Chess, it's a classic right? So how about a nice game of Chess? I am in fact talking about Lichess, a free and open source browser-based online Chess game.
You might think it funny but until recently, I had somehow never heard of it. It's been around since 2010, starting off a simple hobby project and it has since grown into one of the most popular Chess websites around. Ten years later it's still kept the original promises of remaining free and open source and it just seems to have continually grown. If you believe Alexa rankings, it's in the top 2,000.
With close to 80K players online at the current time of writing, it's easy to see it's popular and it has every right to be. It works perfectly in any browser I tried (including mobile!), it has no adverts, it doesn't require an account, it's totally open source (even the Android build is open source), it has a ton of puzzles, it can teach you to play and so much more. Lichess is not just a browser-based Chess game, it's a huge assortment of different modes and a big community to back it up. Not only all that, you can also sit and watch games too — if that's your thing.
If, like me, you had no idea it was a thing and apparently you also live under a rock, I hope this was helpful for you.
You can play for free online, against friends and a lot more on Lichess.org.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Let the record show that Liam didn't know of the "how about a nice game of chess?" reference before I made him aware of it.Lies, deceit, deception, the only winning move is not to play.
Goodbye chess.com, hello Lichess!
inlinuxdude Feb 3, 2021
Even though as board games chess is kinda meh
What???? Have you ever played chess??? How in the world can you say it is meh? Honestly, I'd like to know, because I really can't conceive of anyone who's ever played more than a few games ever thinking that... I can think of some arguments against it (ie, too much memorization after a certain skill level), but many of them can be offset by different styles of play (i.e. online blitz)..
Even though as board games chess is kinda meh
What???? Have you ever played chess??? How in the world can you say it is meh? Honestly, I'd like to know, because I really can't conceive of anyone who's ever played more than a few games ever thinking that... I can think of some arguments against it (ie, too much memorization after a certain skill level), but many of them can be offset by different styles of play (i.e. online blitz)..
I played quite a lot (was in chess club when I was school age) and still play it a little bit. It is overcomplicated mess, or it gives very little "bang for buck" compared to amount of rules and amount of play, compare it to something like hex or havannah. Now modern (well commercial I guess ) board games often times are more over-complicated, they in a way can also be more interesting. But as abstracts go chess is only rated highly because of history and everyone being used to it (might I say like with windows? :D ). While in as a game there are loads much better (IMO) abstracts, the mentioned ones, and some more modern/recent, say blooms (from Nick Bentley, he does great work) is amazing, like go that is less broken than real go, or his "bug" and myriads of others. Don't get me wrong it is not bad, and there are also tons of worse games, but it is so so :), meh as I said.
I wonder how it compares with redhotpawn.com
While I have not played on the pawn, and only played one test game against bot on lichess, from such cursory look lichess, for me seems way better and serious. It is way faster and sleeker and cleaner, while the pawn one has "traditional" "corpo website look" with some mobile app promotions. And on such point I'm very much with licehs, for such thing as playing chess there is about <0 need for mobile app. :)
junibegood Feb 13, 2021
I played quite a lot (was in chess club when I was school age) and still play it a little bit. It is overcomplicated mess, or it gives very little "bang for buck" compared to amount of rules and amount of play, compare it to something like hex or havannah. Now modern (well commercial I guess ) board games often times are more over-complicated, they in a way can also be more interesting. But as abstracts go chess is only rated highly because of history and everyone being used to it (might I say like with windows? :D ).
That Windows / chess comparison made my day !
I have a background similar to yours with chess, and still play it a little (I used to do some puzzles and games versus AI on my phone with Lichess while having no idea it was FOSS !), and I can understand your feeling. I wouldn't be so hard on chess, it's still an excellent game compared to the massive amount of average or worse games that get released nowadays and that everyone will have forgotten about in 10 years. But yes, a game like Hex for example is deep enough to have expert players write books about it, while having rules that a 5-year old kid can learn. Pretty much how I would define what a good game is !
I didn't know some of the other games you mentioned, but will definitely check them out. Thanks !
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