Chess CAPTCHA is a bad idea.

The point of a CAPTCHA is to tell humans and computers apart. You shouldn't pick a task that computers are better than the general population at.

not that I'm a computer expert, but how easy is it to make a program use the interface? you are correct that any computer worth its salt can find mate in one, but the interface problem is the main defense.

Some pages, like the registration page, already requires both solving the chess captcha and google's captcha.

Thankfully the puzzles are so easy that even a beginner could figure it out. Plus, it's a very cool way to practice your Mate In 1 when talking on the Forums =]

Don't change the way the CAPTCHA is, please! :-)

BONUS - You can even review the games that the position comes from AKA Extra Studying about some really simple mates! I'd say it's one of the most fantastic CAPTCHA ideas I've ever come across. It emphasizes the entire point of this community - Unlimited access to chess knowledge run by a community of real people.

The chess captchas are part of the charm of lichess. Should be set aside unless we get a tsunami of bots coming in posting ads. Qe3# to post this :)

The point of a CAPTCHA is to keep existing bots out. Nobody's going to make a bot *specifically* designed for spamming lichess—and even if somebody does, it's easy to handle that on a case-by-case basis. It's impossible to handle the tons and tons and tons of "generalized" spambots manually; that's why CAPTCHAs exist.

Qxh7#. :)

Why not add another level of protection and provide a page where spammers can legitimaly direct their page without a chess captcha so the ones who are getting paid for redirecting, get a lichess page with nothing there? If you want to get clever, just redirect their pages so it looks like they've been received and understood.....

Why not? Because you'd lose a tempo implementing such a measure when the current system is perfectly robust.

Bd6#