Chess.com or Lichess?

Chess.com or Lichess? Which is better?

I have been using chess.com for over 10 years, many thousands of games (I have a paid account) but I am thinking of quitting it.

I play the 5/5 Blitz on here and the kind of games I get these days just arent fun.

So many Blitz players (seems like 50-60%), and this is even in the 1450-1550 range, seem to play in the most robotic way. It never used to be like this on here.

Players seem to know all the openings, they never fall for traps, they know how to deal with gambits,  they never try gambits themselves, they rarely make sacrifices and they hardly ever seem to blunder or even make a small error in their openings. And when there is such time pressure, it is normal to make errors. But it does not happen much!  I dont know what is going on.

I went over to Lichess and players there were so much more natural and seemed like humans. They would beat me one game, then mess up the next.  If they made an error they would resign- But on chess.com, players make errors and they play on for 30 moves, and suddenly seem to be as good as Magnus Carlsen and they get their pieces back.

I am happy to lose to a human being who knows their openings, understands strategy, and plays sacrifices and clever tactics- I can learn from that. But it is pointless playing against someone who seems to have memorized all the book openings, and has 90% accuracy... and they are still only rated 1450?? I dont get it.

Daily Chess has issues too. The grand-master book openings database can be used LEGALLY on here. In fact, they are even easily available when you play the game. Just seems kind of pointless to play chess that way.

So yeah, probably Lichess is the better option for me. For some reason, my rating there is 1930 and on Chess.com I am now rated under 1500. I would say that was embarrassing, but a lot of the time I am being beaten by guys with a 90-98% accuracy, having spent about 3 seconds on each move,  so I just laugh after some games.

I play on both sites and I don't see your complaint at all. 1500 blitz here and 1800 on Lichess and it's all the same type of games. So I think you just have over analyzed something here. The pool is to big to have any special differens from site to site.

Ratings on other sites are different; different pools and different starting ratings.

"Players seem to know all the openings, they never fall for traps, they know how to deal with gambits"

Boy, you are talking about 1500 range, I'm 2300 rated and I constantly fall in opening traps, this is actually to my bad memory, but I fall for them very often (I'm somehow exceptional in this rating range to fall in opening traps easily, but I expect people of 1500 be much worse than me).

Very often already in the 3rd or 4th move of opening I play something nonsense to take the people out of their prep (except some openings that I know well, for all others I apply this trick),

Sometimes I know the correct continuation and intentionally do that sometimes I don't know, I think you are counting too much on opening knowledge of your opponents.

Your post to me looks like you are just looking to play weaker opponents than yourself and you found that on lichess, thats why you like it better. Being 1600 rated player on cc is definitely not the same as being 1600 rated player on lichess. Quality of players and games are faar better and thats why I prefer cc more. Also I prefer look and design of cc over lichess, but thats a personal preference. Cc is easier and simpler to use. I rarely use lichess now especially after cc added some stuff on the app that werent here before but were on lichess and I used them there. I only go there time from time to check out some studies and thats it. And on top of all that Im a non paying member. Its 100x better if you have a membership.

It is legal there as well in correspondence chess, I've checked.

As for rating, it is normal to be roughly 200-300 points higher there, the ratings are not the same really.  

You’re going to Lichess because it’s easier there?

I saw that you have complaint for like a year in different posts. But you still lose and win 50% of the times. So you have the correct rating and that's how ELO works. When you have the right ELO you will lose and win 50% of the times.

100% right.

Internet chess ratings can't be taken seriously. If you want a real rating based on skill then play chess in real tournaments over the board.

i prefer chess.com, i don't like Lichess

I don't really care too much about ELO, although it is a bit irritating that I'm over 1800 on rapid, 1900 on lichess and 2100 on lichess rapid (I know that last rating is too high!). What I'm talking about is the actual games aren't fun. I've had fun games where I've lost but I know I was beaten by a human. It's not fun playing against a robotic kind of player who seems to have memorised everything, and doesn't try any creative moves.

The better you get means your opponents will know more and play like a robot.

It is inevitable 😡

Adapt. Survive. Conquer.

I could be an action hero 🤔

some people like cheating in chess using engines which doesn't mean they are faking being humans but they are using engines to cheat and know best moves positional and material

You do have a point because I’m that guy.

Even though I am a 1200 blitz player, I do a lot of tactics training (2400 rated) and train against the 2000 engine quite a bit which is why I can beat the 1800+ player the odd time. Sometimes I just want to bust out moves and it’s mechanical. I have actually been accused of cheating numerous times as a result.

I do agree with others that Lichess is easier. I’m 1600 over there and barely 1300 over here.

I know some of you say, oh you are just a sore loser and want to play easier players. But I dont see it that way. On Lichess, I am rated around 1900-1950. That is the level where I seem to lose as much as I win.

On Chess.com, I am rated around 1480-1520 and that is the level where I seem to lose as much as I win. The difference is, the games are much more fun on Lichess. I gave the reasons above.

On Lichess (and it used to be this way here as well, for many many years) I feel like I am playing a real person and I can see what his plan is. It is then a question of whether I can stop his plan or not.

On chess.com, well I have to say that (50-60% of the time, not everyone) it feels like I am playing a robot who can just apply incredible accuracy and tactics to any sideline, no matter how unusual.