Free online Chess server. Play Chess now in a clean interface. No registration, no ads, no plugin required. Play Chess with the computer, friends or random opponents.
Play
Create a game Tournament Simultaneous exhibitions
Learn
Chess basics Puzzles Practice Coordinates Study Coaches
Watch
Lichess TV Current games Streamers Broadcasts (beta) Video library
Community
Players Teams Forum Questions & Answers
Tools
Analysis board Opening explorer Board editor Import game Advanced search
Sign in
Reconnecting

What does the 'li' in 'lichess' stand for?

Asked by LM AdmiralA
Tags lichess faq
Activity Viewed 51865 times, last updated
73
What does the 'li' in 'lichess' stand for?
KillerJAW commented :
its because its a french website so it just translates into 'chess'
PAA commented :
This is a joke. French to chess is "echecs" or "jeu d'echecs"
erikkonstas commented :
@KillerJAW You should have said "Finnish".
Vevochi commented :
Could it be the last name of the guy who created the website?
coolkidjuju commented :
I think 'li' might of been a kind of company or something like that.
ElijahReese commented :
@Vevochi the creator's name is Thibault Duplessis, not ---- Li. I have no idea what it stands for, but maybe in a language translates to "chess" or I know in French "li" is used sometimes, at least I think so.
ElijahReese commented :
Actually: Answered 3 years ago by thibault
lee-chess. The "li" stands for "libre", and uses the same pronunciation.
kamikaze1967 commented :
or maybe someone just thougt its a cool name , not everything has to have a meaning
13 Answers
137
Answered by LM AdmiralA
Live/Light/Libre. Lichess is pronounced 'lee-chess.'

Live because games are played and watched in real-time 24/7; light and libre for the fact that lichess is open-source and unencumbered by proprietary junk that plagues other websites.

Similarly, the source code for lichess, lila, stands for li[chess in sca]la, seeing as the bulk of lichess is written in Scala, an intuitive programming language.

Lila: https://github.com/ornicar/lila
Scala: http://www.scala-lang.org/
Insane_Knight commented :
You can choose your own words!

http://www.morewords.com/starts-with/li/
Unihedron commented :
It's specifically "Libre", according to http://ja.lichess.org/qa/46/how-do-you-pronounce-lichess.
LM AdmiralA commented :
It's specifically live/light/libre as mentioned by ornicar in IRC. I asked him before I put this question up.
Chafing_Dish commented :
Also, a lichess is a female 'lich', cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lich
XXPROCEDXX commented :
Li = Free Easy And live. Chess= well chess

Lichess = free aesy and live chess
8
Answered by Kan_Serrot
Thank you for creating lichess. Li, li li

7
Answered by FreezingTiger
I always thought the Li in Lichess stood for Lithium, because a lot of the simultaneous exhibitions are named after elements
MagnusSonofCarl commented :
Isn't it a bad feeling discovering how dumb you've been
InnateAluminum commented :
@FreezingTiger because there are lots of elements (118 to be exact), it's a pretty good idea to name exhibitions after them. Also, element names sound cool. Take praseodymium.
4
Answered by revjbudd
I wondered if it was pronounced 'licious' as in the tail end of delicious.
3
Answered by meltabi
Li stands for Libre, because Lichess is free both as being open-source and requiring no fee to play!
1
Answered by Jhyztin
Li stands for libre, libre is a Filipino word. Try to translate the word libre (detect language or Filipino) Well yeah i'm not sure about it but lichess is free and open source
0
Answered by LMLMLM
Sorry guys but how is possible that @Ultimate_SHSL_Gamer is a LI also if he doesn't have Classical points?
0
Answered by egosdonotrule
And there was I thinking that it might have something to do with Linux ...
0
Answered by polylogarithmique
I always thought, for some reason, that it stood for "Licorn".
-2
Answered by PiPen05
li in lichess is probably french.
-3
Answered by Michael134096
Lichess mean Lich play chess. Joke.
But there is some images demonstrated it. http://kasparovchess.crestbook.com/threads/2242/page-94#post-710513
-57
Answered by paulsliazas
maybe its the developer's name?
LM AdmiralA commented :
The developer's name happens to be Thibault. http://en.lichess.org/@/thibault
skydust11 commented :
He's a genius for creating this. Only thing to do to it in the future is tweaking to make it better. I don't play anywhere else after I found out about this site.
wubs23 commented :
Indeed. By far the best chess website out there. Just free, uncompromised chess.
sponi commented :
I like this site, too. Even on an IPad it is working and I like the layout, not so much colors. So one can be focussing on the important things...... sponi, Germany
PS: but where is the contact to the webmaster, when I have a problem to be discussed.
-73
Answered by qwertygotousakorea
It stands for luisiana chess
failcow_9 commented :
lol, point for originality
Es-tactic commented :
Did you mean Louisiana?
nckqefhm commented :
Lol, this is getting so many down votes!
SidharthSree commented :
this means always tell lie or means lionchessmonster.com
Xandawesome commented :
Rip, don't joke in answers I guess lol :P

Only registered members with one week of lichess activity can contribute to the Q&A.