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Lichess: A review of 2024!

Wow, just insane how 2024 turned out for Lichess and chess overall. Looking forward to an incredible 2025!!

Wow, just insane how 2024 turned out for Lichess and chess overall. Looking forward to an incredible 2025!!

in fact, when the option to chose white/black in custom search challenges was removed, lichess lost quite a few players to chess.com.
Then lichess lost likely many more when introducing "colour-debt", meaning: those who had often used previous feature of using white/black and thus had many more games where they had white (or black), the new colour debt algorythm forced them to repay their debt, resulting in some people leaving lichess.com in disgust when they received 20 times black in a row.
Later the colour debt "repayment" was softened, but many users were already gone for good.

What is completely overlooked is: many players with "colour-debt" simply respawned with a new user account, thus camoflaging the drain of lost player base. And lichess is even celebrating how many "new" users came right after that change, while indeed the new respawning of players meant that many stronger players started with an initial rating of 1500, and the whole rating pool received some inflation/deflation. This in turn lead again to another wave of lost users, or even more new respawned accounts.

Even though it is good that lichess addressed many bugs, at some point the activism made the experience generally worse, and the real winner is chess.com (simply by doing nothing)- not lichess.

in fact, when the option to chose white/black in custom search challenges was removed, lichess lost quite a few players to chess.com. Then lichess lost likely many more when introducing "colour-debt", meaning: those who had often used previous feature of using white/black and thus had many more games where they had white (or black), the new colour debt algorythm forced them to repay their debt, resulting in some people leaving lichess.com in disgust when they received 20 times black in a row. Later the colour debt "repayment" was softened, but many users were already gone for good. What is completely overlooked is: many players with "colour-debt" simply respawned with a new user account, thus camoflaging the drain of lost player base. And lichess is even celebrating how many "new" users came right after that change, while indeed the new respawning of players meant that many stronger players started with an initial rating of 1500, and the whole rating pool received some inflation/deflation. This in turn lead again to another wave of lost users, or even more new respawned accounts. Even though it is good that lichess addressed many bugs, at some point the activism made the experience generally worse, and the real winner is chess.com (simply by doing nothing)- not lichess.

I think eliminating the titled tournament would be a way to cut costs... You can watch the titled tournament twice a week on chess.com. Lichess could do something different or just save the money for the future.

I think eliminating the titled tournament would be a way to cut costs... You can watch the titled tournament twice a week on chess.com. Lichess could do something different or just save the money for the future.

@Munich said in #4:

in fact, when the option to chose white/black in custom search challenges was removed, lichess lost quite a few players to chess.com.

if you look at the numbers of games played on database.lichess.org, there is absolutely zero evidence that lichess lost any relevant amount of players due to that. games were down long before these changes happened, due to the queens-gambit and covid chessplaying-trend cooling down. and this downward trend is now stopping as well, at least for december and november games played in 2023 and 2024 have been comparable.

you have posted about the colour changes in the forums quite a few times, so it is obviously important to you. but the idea that it is as important to a lot of other people is mostly your little fantasy. in reality, it is a vanishing small minority of people who care about that.

@Munich said in #4: > in fact, when the option to chose white/black in custom search challenges was removed, lichess lost quite a few players to chess.com. if you look at the numbers of games played on database.lichess.org, there is absolutely zero evidence that lichess lost any relevant amount of players due to that. games were down long before these changes happened, due to the queens-gambit and covid chessplaying-trend cooling down. and this downward trend is now stopping as well, at least for december and november games played in 2023 and 2024 have been comparable. you have posted about the colour changes in the forums quite a few times, so it is obviously important to you. but the idea that it is as important to a lot of other people is mostly your little fantasy. in reality, it is a vanishing small minority of people who care about that.

CONGRATS LICHESS!!!
Thanks for the great site.
6 billion games are so much now :)
I am also happy to report I have done my best to report users in chats for all the stuff stated on ToS
May this 2025 year be a great one.

CONGRATS LICHESS!!! Thanks for the great site. 6 billion games are so much now :) I am also happy to report I have done my best to report users in chats for all the stuff stated on ToS May this 2025 year be a great one.

Thanks for all y'all do!

@chess-network brought me here originally. A great resource on the Internet for chess geeks!

Thanks for all y'all do! @chess-network brought me here originally. A great resource on the Internet for chess geeks!

the amount of players might be the same, just with new accounts.
If I had the data, I am sure that accounts with "color-debt" stopped playing games, but the number of games didnt drop, because new accounts were created (with no colour-debt) and it is these new accounts that play the games now.

An other interesting measure is: how many games an average account has played, and how this average number of games shrank for each account. Meaning: you double the number of accounts, but each account plays only half the amount of games = same amount of games. Just twice as many accounts. Old accounts inactive, new accounts very active.

Colour dept was not thought deeply enough for its consequences: if some account "repays" its colour-debt, then a new spawned account receives this "repayment". You cannot have one player force to play black if you dont artifically then give white to his opponent. this is illustrated by the following correlation: is your left leg longer, then your right leg must be longer? If one is playing white, the other must play black. Thus, respawning with a fresh account is "rewarded" because he receives a tiny portion of the "repayment" (resulting in getting a higher share of white in tendency, but this is offset the more new accounts are created - and lichess is even celebrating this, calling it a success if new accounts are created. They overlook old accounts become inactive in exchange).

the amount of players might be the same, just with new accounts. If I had the data, I am sure that accounts with "color-debt" stopped playing games, but the number of games didnt drop, because new accounts were created (with no colour-debt) and it is these new accounts that play the games now. An other interesting measure is: how many games an average account has played, and how this average number of games shrank for each account. Meaning: you double the number of accounts, but each account plays only half the amount of games = same amount of games. Just twice as many accounts. Old accounts inactive, new accounts very active. Colour dept was not thought deeply enough for its consequences: if some account "repays" its colour-debt, then a new spawned account receives this "repayment". You cannot have one player force to play black if you dont artifically then give white to his opponent. this is illustrated by the following correlation: is your left leg longer, then your right leg must be longer? If one is playing white, the other must play black. Thus, respawning with a fresh account is "rewarded" because he receives a tiny portion of the "repayment" (resulting in getting a higher share of white in tendency, but this is offset the more new accounts are created - and lichess is even celebrating this, calling it a success if new accounts are created. They overlook old accounts become inactive in exchange).

@Munich You are complaining about a system that has always existed, but you didn't see it because you only played with a specific color.

@Munich You are complaining about a system that has always existed, but you didn't see it because you only played with a specific color.