lichess.org

lichess.org is a free/libre, open-source chess server powered by volunteers and donations.

In 2010, Thibault Duplessis began work on Lichess as a hobby project. The site was simple at the beginning, not even checking to see if moves were legal. He made the site open source, which means anyone is free to read the source code and make contributions. Gradually, the site improved and collected users as an enthusiastic volunteer staff assembled to help Thibault build and maintain the site.

Today, Lichess users play more than a million games every day. Lichess is one of the most popular chess websites in the world while remaining 100% free. Most “free” websites subsist by selling ads or selling user data. Others do it by putting all the good stuff behind paywalls. Lichess does none of these things and never will. With no investors demanding profits, Lichess staff can focus on improving the site as their only goal.