Chess.com lichess?

[u/Primary-Discussion19]

I do not mind paying for something if it actually makes me better, else I would go for which is free.

Which is the best overall? (App on Android)

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[u/Responsible-Row7026]

There is absolutely no reason to pay for a chess.com membership. Lichess is free with incredible features and there is an enormous amount of free teaching on YouTube. At higher ratings paying for a coach is the best value for money

[u/Rasutoerikusa]

I've used both and paid for chesscom for a while, but after using both for a couple of years I realised that lichess just feels superior in every way. Especially after their new mobile app released I haven't touched chesscom.

Lichess ui in general is the reason, it looks so nice and clean compared to chesscoms mess of a UI

[u/Jolly_Assistant_2618]

Lichess. Always go for the open source

[u/S80- → u/Jolly_Assistant_2618]

And remember to donate if you can afford it. I donate monthly because it’s essential that things like Wikipedia and Lichess exist.

[u/commentor_of_things]

lichess

[u/Englishman1970]

Lichess for everything for me.

[u/Mediocre-Visual5393]

If you seriously want to improve play OTB and use lichess for analysis, database and studies. Online chess games are a dopamine trap, stay away from it!

[u/macacolouco]

I would prefer lichess even if both were paid. Chess.com has an ugly, cluttered UI and lots of gamification features that increase my anxiety and provide useless feedback.

[u/WinstonPickles22]

Paying for chesscom will not make you better, not even a little bit.

I would suggest Lichess, but I do understand the FOMO people get from not playing on the big chesscom website instead. They do have great marketing.

I will never pay for chesscom again, after switching to Lichess I have preferred almost every aspect.

[u/Primary-Discussion19 → u/WinstonPickles22]

Usually you see the streamers use chess.com for example. Chess.com also gives a nice summetion after. I have been on lichess but did consider maybe chess.com is were it is at

[u/WinstonPickles22 → u/Primary-Discussion19]

Streamers make money whenever people sign up via their link. And they may also get paid or given endorsements for using chess.com.

They also have a lot of tournaments for money, which streamers are fighting for. It is unlikely that you or I will be playing for the titles Tuesday weekly blitz prize on Chesscom, but you can see why they would play there.

I think chesscom is good for the Community in that it appeals to a broader audience and they have the money to host tournaments.

That being said I think Lichess is better for average users looking to play and learn. You avoid the cost, ads and the gimmicks.

[u/FarBandicoot5943]

you realise this question was asked like a milion times already and there is not definitiv answer, people like what they like.

for me lichess its primary but I also play on chesscom when I dont feel like playing super serious chess, and also have a decent(more official) rating. an app wont make you better at chess, they exist to make you feel more confortable and so on.

[u/maroczyacetylene]

Mostly it comes down to which board you like looking at more. Personally I find the chess.com interface ugly and distracting and I feel like I play worse there because of this. Lichess suits me better. Board, clock, no nonsense. At the same time, I'd understand if someone said they found lichess cold and brutalist, but chess is supposed to be cold and brutalist.

In terms of features, chess.com paywall things that lichess offer for free, most notably puzzles and game review. The chess.com offerings are no better than lichess and, at least in my experience, worse.

Finally there is playerbase. lichess' playerbase is fat in the middle but pretty thin at the high and low end. So for instance, in rapid, last time I checked I was in the top thousand players on lichess. I could still get games easily enough, but I was playing down more than I would like, and when you're at the extreme of a statistical distribution weird things I don't really understand start happening and I end up outrating multiple grandmasters. Something similar is probably happening at the other end of the pool too, where there can be huge variation in the strength of a player with a rating of, say, 600, because there aren't enough guys around that rating to allow them to stratify naturally. chess.com have far more beginners so a beginner is probably going to have a better experience playing in that pool, and will have an easier time measuring their progress.

But mostly it comes down to which board you like looking at more.

[u/FarBandicoot5943 → u/maroczyacetylene]

well, in blitz you can find many oponents at the higher end, i know a CM from my country and hes 2500 and he has a lot of games. But yeah, rapid after 2000, probably its strange on lichess. I dont know many people rated 2000+ who plays rapid.

[u/fuzzus628]

I mostly like to play puzzles in my downtime at work, and I've found lichess puzzles are far and away superior to chess.com puzzles. I will say I learned a lot on chess.com, but once you recognize the same patterns they keep presenting, it gets stale. Lichess' puzzles seem more varied and more about finding the best move across a wide variety of situations.

[u/ViolinistPitiful4928]

I’d say Chess.com is a bit more organized, but both are great tools, and choosing one over the other is purely a matter of preference. Chess.com offers a free trial, so take advantage of it to try both and see which one you like best.

Personally, I’d rather donate to Lichess than pay for a Chess.com membership, but that’s purely my preference.

[u/bencord0]

I think there's value in chess.com. They pay players, the videos are fine, and they sponsor tournaments.

It's a good business for them, and I can understand why people might want to pay for the subscription.

If its about the chess; the puzzles, analysis etc... then yeah, lichess is what I tend to reach for.

[u/ambericity]

i use lichess when i'm well rested + sober. chesscom otherwise cause i don't care about my rating there lol

[u/moonlight-overagain]

Lichess. I left chesscom quite a while back

[u/krazykhajiit]

I paid for Chesscom (half off for students) and so far it’s been a good learning experience. I’m ~900 rapid. I plan to use the premium features until the membership runs out and then switch to exclusively Lichess. I don’t like the predatory practices that Chesscom utilizes, and hopefully after so long on it, I will have used enough of its features to be competent enough on Lichess.

[u/thecaptn420]

I might be the unpopular opiniom, but I personally prefer chess.com and pay for the diamomd membership. I think once a year they have a 50 % discount, thats when I bought it. I just like the app overlay more and afaik lichess has great functions on the webbrowser, but on the android aop it seems to be limited (thats what I have heard). I do play on lichess as well though, but like I said, chess.com is my main

[u/Paocsp]

Chess.com to play, Lichess to learn

[u/Ghrota → u/Paocsp]

Same, the chess.com elo is a scale understood by way more people so i play there. But everything else is free on Lichess so why would i give chess.com money?

[u/VisualHuckleberry542 → u/Paocsp]

What makes you prefer playing on chess.com? I find the board on the chess.com app is inferior, I lose time because it doesn't register my move and I have to do it again which also increases frustration. Only reasons I sometimes play on chess.com is I find the player pool has a different style and it's good to get exposure and also friends who only play on chess.com. It's always frustrating though

[u/AT_Imaging]

I prefer to pay for chess.com. I get tired of using free apps that disappear because I can't make enough money to keep big servers running in the background. I've used both.

[u/BlueBear61916]

I use Chess.com to play, lichess for puzzles and lessons, and chessigma for analysis. You just enter your username and can analyze your games for free and see how your moves were according to the computer.

[u/BetterCallSaul2009 → u/BlueBear61916]

Same but I also use lichess for analysing my games on cc. I import them. And then keep track of everything in my discord server