A Lichess Team transformed my online chess experience. Are you missing out?

31 May 20244,383 viewsEnglish (US)

Many people are members of teams on Lichess, but equally, there are those for whom this is not a part of their Lichess experience. In this blog I give some perspectives on what it means to be a member of a Lichess team.

What is Community?

"A community is a social unit with a shared socially significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area or in virtual space through communication platforms." Wikipedia

The Lichess community is an amazing one in my opinion. Although, on the face of it, it is "just" a free, open-source chess server without annoying ads and pop-ups, it is also a place where you can meet, interact with, and play chess with people from all over the world. You can play anyone from random strangers in the lobby to your friends and even famous GMs, and other titled players, all from the comfort and convenience of your own home.

It has been said that:

"The only thing Chess players have in common is Chess." - Lodewijk Prins

but I might disagree. I have found many friends with common interests here on Lichess and in my teams, although, of course, the main thing we all have in common is we play chess, to some degree anyway.

What are Lichess Teams?

Lichess Teams are like online chess clubs within Lichess where users can associate, socialise, and play chess and variants together. They can play either against each other, in a Team Tournament (Swiss or Arena) or they can play together against other teams in a Team Battle. Alternatively, teams can arrange their own in-team Round Robin, Swiss, or Knockout tournaments with manual pairing and games/matches being arranged to suit the individuals.

Team Tournaments can be a fun way to play and get to know other members of your team and socialise in the chat. There is often a wide variety of abilities and the chance to play higher, lower, and similarly rated players.

Team Battles are where you can represent your team and fight together against players from one or more other teams, with points scored from wins and draws accumulating so the team with the most points wins. A Team Battle consisting of "10 teams and 7 leaders" for example, means that the scores of the 7 highest-scoring players count towards the total.

Team Battles like the Lichess Bundesliga, Lichess Mega Team Battle, Lichess Rapid League and my own can be great opportunities for building team spirit and rapport between your players. The sense of achievement and togetherness and fighting for a common cause can be very unifying. Team leaders can enhance this sense of loyalty with praise and recognition of the team effort where it is due.

There are many different types of teams available to suit the interests of different users. From general chess teams to specific teams that specialise in bullet/hyperbullet/ultrabullet team battles, or blitz and rapid teams. There are teams, that mainly cater for classical chess players such as Lichess4545 League and Lichess Swiss which runs Classical Swiss tournaments. Also, smaller teams like LFT, Todo Mundo and 90m+30s provide a steady supply of well-organised classical tournaments.

For correspondence chess afficionados, the largest correspondence team on Lichess is Correspondence League, offering both League and Cup competitions, although of course there are other teams as well.

There are teams with rating limits in place to encourage newer players, such as Harvey's Chess Pub and teams that exist for Rapid Tournaments and team battles like ILS-Rapid Team just as examples, although there are many more good teams than it is possible to mention.

There are online National Teams as well, affiliated with various countries such as Chess Nigeria Online CNO, the England Women, and the corresponding Open Team English Chess Players.

Then there are the variant teams. There are official Lichess Teams for variants, and The House Discord Server, a Lichess team for all chess and variant players. And of course, it has its own Discord Server!

I would be remiss not to mention my beloved THINK ZH team, from where I organise a series of weekly Crazyhouse Team Battles and 12-hour Crazyhouse Marathons. My goal is to stimulate more interest and growth in crazyhouse participation in Lichess. I started the THINK ZH team out of a handful of crazyhouse enthusiasts in Team Think, because there wasn't one, and when I went to look for crazyhouse team battles to enter, there weren't any, so I made some. @FischyVishy from Lichess Crazyhouse and @TheFinnisher from the House Discord Server have both been very helpful with publicity and reminders for the crazyhouse events I am making, so, thanks, guys!

What do Team Leaders actually do?

A lot of mundane admin work actually! Many people ask to be a team leader because they think there is somehow glory or prestige attached, but no work! Or perhaps people offer Team Leader positions to people if they will join their team, as an incentive. These are both mistakes. Giving people you don't know and trust leader permissions in your team can lead to disaster, as some of my friends have discovered. I know one person whose team of 500 that they had built up over a couple of years was closed down by a rogue leader without their knowledge or permission. Lichess has now updated Team Leader Permissions to be fully customisable, so various leaders can have different permissions as required by their role. This update greatly reduces that risk.

I was asked to help lead Team THINK about a year and a half ago when Rankrotten had to take a break for a while. I didn't want to at the time, I didn't have time for it, but Jeremy promoted me and said to tell him if I wanted to step down...I still haven't formally accepted the post to this day (or got around to stepping down, although sometimes I am tempted!)

The main things I spend my time on as a team leader are organising tournaments (both within team and team battles), updating game and match results (often on third-party software like Challonge, Swiss System, or Score 7), composing and sending (usually) timely and (mostly) accurate team messages to hundreds of members several times a week before important team battles or when the registration to championships is open. Also liaising between players when there are disputes about no-shows, forfeits, scheduling difficulties, and so on, creating team forum topics and replying to comments and queries on them, and messaging members to remind them about match deadlines etc. There is also an element of a pastoral role in cases where members may have been banned or muted, are going through an appeal process, or are having other difficulties in the team and need support or advice.

A lot of time is also spent talking to and liaising with other team leaders about team battles etc and there is mutual respect and cooperation because we understand how much work is required to run good tournaments.

My Experience of Teams

When I first joined Lichess in November 2021, at the insistence of one of my children who had found an interest in chess and wanted someone to play, I did not know about teams. Apart from him, I just played random lobby games, quick pairing, and Lichess hourly arenas. It was a lonely existence and although I was playing chess, there was no sense of community. The only interactions I had with other users were arena chat (yikes!) and the occasional "gg" from an opponent in a lobby game. I hadn't discovered forums and didn't know how to make friends on Lichess. Of course, there are those, who are there to play chess, not make friends and that's fine too.

Around two years ago, when I was on a break during my night shift at around 2.30 am, playing in one such arena, I paused and started to chat. Someone had asked about my Irish/English flag (a perennial topic of discussion!) and we got chatting. This user Rankrotten seemed friendly and sent me a message, saying that if I liked to chat, maybe I should check out his team as it was very sociable and played a blitz team battle on Thursdays and Sundays (Liga). At that point, I was about 1100 blitz and the prospect of facing all those 2000s in 3+0 seemed very intimidating, so I politely declined his blitz offer but checked the team out anyway. Something about it seemed appealing, a friendly community playing team battles together.

That was how I got started, and I quickly got involved in the team tournaments and eventually played in Liga. I sensed that here I had found a place where there were friends who were comfortable with each other and I could see there was a range of abilities that were all welcome. No one remarked on my low ratings. I later found out that originally THINK had been called LRCL, or Low Rated Chess League, but that as people had improved and new people joined, the name was no longer fit for purpose and the new name "THINK" was born.

How did THINK come about?

I asked my co-leader @Rankrotten how THINK came into existence. In his words:

In November 2019, a Lichess member named @titomafioso decided to create a team exclusively for players with an U1700 rapid rating. He named the team the "Low Rated Chess League" (LRCL).

After meeting and playing Tito a few times, he asked me to join his team. There were roughly about 5-10 members when I joined. He created lots of open arenas for U1700 players only.
A few more joined and he made me a leader. @francis920 (THINK RK leader) @vic2r (THINK RK leader) our own @jeremyisfishing and others soon joined too. I can't remember how they found the LRCL but, i for one, was happy they did! Maybe, they will refresh my memory! After a while we started playing a few in-team events, when Tito began moaning about this and that, but mainly about getting beat by the other members! The LRCL started to grow more after @vic2r found the Liga battles and suggested we join in! That got the team name better known!

I promoted @francis920 as he was full of ideas, like me, as how to help the team grow. Then a little later, @jeremyisfishing joined the leadership with good suggestions too. After a while, Tito took more of a backseat regarding the team. It was then decided that i would be the main leader, but, the three of us invested a lot of time creating better events and growing the team!

In the 2nd year of the LRCL, a lot of the members had progressed higher than the original U1700 limit of the team, and so we decided to accept higher rated players into the fold and soon began to climb up the Liga leagues and attract even better players! But some, who really wanted to join the team, were put off by the team name. @jeremyisfishing suggested we had outgrown the team name, and if we were to progress, the name had to go! The idea met with approval and some disapproval from the members, but we agreed with Jeremy to make the change regardless.

All kinds of new names were considered, but, we decided to go with THINK and the logo you all now know well! Everyone was asked to change over and most did before the LRCL was closed for good. THINK soon began to attract members of all ratings!

THINK TWICE was created for our members that still wanted to play in a U1700 team, but, the members preferred to compete in the main team. A lot of RK fans joined THINK and wanted more and more RK events, so, being a fan of the format himself, THINK RK set sail with @francis920 at the helm and @vicr2 following soon after! A THINK Chess 960 was also created, but, hardly anyone played enough of the format to keep the team alive!

Now, after almost five years later, LRCL / THINK has grown to be more than just another chess team. It has become a community based on friendship and fair play and is well known and respected on Lichess. Leaders may change from time to time, for one reason or another, but every leader, past or present, gives up or has given up a lot of their free time, at all hours, to keep THINK a safe and enjoyable environment for you to enjoy playing chess and have fun!

THINK continues to grow (almost 700 strong now) thanks to all of you, that support the team events, Battles and the other fun stuff we do!

I asked @Rankrotten what he thinks of the team now:

There are many teams on Lichess, but few are active and/or properly organised.

Some have many titled players that their leaders cater too, at the expense of their lower rated players. Most worry about how many members they can attract. The THINK Community worries little about such things, we only care about giving Lichess members a place to play chess in a friendly environment, where they can enjoy playing the game without worrying about ability, cheats, online abuse, race, religion or sex! Whether members are on a winning streak or on tilt, we share the ups and downs together as a team. A team needs to offer a variety of amusing topics and fun competitions, other than chess, to relieve the stress of real life issues!

THINK is, first and foremost, all about having fun, regardless of ratings and forgetting about real life problems when online.

Testimonials about teams

I also asked some of the members of THINK what they thought about the team, and I promise, I was not holding flames to their feet! Here are some of their experiences:

"When I joined Think, I quickly realized that I was in an environment of people of goodwill." - @cumulus200

There is a brilliant song called "Strange is this world". The artist sings in it that he "strongly believes that this world will not perish because there are more people of goodwill." When I joined Think, I quickly realized that I was in an environment of people of goodwill. And one more thing. I love it when sports are tough but never brutal. When there is a friendly spirit and the players fight each other mainly to overcome their own weaknesses. - @cumulus200

"...people are nice in THINK and that's kinda all I needed, friendliness... I'm accepted into a community and therefore feel more valued on Lichess as a whole." - @SimonBirch

When I first joined Lichess I was relatively inexperienced I would say now , looking back. I was in total state of nervousness of the website especially the speed chess on the front page , I asked a lot of noob questions in the forums and struggled quite a lot of the meanness of the online chess community but I did not back down from confrontations, challenges and kept true to myself and wore my heart on my sleeve. At that time I only knew one other user on Lichess and that was step , step cousin and he was far better than me , we used to play correspondence and he mainly won , but he turned out to be a good mentor in the end after all I was very stubborn at taking on new ideas and studying , thought I was a pretty good player lol.

I had a few invite to teams but I never understood what a team was for, I just didn't understand what the point of joining a team was . I had joined Lichess swiss to play classical swiss. I was fairly alone and struggling on through my online chess experience.
When QRM approached me I had only had negative experiences from joining a team , so I was very reluctant to join THINK .

Anyway since joining THINK and being saved from the wilderness of on line chess by QRM I have met many kind people in the online chess community. Not everyone was a prima donna. There were kind people. I think that's what I like, people on the whole accept me and are kind, honest and nice , can I say nice, it's not a great word but people are nice in THINK and that's kinda all I needed , friendliness, not arguments on the forums all the time. I'm accepted into a community and therefore feel more valued on Lichess as a whole. I still don't like speed chess , but you can't have it all.

Being part of THINK makes me less of an outsider and with a mental health diagnosis of schizophrenia anything that makes me feel less alone can only be a good thing for me , Thankyou to all those at THINK that take time to run the team and all the kind members that accept me - @SimonBirch

"Something that really stands out for me when playing with THINK ... is that I feel like everyone respects the fair play rules, because they all love and respect the game that unites us." - @Geelse_zot

Before I joined THINK I wasn't playing much on Lichess. I then got introduced by one of the members (Buny77) and joined the Blitz and Correspondence Championship. It was clear from the start that the leaderships puts a lot of effort in THINK to make it work. I like how I can play in arenas and tournaments whenever I feel like playing , without being pressured. There are always people playing for the team and the group just keeps growing.

I met a couple cool people through this community and with some I chat about more than just chess. There's a lot of banter and teasing on the forums, nothing is too serious.
Something that really stands out for me when playing with THINK in Liga or internal tournaments, is that I feel like everyone respects the fair play rules, because they all love and respect the game that unites us. - @Geelse_zot

"For me, the THINK community is a place where I can meet people from all around the world and chat with them about anything, or simply enjoy of the beautiful game of chess. Here I feel appreciated and that sense of belonging is what makes THINK special for me." - @Santiagodm

When I first joined lichess I limited myself to only play tournaments with a bunch of friends from my local chess club, and that was the main reason why I created my account.

With the time I explored more aspects of online chess, and I started to play more constantly, all of this with the main motivation of improving as I was still an active member of the afromentioned club, which had gone virtual due to the pandemic. However I hadn't discovered Lichess's full potential yet, and this led me to a rather monotone experience. After a while my interest in chess slowly decreased (it was 2021 so no one couldn't really play otb) and I decided to take a long break because I simply didn't like playing here.

A year later I rediscovered Lichess, and I became an active player in both otb and online chess. The main difference was that I decided to give the teams feature a try, and that turned out to be a game-changer for me. I got along with the leader of one of these teams (which sadly went inactive some months ago) and that was my first positive experience in a team. Eventually I found THINK after clicking on a link that he sent me. After chatting a little bit my first impression of THINK was great, so I joined the team and played some tournaments. I felt welcomed and integrated into the community within a day. Later I became a fairly active member of the team and I connected with some fellow members.

For me the THINK community is a place where I can meet people from all around the world and chat with them about anything, or simply enjoy of the beautiful game of chess. Here I feel appreciated and that sense of belonging is what makes THINK special for me. - @Santiagodm

"I especially like the friendliness, and banter that takes place. It provides a warm welcome, and encouragement to take part and make new friends." - @Anthonykingmaker

I learnt to play Chess in my late 20s early 30s along with a friend. We used a chess book to get started. We did it to pass the time and relax. Over time my friend lost interest, and no Chess clubs in my area.

I came across Lichess, and had a few online games from time to time. It was only recently I came across THINK, and decided to sign up. For myself, being part of a group of friendly people, who made me welcome at the start, helped engage my interest in Chess. QRM and Rankrotten, have both been helpful with my enquiries, and patient . This has helped to encourage me to study the game more. So that eventually I will be knowledgeable enough, and brave enough to take part in the various THINK tournaments..

I especially like the friendliness, and banter that takes place. It provides a warm welcome, and encouragement to take part and make new friends. - @Anthonykingmaker

"I love the social aspect although I don't join in that much it's nice to be part of a wider group. I spend a lot of time teaching and playing OTB chess and this is a great way to play some competitive online stuff." - @CardanoKing

I am an experienced over the board player and chess coach in the UK. I work with many strong junior players and in schools..

I like to play in the Liga events and used to play for another team. This team was poorly run so I decided to just pick another team.

I liked the name THINK and I have been impressed by QRM and Rankrotten who inspire and rally the troops for matches. I try and play in the Liga and Rapid team events when I can.

I love the social aspect although I don't join in that much it's nice to be part of a wider group. I spend a lot of time teaching and playing OTB chess and this is a great way to play some competitive online stuff.

Thank you for the work you do. - @CardanoKing

"It means much. It holds tournaments regularly, has a friendly member base, and has some of the best and most kind leaders I've ever seen! I'm glad I was invited to join this team." - @ALucasM

"All-in-all one of the healthiest online communities that I've seen. Great job everyone!" - @A_Dragon_Riding_King

This team is unique in its leadership. I've been on 1-leader teams that were super active for a few months, but died down as the owner lost interest. There are other 1-leader teams that are doing well. Harvey's Chess Pub comes to mind. But THINK has multiple leaders, some come, some go. All give of their time while here. The teams seems to run rather smoothly, barring traitors, wooden spoons, etc. I really enjoy being a part of this team and appreciate the encouragement that everyone gives and receives. And thankfully, it's not all chess, the brainbox challenges are a welcome relief, as are the other non-chess threads. All-in-all one of the healthiest online communities that I've seen. Great job everyone! - @A_Dragon_Riding_King

"I have a ton of fun at THINK and I think it's the best team on Lichess! The wonderful environment at THINK makes it a comfortable place where you don't have to worry about cheaters, sandbaggers, or unkind people" - @Master_Of_Foxes

Hello everyone! "I think the THINK community is amazing in many ways but one way it is amazing is because of how it works so well. The great leaders, @Rankrotten, @QueenRosieMary, @Marlonc, @Vic2r, @englishspaniel, and @jeremyisfishing make everything at THINK so amazing because of their work. The wonderful environment at THINK makes it a comfortable place where you don't have to worry about cheaters, sandbaggers, or unkind people. The tournaments at THINK are interesting, thanks to @Rankrotten's infamous time controls. I have a ton of fun at THINK and I think its the best team on Lichess! The things about almost all of the other teams on lichess are that they have some problems, like sometimes they are run by leaders who are unkind or can't manage the club well. Also most of the teams on lichess are super inactive, and the teams haven't got new members for months or years. I love everything about THINK and its such a great team!" - @Master_Of_Foxes

"THINK is the best team I've met during my time on Lichess." - @Roman_Grigorjev

THINK is the best team I've met during my time on Lichess. Before I joined the THINK community, I didn't see much sense in teams because most of them are inactive and boring. But THINK is a unique team in my opinion. Nice and friendly team leaders who are constantly organizing various tournaments and actively leading the forum. Since joining THINK, I have been spending much more time on Lichess. Before that, I had periods when I did not play chess for months. So thanks to the team leaders and THINK community for constantly fuel my interest in chess. - @Roman_Grogorjev

"THINK is a community-led by leaders who really care about their team, they are very organized and successful in making a wonderful environment for all of their members. :) " - @QuarterQuell

"Think is a team where the members and leaders take it seriously. You actually know what other people there are on the team. We’re not just an organization but a community." - @ebk1976

How can I tell if it's a good team to join?

A good team should be active, and taking part in tournaments regularly and recently, if that is what they claim to do. If the last tournament was two years ago, it's probably best to keep looking for another team to join.

The Team Forums are a good way of telling if a team is active and interesting and whether the team members enjoy interacting with each other. You generally need to be a member to read team forums, but you can always leave the team again if it is not to your taste.

Do the members socialise outside Lichess? A team Discord Server can be a good way to interact outside of Lichess and can be a way to enable group chats and so on.

A personal recommendation goes a long way. A trusted friend recommending a good team is hard to beat.

How can I tell if it's a team I should avoid?

There are a lot of teams on Lichess, but not all of them are as good as others. Red Flags alerting you to teams you should maybe avoid might include:

You were invited to the team by a random "Join my team" spam message from a stranger.
Another team leader tried to poach you after a good performance for your regular team.
The team has no recent tournaments or forums.
The member list and/or team leader list is full of ToS-marked players!

What do you think of Lichess Teams?

Are you a member of a team? Have you been put off by people constantly spamming you with requests like "Hi, can you join my team"? Have you had a positive experience with a Lichess team? What is your favourite aspect of teams? How do you think the functionality of teams on Lichess could be improved? Do you think you should be able to use team functionality on the Lichess App?

Summary

In summary, there are many different teams that you can join, and some people are suited to some teams better than others. Whichever team you find your online chess home in, I hope that it enriches your Lichess experience as much as it has mine.

Please leave a comment in the forum, and thanks for reading!

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