclude tournaments with manually scheduled rounds.
• Numerous tweaks and fixes to the puzzle system. (The site has been updated 6 times since the last changelog entry, mostly with small changes to the new puzzle system)
• It is now against Lichess rules to offer a pdf file or software as the prize in a tournament. Please report this with lichess.org/report if you see it happening.
• Fishnet 2.2.0 is Live!
• The small orange circle that appeared in the lower right corner of each chessboard has been removed. (It's still possible to resize the board this way)
• Fixed a bug where the chat presets weren't appearing for anonymous games.
• Fixed a bug where it was sometimes possible to chat in anonymous games that come from the lobby.
• Fixed a bug where the Racing Kings preview image was flipped for players when they played black.
• Piece animation durations have been simplified and normalized.
• New volunteer translations via Crowdin.

December 22nd, 2020

• The long awaited new Lichess puzzle system is live.
• Both the new Lichess puzzle set and the previous one are now available for download.
• New volunteer translations via Crowdin.
• Mods can now set kid mode for users.
• A slight gradient was added to capture indicators.
• Added three new Variant World Champion 2020 Trophies.

December 16th, 2020

• Upgraded all local analysis to Stockfish 12; the analysis board, studies, and broadcasts.
• "Request Analysis" limits raised back to old levels. You now receive 30 per day/120 per week.
• Fixed a bug where some users were able to use chat in an anonymous game started from the lobby. Chat is only supposed to be possible in anonymous games from direct challenges.
• Various changes to the new puzzle system beta.
• A new permission that allows some users to make Oauth challenges for any other user without an Oauth token.
• Removed the captcha on team join requests.
• New translations via Crowdin.

December 11th, 2020

• The open beta for the new puzzle system is now available on our testing site.
• A welcome email will only be sent to new accounts if there is no confirmation email sent.
• New Translations via Crowdin.
• Fixed a bug where some thematic tournaments were using the wrong FEN start position.
• Fixed a bug where Lichess was not able to send system DMs to users without an associated Email address.
• Minor edits to the Fishnet acceptance message.

November 30th, 2020

• A big update to Fishnet, the software that handles automated game analysis on Lichess. It will now use Stockfish 12 NNUE and provide better analysis faster.
• "Close" button in team settings changed to "Close Team" for clarity. It was also made bigger, redder, and scarier to avoid accidental team closings.
• Password Complexity meter added to the password reset form.
• Limit on players in Swiss tournaments raised to 4000. (Previously 2000)
• Now possible to abort a simul from the edit simul page.
• New Crowdin translations.

November 25th, 2020

• Fixed a bug on the swiss tournament form where the 90 second interval was labeled as "one minute"
• Added a text warning on the change password form for when the 2 entered passwords don't match.
• Improvements to the Oauth API system.
• Fixed a bug where user's requested analysis was counted twice.
• Updated the opening names database.

November 16th, 2020

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused a "bad request" error for Stripe payments.
• New Crowdin translations.
• The search fields previously removed from the games search page have now been returned.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused banned users to not be removed from tournaments standings.
• Mods can now edit simuls.
• The new account creation screen now has a password complexity meter.

November 9th, 2020

• Stricter limits on the amount of Fishnet game analysis that users can request. 25 per day/100 per week now allowed per account. (These limits subject to change)
• Requesting analysis on the games of others now counts twice as much as your own games against the limit.
• An account is now required to request analysis.
• Homepage preset seek pairings tweaked to be more efficient.
• Changing the associated Twitch or YouTube channel for a streamer page now requires mod approval.
• The new Chess.com API for live games can now be used as a source for broadcast pages.
• Fixed a small bug with DGT board text-to-speech.
• Tournament creation limits doubled for tournament managers.
• Some fields on https://lichess.org/games/search removed.
• BOT accounts no longer allowed to post links.
• Fixed a bug with team leaders timing out users in their team chat.
• The banned IP address is now shown on the page that says a user is IP blacklisted.
• Small fix to the Tournament form.
• New Crowdin translations.

October 20, 2020

• It is now possible to start a swiss tournament, arena tournament or simul from any legal chess position by entering a FEN.
• Added a setting to event pages. (The big buttons on the homepage that usually link to streams or events) It's now possible to give a countdown for an upcoming event or simply redirect to the intended URL immediately. (Event pages can only be created by admins)
• New selectable icons added to homepage event buttons. A microphone, A trophy, The Lichess Logo and the Offerspill logo.
• Added links to Lichess.org/dgt. The Lichess/dgt board integration feature.
• Added support for playing multiple concurrent games with a dgt board
• Added a new API endpoint for downloading the results of a swiss tournament.
• Fixed a bug with the patron lifetime amount display.
• Minor visual improvements to the Swiss tournament FAQ
• Improved the "help" link to captchas on new forum posts, new account registrations and other pages.
• New translations via Crowdin

October 16, 2020

• Tweaks to markdown text on event and broadcast pages.
• Lichess.org/support now redirects to lichess.org/contact.
• Fixed a bug where zen mode would move the board slightly.
• Tweaks to the ban appeal interface.
• Banned users with shield trophies will now have them removed automatically for 30 days.
• While choosing players, the simul user interface now shows the number of players currently selected to play.
• Users are now allowed to re-try the "request computer analysis" button on a study or broadcast every 5 minutes.
• Banned users are now greyed out on swiss tournament podiums.
• New translations added via crowdin.
• Removed unused css.
• Added "Dark board" theme.

Distant past

We started to maintain this less technical changelog only 10 years after Lichess saw the light of day, so there is plenty more history in the commit logs of all the source repositories.