This week we are joined by Chris Callahan, who is the Community Organizer of LiChess.org. Lichess is a community supported, free, open source, ad and tracker free chess site which plays host to over 5 million chess games per day. Back in 2017, I interviewed its founder, Thibault Duplessis, so it was past time to catch up on all that is new with this great site, especially in the past year during the past year, as chess has surged in popularity. We discussed everything from how they dealt with a huge traffic surge, to their cheating detection capabilities, to the viability of their business plan, to their future plans. Chris also delved a bit into his own chess background, and shared his unique perspective on scholastic chess teaching, and on chess improvement. It was fun to catch up with Chris, and to learn more about this website that so many of us enjoy playing on on a daily basis.
0:00- Chris shares a bit about his chess background, what is new with Lichess founder Thibault Duplessis, and how he became a LiChess employee,
Mentioned: IM Christof Sielecki, LiChess Studies , Episode 25- Thibault Duplessis
7:00- LiChess traffic doubled in 2 weeks when the pandemic hit. How did they handle it? As a donation-driven non-profit, how is LiChess holding up financially?
Mentioned: The Lichess Costs document we reference is here:
http://lichess.org/costs
16:30- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com! Like Although they have tons of amazing courses for sale
17:00- Chris answers a Patreon mailbag question relating to various Lichess capabilities and future plans including what their philosophy would be on sharing their open source coding.
25:30- Chris discusses a recent controversy involving Chessbase and the open source community. It is alleged that Chessbase was not transparent about using Stockfish’s Open Source Code for its Fat Fritz engine. More info in Peter Dogger’s summary here:
https://www.chess.com/news/view/chessbase-fat-fritz-2-stockfish-leela-chess-zero
31:00- What is Lichess’ approach to cheat detection/engine use by players?
Mentioned: Episode 18 with IM Danny Rensch, Episode 136 with IM Ken Regan, GM Wesley So, GM Raunak Sadhwhani
48:00- What is the goal of the LiChess Twitch and YouTube channels? What other projects might LiChess work on?
Mentioned: LiChess Study- Logical Chess Move by Move:
https://lichess.org/study/Wn7aMkPy
58:00- What is Chris’ guiding principle to teaching chess to kids? What else would Chris like to see change in the chess community?
Mentioned: IM Eric Rosen and The Stafford Gambit, Chess for Zebras
1:05:00- Thanks so much to Chris for sharing his knowledge and catching us up on Lichess.
Join the LiChess Discord here:
https://lichess.org/team/chesscord-discord-community
You can follow Chris on LiChess here:
https://lichess.org/@/NoJoke
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