Lichess

aid: lichess
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/lichess/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
apis:
  - aid: lichess:lichess-api
    name: Lichess API
    tags:
      - Chess
      - Games
      - Open Source
      - REST
    humanURL: https://lichess.org/api
    baseURL: https://lichess.org
    properties:
      - url: https://lichess.org/api
        type: Documentation
      - url: openapi/lichess-openapi.yml
        type: OpenAPI
      - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/api/blob/master/doc/specs/lichess-api.yaml
        type: OpenAPI
      - url: asyncapi/lichess-asyncapi.yml
        type: AsyncAPI
      - url: json-schema/lichess-game-schema.json
        type: JSONSchema
      - url: json-schema/lichess-user-schema.json
        type: JSONSchema
      - url: json-ld/lichess-context.jsonld
        type: JSONLD
      - url: rules/lichess-rules.yml
        type: SpectralRuleset
    description: >-
      The Lichess API is a comprehensive REST and streaming API covering account, users, games, puzzles, teams,
      challenges, board and bot play, Arena and Swiss tournaments, simuls, studies, broadcasts, messaging, OAuth, FIDE
      data, opening explorer, tablebase, external engine, and cloud evaluation. The full OpenAPI 3.1 specification is
      published at github.com/lichess-org/api with 185 operations across 23 tags, and many endpoints stream responses as
      newline-delimited JSON (ND-JSON).
name: Lichess
tags:
  - Chess
  - Games
  - Open Source
  - Nonprofit
  - Tournaments
  - Puzzles
  - Bots
  - Streaming
  - ND-JSON
  - OAuth
kind: contract
image: https://lichess1.org/assets/logo/lichess-pad12.svg
access: 3rd-Party
common:
  - url: https://lichess.org
    name: Lichess
    type: Portal
  - url: https://lichess.org/api
    name: API Reference
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://lichess.org/api/ui
    name: API UI
    type: Sandbox
  - url: https://lichess-org.github.io/api-demo/
    name: API Demo
    type: Sandbox
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org
    name: Lichess on GitHub
    type: GitHubOrganization
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/api
    name: Lichess API Documentation Repository
    type: SourceCode
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/lila
    name: Lila - Lichess Server
    type: SourceCode
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/scalachess
    name: scalachess Engine Library
    type: SourceCode
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/chessground
    name: Chessground Board UI
    type: SourceCode
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/pgn-viewer
    name: PGN Viewer
    type: SourceCode
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/mobile
    name: Lichess Mobile (Flutter)
    type: SourceCode
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/berserk
    name: Berserk - Python Client
    type: SDK
  - url: https://github.com/tors42/chariot
    name: Chariot - Java Client
    type: SDK
  - url: https://github.com/devjiwonchoi/equine
    name: Equine - JavaScript/TypeScript Client
    type: SDK
  - url: https://github.com/Rabergsel/LichessNET
    name: LichessNET - C# Client
    type: SDK
  - url: https://github.com/Dblike/LichessSharp
    name: LichessSharp - .NET Client
    type: SDK
  - url: https://github.com/mkomon/uberserk
    name: uberserk - MicroPython Client
    type: SDK
  - url: https://pypi.org/project/async-lichess-sdk
    name: async-lichess-sdk
    type: SDK
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-bot-devs/lichess-bot
    name: lichess-bot - Python Bot Reference
    type: Tool
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/fishnet
    name: Fishnet - Distributed Stockfish Analysis
    type: Tool
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/external-engine
    name: External Engine
    type: Tool
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/broadcaster
    name: Broadcaster
    type: Tool
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/pgn-mule
    name: PGN Mule
    type: Tool
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/api-ui
    name: API UI Source
    type: Tool
  - url: https://github.com/lichess-org/api/tree/master/example
    name: OAuth and API Examples
    type: CodeExamples
  - url: https://discord.gg/lichess
    name: Lichess Discord
    type: Forum
  - url: https://lichess.org/forum
    name: Lichess Forum
    type: Forum
  - url: https://database.lichess.org/
    name: Lichess Database Exports
    type: BulkDataDownload
  - url: https://lichess.org/account/oauth/token
    name: Personal Access Token
    type: Authentication
  - url: https://lichess.org/developers
    name: Lichess Widgets
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://lichess.org/account/oauth/app
    name: OAuth App Registration
    type: Authentication
  - url: https://lichess.org/page/fair-play
    name: Fair Play Policy
    type: TermsOfService
  - url: https://lichess.org/terms-of-service
    name: Terms of Service
    type: TermsOfService
  - url: https://lichess.org/privacy
    type: PrivacyPolicy
  - url: https://lichess.org/source
    name: Source Code
    type: SourceCode
  - url: https://lichess.org/patron
    name: Become a Lichess Patron
    type: Donate
  - url: https://status.lichess.org/
    name: Lichess Status
    type: StatusPage
  - url: https://lichess.org/blog
    type: Blog
  - url: https://lichess.org/api#section/Introduction/Rate-limiting
    name: Rate Limiting
    type: RateLimits
  - url: https://lichess.org/api#tag/OAuth
    name: OAuth and PKCE
    type: Authentication
  - url: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt
    name: AGPL-3.0
    type: License
  - url: plans/lichess-plans-pricing.yml
    type: Plans
  - url: rate-limits/lichess-rate-limits.yml
    type: RateLimits
  - type: Features
    data:
      - Free, ad-free, open-source online chess server operated by a French nonprofit, funded by donations
      - Full OpenAPI 3.1 specification with 185 operations across 23 tags published at github.com/lichess-org/api
      - Account, users, relations, and messaging endpoints for managing players and social graph
      - Games REST and ND-JSON streaming endpoints for current and historical games, including PGN export
      - TV channels and current best games for live broadcast and embedding
      - Daily puzzle, puzzle by ID, puzzle activity, and puzzle dashboard endpoints
      - Teams API for creating, joining, listing, and managing chess teams
      - Board API for playing real-time games with physical boards and third-party clients using regular accounts
      - Bot API for programmatic play by accounts upgraded to bot status, with streaming game state
      - Challenges API for issuing, accepting, declining, and listing challenges including AI and open challenges
      - Bulk pairings for programmatically creating many games at once
      - Arena and Swiss tournament APIs including create, update, terminate, join, withdraw, and result export
      - Simuls endpoint for current and upcoming simultaneous exhibitions
      - Studies API for exporting and importing study chapters in PGN
      - Broadcasts API for creating tournaments, rounds, and pushing PGN updates for live event coverage
      - FIDE endpoints exposing FIDE player and federation data
      - Opening Explorer with Masters database, Lichess database, and player database lookups
      - Tablebase endpoint for 7-piece Syzygy endgame results
      - External Engine API enabling user-hosted engines to power analysis on lichess.org/analysis
      - Cloud evaluation lookup for previously evaluated positions
      - OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Flow with PKCE plus personal access tokens, long-lived (one year typical)
      - Newline-delimited JSON (ND-JSON) streaming for events, games, and TV feeds
      - Distributed Stockfish analysis network (fishnet) and open client-side Stockfish WASM builds
      - Public dataset exports of all rated games, puzzles, and computer evaluations at database.lichess.org
      - Official community SDKs in Python (berserk), Java (chariot), JavaScript/TypeScript (equine), .NET, and more
      - AGPL-3.0 licensed server (lila), with MIT scalachess engine library and GPL-3.0 mobile and tooling code
    sources:
      - https://lichess.org/api
      - https://github.com/lichess-org/api
      - https://github.com/lichess-org
      - https://lichess.org/about
    updated: '2026-05-25'
created: '2026-05-25T00:00:00.000Z'
modified: '2026-05-25'
position: Consuming
description: >-
  Lichess is a free, ad-free, open-source online chess server operated by a French nonprofit and powered entirely by
  volunteers and donations. It serves millions of games per day with live play, tournaments, puzzles, studies,
  broadcasts, analysis, and a public API. The server (lila), engine library (scalachess), mobile app, board UI
  (chessground), and distributed Stockfish analysis network (fishnet) are all open source under AGPL-3.0, MIT, and
  GPL-3.0 licenses. The Lichess API provides 185 documented operations across 23 functional areas including Account,
  Users, Games, Puzzles, Teams, Board, Bot, Challenges, Arena and Swiss Tournaments, Simuls, Studies, Broadcasts,
  Messaging, OAuth, FIDE, Opening Explorer, Tablebase, External Engine, and Cloud Analysis, with comprehensive ND-JSON
  streaming support.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: info@apievangelist.com
    X: apievangelist
    url: https://apievangelist.com
specificationVersion: '0.16'