Contributing
So you like chess, free software, and being useful? Great! We need your help making Lichess better. Even if you can't code, don't worry, there are plenty of ways to contribute to the Lichess project.
Translate to your native language
Lichess currently supports 80 different languages, but there's plenty more to do. Many more languages need to be started and several languages are near completion. If you speak a language that currently isn't (fully) supported by Lichess, we'd love for you to help us out. Head over to the translation center to get started.
Provide a server for chess analysis
Lichess provides computer analysis for free to all users. The world-class open source Stockfish engine is used to analyse players games (example of an analysed game).
This is a CPU intensive operation, and requires many servers in order to provide fast and accurate analysis.
If you have spare CPU power, you can help by running the fishnet client.
Design
Lichess is constantly under development, new features and designs are implemented on a weekly (if not more frequent) basis, but we don't always get it right; that's where you can help us out. If you see something that could be improved, or done differently there's a few ways you can see your change implemented:
- Design how you think the site should look in a graphical suite such as Photoshop. This will help the designers more directly approach and implement a solution. In most cases this is far more useful than a lengthy written document.
- Know a thing or two about HTML and CSS? Even better! Head on over to our GitHub page and create a pull request with the change you would like to see implemented. It's as easy as editing the source-code in-browser (right click > inspect element), and then pasting the changes to the necessary files in the Git repository.
We're also looking for skilled or enthusiast graphical designers to help with upcoming projects. Enquire on Discord to find out more.
Write code
So you can code, eh? That's great! Join us on discord, or on the #lichess IRC channel on freenode and we'll find an interesting challenge for your skills. Also check out our wiki to learn how to install Lichess on your dev machine.
Talk about Lichess
Being totally free, Lichess has no money for advertising itself. Therefore we rely on the community effort to spread the word and get more players to discover the site.
Do you have a blog? Write an article about Lichess!
Do you use twitter, facebook or other social medias? Let your followers know about your favorite chess site!
Do you know chess players? Do you play in real-world chess tournaments or chess federations? Spread the word! We need more people like you.
Show Lichess TV on your website
Let your visitors spectate the best realtime chess matches on Lichess!
Join the streamer community program
Donate
Wanna help paying for the lichess.org servers? Check the donation page. Your help will make a big difference.