en_7_Common Questions

For convenience, here is a list of common questions people like to ask often.

1. Does Lichess need registration for anything?
2. Are there other websites that operate similarly to this one?
3. What are some things planned in later development?
4. I dropped my game by accident. How can I re-enter?
5. My opponent is abusing our time-free game. What can I do?
6. Someone keeps joining and aborting all my games. What can I do?
7. I suspect that some players cheat. Is this acceptable behaviour?
8. How are cheaters identified?

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Does Lichess need registration for anything?

Because Lichess is minimalist, no assumption is made to profile every user, although everyone has the option of creating a user account. Anyone may also close their account, to which there is the ultimate effect as if all games had been played anonymously. Additional benefits to creating an account:

• Inbox messaging to personally contact players.
• Public conversation on Lichess TV.
• Hyperlink by the username to a profile of game history.
• Rated games for Elo points and other statistics.
• Many more, see the feature list.

Are there other websites that operate similarly to this one?

We do not know. We are aware that there are many ways to play chess online without having to register on a website. There are at least a couple other known chess sites where registration is not really required. This site was originally created as an open-source demonstration, (even this wiki here is open-source.) so, while it is not part of a network of related sites maintained for the same cause, anyone is welcome to step up and use the source code to recreate.

What are some things planned in later development?

Public conversation about suggestions, bug reports, and other feedback is recorded here at the feedback forum.

Recorded ideas to investigate later are in the TODO listing of the source code. These tend to be implemented at some point, so please don't ask about a new feature if it's not on the list.

I dropped my game by accident. How can I re-enter?

If somewhere in your browser's history, the private game link still exists, try using that link to return.

It is much easier if you have a user account, which stores every game ever played and the private link for you to access your old seat from that game.

My opponent is abusing our time-free game. What can I do?

Please refer to the Wiki informational section on Clock Controls for tips on strategy and usage of the various chess clock types, or play with a time limit. For example, if your Internet connection cannot hold out while you are asleep, your opponent could end up winning by declaring forfeiture even though you were the one to wait for response, and you should consider at least using a time setting of 30 min + 30 s/move.

Someone keeps joining and aborting all my games. What can I do?

All games can be aborted by anyone at anytime between the moment a game has been created by two sides, until the moment that both sides have played at least one move. They will temporarily show in the list of games on the players' profiles (unless anonymous) for a couple days.

If you are playing as Anonymous (not logged in under an account), whoever keeps joining all the games you host is either identifying you by the time control you're using or just harassing anonymous players willingly. Consider using a different time control, logging in, joining games others host, creating private games using the Play with a friend feature, or waiting before trying again.

If you are logged in, you have the option of creating a rated game. Rated games can only be joined by other logged in users and never Anonymous, and they also provide an option to constrain the minimum and maximum rating of players allowed to enter.

I suspect that some players cheat. Is this acceptable behaviour?

For any rated game, it is not accepted, but it's very easy for players to boost their own rating using multiple accounts or to use a computer chess program to play their games for them. Please refer to the Cheaters informational section of this Wiki for advice on recognizing cheaters and reporting them to staff for checking.

How are cheaters identified?

The Internet is virtual; nothing physical about the users can be proven because all data is electronically sent. While this virtual reality disallows evaluation, it does nothing short of encourage logical gates to collect information and use mathematics and law to pinpoint a cheater. Therefore, several implementations have been possible:

• Using the games themselves. The degree to which computer players differ in playing style and strength, to most human opponents that rely on them, is in most cases enough to reverse-engineer information from the game beyond what moves were made.
• Using the other games. A player's profile reflects not only the rating but other games where it is apparent that there was no cheating. Games where a player cheated and games where a player did not cheat have very different results when reviewing them using a chess engine.
• Using the player's history. On every player's profile are public graphs of rating and average history, game database exports upon request, and overall success balance.
• Time statistics. Anyone can see the public time consummation information for rated games, i.e., ratios of how many moves used so many seconds during practically forced moves and the time-per-move evolution.
• Information extractable by the webmaster or by the webmaster and the staff.

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If you have questions besides these, be sure to stay in touch with current methods of site communications and to check for updates in the forum.