Lichess

Review by eFreeware

Plenty of chess apps want your money before they let you finish a game. Paid versions cap how many puzzles you can solve or push a subscription for the analysis tools that make improvement possible.

Lichess takes the opposite approach. It is published by lichess.org, the organization behind the well-known chess platform, and it is free and open source, built by volunteers and supported by donations rather than by the people using it. The app has no ads and no in-app purchases.

The app has been installed more than a million times and holds a 3.7 average from roughly 14,800 ratings. That is a respectable score rather than a spectacular one, which fits a project that keeps adding features over time. It arrived on the Play Store in May 2024, so it is a newer mobile client for a platform that has existed for years.

A complete chess platform in one download

The range here is the point. You can play real-time games or correspondence chess that unfolds over days, enter arena tournaments against other players, or take on online bots when you want a game without waiting for a human opponent. The developer says the platform hosts more than five million games a day, which gives a sense of how quickly a match is likely to find you.

Around the playing side sits a full set of practice tools. Puzzles are organized by theme and can be solved either online or offline, which is the kind of detail that matters on a flight or a subway ride with no signal. Puzzle Storm turns the same idea into a race against the clock, and there is a coordinate trainer for players who still have to think about which square is which.

The app also handles the parts of chess that happen away from a screen. There is a board editor, a chess clock for face-to-face games, and a mode for playing over the board with a friend. Add live broadcasts from major tournaments, Lichess TV and streamers, and the app covers watching and studying as well as playing.

Customization is generous for a free app. Board themes and piece sets come in many varieties, backgrounds can be changed, and Android 12 and later can pull in your system colors. The interface is translated into 55 languages, which is a wider spread than most chess apps bother with.

How a game actually unfolds

A typical session starts with a tap on the play button and a choice between a live game and a correspondence one. Live games run in real time with a clock, so the pace is set by the time control you pick. Correspondence games move at the opposite tempo, with days rather than minutes between moves, and they suit anyone who wants several games running in the background of a working week.

If you would rather not wait for another person, online bots fill the gap immediately. They are always available, which makes them useful for trying out an opening or warming up before a rated game. Arena tournaments work differently again: players are grouped into a running event with a shared clock, so you play a series of short games against a rotating set of opponents rather than one long match.

Once a game ends, the analysis tools come into play. Stockfish can review your moves either locally on the device or on the server. Either way, the point is the same: seeing where the game turned and what you could have played instead.

Puzzles, study and the reasons to return

Puzzles are the feature most players will open daily. The themed sets mean you can work on a specific weakness rather than solving whatever comes up, and the offline mode makes the habit possible in places where a connection is unreliable. Puzzle Storm adds a scoring pressure that turns a quiet drill into something closer to a race, and it is the mode most likely to eat a spare ten minutes.

The study feature is the more ambitious tool. It is collaborative and interactive, which points to a shared workspace where players can build and work through material together rather than a set of static lessons. For anyone in a club or preparing with a partner, that is a meaningful difference from solo puzzle grinding.

Watching is the third draw. Live broadcasts from major tournaments mean you can follow a big event as it happens, and Lichess TV offers a continuous stream of games when you simply want chess on screen.

The developer describes the app as open source and volunteer-powered, which shapes expectations in a useful way. Updates arrive regularly, with the developer pointing to a public release page for version details.

What it costs, and what it asks of you

The price is the simplest part of this review: nothing. The app is free to download and has no ads or in-app purchases. There is no premium tier to compare against. The project is funded by donations and run by volunteers, which is worth understanding if you end up using it heavily.

The trade-off is not financial but structural. A volunteer project does not always move at the pace of a commercial one, and the 3.7 rating suggests users have found things to complain about even while the core offering stays broad. What you get in return is a chess environment with nothing sold inside it, which is rare enough to be worth noting on its own.

The app is rated for Everyone and sits in the Board category, so there is nothing here that needs gatekeeping for younger players. It is a chess app in the traditional sense. Whether that reads as purity or as a lack of polish depends on what you want from a chess app.

A strong fit for players who want chess without a sales pitch

I would point this app at anyone who plays chess regularly and resents being nickel-and-dimed for it. The combination of live and correspondence games, themed puzzles, tournaments, bots and engine analysis covers the full arc of a player's week, and the offline puzzle mode is a genuinely useful addition for anyone whose practice happens away from reliable Wi-Fi.

Club players and study groups should look closely at the collaborative study feature and the over-the-board tools, which reach past the screen in a way most chess apps do not attempt. Beginners get the coordinate trainer and a patient supply of puzzles, though the sheer number of options means some time spent finding your footing.

The case against it is mostly about expectations. It is a volunteer-built, open-source project with a mid-range rating, not a glossy commercial product, and the experience reflects that. If you want a polished single-purpose chess app with a marketing team behind it, this will feel like a different animal. If you want the whole platform, free of ads and purchases, it is hard to argue with what is on offer.

What's new in version 0.29.1

We continuously update the application with new features, improvements and bug fixes. Release versions and more informations are available at: https://github.com/lichess-org/mobile/releases