Can I delete data?

My students will have an important tournament next month and I don’t want the opponents finding their repertoires here. Can we delete our past games or will we have to delete the account and make a new one?

Plus, is it possible to change the name of the account?

Thank you.

You can't delete past games. The games will remain even if the accounts are closed.

You can't change the names of accounts except for a one-time changing of the capitalization: https://lichess.org/faq#change-username.

FWIW, "Untitled players can create a second account for . . . having a private account to hide opening preparation, playing “blindfold” games, or playing games with any other self-imposed impairment." https://lichess.org/terms-of-service

Some of the students have their names in the account, it’s too easy to track and study the games. Once it’s impossible to change names, I think we’ll create a second account and delete the first, even if the games are saved, because at least the one tracking won’t be able to use the book tool that shows our moves.

Thank you very much for the support, and I leave the suggestion to develop a system to close profiles, it would be easier.

As far as I understand open-source projects, keeping chess games secret is inherently against Lichess philosophy of sharing information.

Closing the accounts makes it at least much more difficult to find the games.

@sheckley666 said in #5:

Closing the accounts makes it at least much more difficult to find the games.
No you can just use advanced search.
Deleting an account is the best way. that is if the person who wants your data doesn't know your username.
TL;DR Closing an account and deleting an account are 2 different things.
(deleting doesn't work on banned accounts btw)

Still it is more difficult, because the opponent needs to find out the closed account's name.

Guys stop giving up your accounts due to OTB leak anxiety. Rely on the firmness of your own opening repertoire.

Also since I assume that the students have lower rating than OP's, opening preparation is meaningless at this level anyway

@Cedur216 said in #8:

Guys stop giving up your accounts due to OTB leak anxiety. Rely on the firmness of your own opening repertoire.

Also since I assume that the students have lower rating than OP's, opening preparation is meaningless at this level anyway

This advice is useful for the long term, I agree with you.

But it’s not useful for the next month, in the next month we’ll have to deal with people spotting all of our weaknessess. There’s nowhere to run, if you give to the opponent information, he’s gonna use it.

And yes, openings are very meaningful at lower levels, specially among girls, because they feel a lot when they realize they fell into a preparation, when they know the right plan, etc... chess for them are 50% psychology and confidence, 50% knowledge.

Your opening repertoire has no weaknesses to worry about. Other than your general weaknesses at chess, whether these may be more on the tactical or the strategical side.

The concept of "preparation" is hardly effective at my level. I did that in Twitch viewer battles, either I got upset when I was surprised by an early different move (and I did that to opponents too) or I got my favorite opening for a few moves but still had some position from which I had to orientate on my own, and the games are always decided by completely different things