What is Lichess used for?

Lichess is the open-source server behind Lichess, a free online chess platform with realtime play, tournaments, analysis and a tactics trainer. It is a good fit for playing and analyzing chess online, and building tools on the Lichess API.

Is Lichess open source?

Yes. Lichess is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at lichess-org/lila and is written mainly in Scala.

Yes. Lichess is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host Lichess?

Yes. Lichess can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Lichess an alternative to?

Lichess is an open-source alternative to Chess.com.

Is Lichess actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Lichess was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.1.0, published on 31 August 2017. The project has 19k stars on GitHub.

Lichess: open-source alternative to Chess.com

About Lichess

Lila is the code that powers lichess.org, a free online chess server focused on realtime gameplay and ease of use. The platform is run as a non-profit and describes itself as free and ad-free. The name comes from li[chess in sca]la, a nod to the Scala language it is written in.

Features include a game search engine, computer analysis distributed through fishnet, tournaments, simultaneous exhibitions, forums, teams, a tactic trainer, a mobile app and a shared analysis board. The interface is translated into more than 140 languages by the community, and all rated games are published in a free PGN database. A public HTTP API is available for applications and websites.

Under the hood it is a Scala 3 application on a modified Play framework, with asynchronous processing through Futures and Pekko streams. A separate server handles WebSocket connections over Redis, MongoDB stores the games and Elasticsearch indexes them, and Stockfish runs on donated servers. The web client uses TypeScript. Lila is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and the wiki explains how to set up a development environment.

Key features

Realtime online chess play
Tournaments and simultaneous exhibitions
Computer analysis via distributed Stockfish
Tactic trainer and shared analysis board
Free PGN database of rated games
Public HTTP API for developers

Good fit for

→Playing and analyzing chess online
→Building tools on the Lichess API

Built with: Scala; TypeScript
Tags: chess; lichess; scala; game-server; online-games; stockfish; tournaments; open-source

Lichess: questions and answers

What is Lichess used for?: Lichess is the open-source server behind Lichess, a free online chess platform with realtime play, tournaments, analysis and a tactics trainer. It is a good fit for playing and analyzing chess online, and building tools on the Lichess API.
Is Lichess open source?: Yes. Lichess is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at lichess-org/lila and is written mainly in Scala.
Is Lichess free?: Yes. Lichess is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Lichess?: Yes. Lichess can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Lichess an alternative to?: Lichess is an open-source alternative to Chess.com.
Is Lichess actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Lichess was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.1.0, published on 31 August 2017. The project has 19k stars on GitHub.