EP.221 - Chris Callahan of LiChess.org

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. It has been especially important during the past year as online chess has surged in popularity. We discussed everything from how they dealt with a huge traffic surge, to their capabilities in the area of cheating detection. We talked about the viability of their current business plan as well as their future plans. Chris also delved a bit into his own chess background, and shared his unique perspective on scholastic chess teaching and chess improvement. It was fun to catch up with him and to learn more about this website on which so many of us enjoy playing 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! Check out their latest here, including GM Peter Svidler's much anticipated course on the Grunfeld: New Chess Courses Online - For All Levels in all - Chessable.com 17:00- Chris answers a Patreon mailbag question relating to various Lichess capabilities and future plans including what their philosophy is 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 the use of a cheat detection/engine by players? Mentioned: Episode 18 with IM Danny Rensch, Episode 136 with IM Ken Regan, GM Wesley So, GM Raunak Sadhwhani 48:00- What are the goals 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 in 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 If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here: The Perpetual Chess Podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices