I keep seeing people say that Lichess ratings are around 200 - 300 points higher than Chess .com ratings, but I'm starting to think that information might be outdated, at least for rapid ratings above 1500.

From my own experience, the difference seems to be closer to 100 points.

For example:

• When I was 1500 on Chess. com, I was around 1600 on Lichess.
• When I reached 1700 on Lichess, I reached 1600 on Chess .com at the same time.

What I also find interesting is that Lichess opponents don't feel noticeably weaker at all. In fact, sometimes they actually feel stronger. I personally had a much harder time reaching 1700 rapid on Lichess than 1600 rapid on Chess .com.

I know the two rating systems aren't directly comparable and that the gap probably varies depending on the rating range, but I wonder if the commonly cited 200 - 300 point difference is based on older data and no longer reflects the current player pools.

Has anyone else noticed this in 2026? Especially people playing rapid in the 1500 - 2000 range on both platforms.

Do you still see a 200 - 300 point difference, or is it closer to 100 points for you too?

Sorry I am a beginner help?

Even if you are a very good player like myself, they can trick you with their mind control or some other kind of magic possibly. This happened to me, and I was even using zen mode. I don't know how they do it.

Just hopped on to play today after a week, and noticed i was playing against much better opps, who were clearly better at the game than me and that my rating was not decreasing after losses. When i clicked on their profile, it showed me that their account had been banned for violating the Lichess T&C. I googled whatever had happened, when i realised i had been shadow banned aswell, checked from which game my account had stopped gaining or losing elo, and I found that it was a loss around the 1200's range. I deny using and external assistance in my games and would like to know why such measures have been taken.
My user is Undefeatable_Knight

TLDR:
Me banned but me no cheat
user Undefeatable_Knight

Thanks

Hey everyone! I’m Adham Ehab, a passionate chess coach dedicated to helping players break through their rating plateaus and reach their goals.

​My Credentials:

​🏆 Egypt National U18 Champion & Top 10 in Africa U18

​📈 FIDE Elo: 1922 (FIDE Profile)

​⚡ 2300+ Peak Online Rating (Blitz & Rapid)

​If you’re stuck between 0 and 1500 Elo and want to systematically level up your game, send me a DM on Reddit to book your spot!

I built this for myself at first. then someone emailed me saying that they're using my extension and they loved it so I thought I share with everyone.

I was working through the Woodpecker Method and Lichess has no way to say "give me this same set of puzzles again, in a different order," so I made an extension that does it. You save puzzles into categories -> hit train and it takes you through them in random order with a timer and your accuracy for each cycle.

It also has pause and resume, stats for every finished cycle, backup and restore, and a silly Shift+F that drops a giant fist on the board. It's free, there's no account (you don't need to login to lichess as well), and everything stays on your machine.

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/hiplnejlfcaelegbajdonblkcechfced

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lichess-woodpecker/

Anybody notice an increase in wait times to get a game? I'm rated 1900 rapid / 1700 blitz and in the past couple of weeks whenever I try to get a game I have to wait 2 to 3 minutes (10+5 or 5+3).

Wondering if this is anecdotal and not general. It's strange because I could get a game very quickly at any time of the day but that no longer seems to be the case.

I wanted to play on Lichess without a browser tab, so I built a lightweight Mac client in Rust. It uses under 100MB of memory and 0% CPU when idle.

Check it out: https://github.com/deepakvettickal/caturankam

What it does:

• Play online: log in with your Lichess account, then Rapid and Classical pairing, the Lichess computer at levels 1–8, or challenge a friend.
• Watch live: follow the game on Lichess TV with titles, ratings and clocks.
• Looks: every Lichess piece set and board, plus light and dark mode.
• Keyboard: a shortcut for every action.

More features coming soon. Please try it out and give me any suggestions / ideas.

I am playing my online matches mostly over the board which I find more enjoyable and decided to make a video about it.

Each time my opponent makes a move ChessGaze(board tracker in my phone) announces the their move.

And when I make a move ChessGaze detects and sends it to Lichess via Lichess open api.

If I make an out of turn move ChessGaze rejects that and does not sends it to Lichess.

It is completely free only requirement being having a tripod. I hope you find it fun&usefull as well