[EDIT] April fools! Unfortunately, life still moves pretty fast, but Lichess no longer has decrement time controls. Thanks to everybody participating in our 1-1 Arena, it was fun!

We’re all busy people! Sometimes we don’t have time for a long chess game. Most of the time even! Ever since the dawn of online chess, we’ve been pushing faster and faster time controls: blitz, bullet, hyper bullet, ultra bullet! Well we’re pushing further once again.

Introducing: decrement time controls! If you don’t have the time for a ¼+0 game, try a ¼-1. Every move you play takes an additional second off your clock. This gives you an added incentive to finish your opponent quickly, since there’s only time for 15 moves even if you play instantly!

The new homepage quick play buttons

No more infuriating defeats due to time scrambles! Do not trust in your mouse, trust in good moves! This update will also incentivise chess to be more suitable for short-video based media while still maintaining an ethical standpoint of quality over quantity like OTB:

We hope you enjoy this update on today, April 1st! Have fun in our inaugural decrement arena https://lichess.org/tournament/losetime.