No specific threat detected
Established 16-year-old non-profit chess server with clean security scans and no scam indicators.
Is lichess.org legit or a scam?
Established 16-year-old non-profit chess server with clean security scans and no scam indicators.
Lichess.org is a legitimate, non-profit chess platform. The domain is 16 years old, has clean security scans, and is operated by a registered French non-profit. User complaints focus on moderation issues rather than fraud.
Analysis Summary
Website Preview

Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site.
Visual analysis
We capture a fresh screenshot of the live page and ask a vision model to look for scam visual patterns — fake trust badges, countdown timers, overlay pop-ups, and visual clones of legitimate brands.
No scam visual patterns detected
The screenshot captures the authentic Lichess.org interface, which is a well-known, legitimate chess platform.
What our vision model saw
3 signalsThe screenshot displays the legitimate homepage of lichess.org
Standard navigation menu, game mode selection, and community features are present
No deceptive elements, fake security badges, or urgency tactics detected
Intelligence
The domain has been registered since 2010 and is operated by a registered French non-profit. Zero antivirus engines flagged the site, browser blocklists are clean, and the visual analysis confirms the authentic Lichess interface. The single Trustpilot complaint mentions cheating concerns rather than financial fraud or data theft. The site loads legitimate external domains for community features and shows no phishing forms or deceptive elements.
Web Research Findings
Independent findings for lichess.org, including public complaints, named review sources, registration records, and look-alike-domain evidence. A missing result is shown as unverified, never converted into a clean bill of health.
- Lichess.org is a widely recognized, non-profit, open-source chess server launched in 2010.
- The platform is free, ad-free, and does not utilize paywalls for its core features.
- It maintains a high global traffic rank and is considered a legitimate service by major security analysis tools.
- User complaints primarily focus on moderation issues, such as perceived cheating, account closures, and limited direct customer support.
- The site is funded through community donations and is not a commercial entity selling user data.
- Trustpilotopen
"Cheating and site manipulation Lichess is accepting cheaters en masse on its platform. Lichess doesn't show transparency about who is banned from the site for using cheats"
- YouTubeopen
"I'm really happy with what Lichess has to offer. ... these bots are fantastic. they're free they're not made with the sole intention of marketing purposes."
Operated by a non-profit organization of the same name, founded by Thibault Duplessis.
Trustpilot contains one review complaining about cheating and site transparency regarding banned accounts. A YouTube review expresses satisfaction with the platform's free chess bots. Business records confirm Lichess operates as a registered French non-profit. The 346 complaints found relate to moderation and account management rather than financial fraud or data theft.
Domain Timeline
- Jun 14, 2010Domain registered
First appeared in WHOIS records — 16 years old today.
- Jul 24, 2026Latest security review — Reviewed as safe
This scan re-ran every check and found no active threat signals.
lichess.org has operated for years with no threat signals in this review — a long, stable track record, though it is never a guarantee on its own.
Threat Detection
Antivirus Engines
Security Scans
Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
Technical Details
domain · encryption · redirects · server reputation · referencedThe plumbing behind the site — who registered it, how it’s encrypted, where it’s hosted, and where it links out. A valid certificate or a calm server doesn’t mean the business is honest — scam sites pass these checks too. Use this to corroborate the verdict, not to overturn it.
Contact Verification
We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.
- No contact email found anywhere on the page.
- No postal address visible on the page.
- Phone number listed (2026-07-27 16).
- Links to 3 social profiles.
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://lichess.org/
- 2200https://lichess.org/
Server Reputation
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
What to do
Still, stay alert
No major threat indicators — but a clean scan does not guarantee every page is safe, and phishing emails routinely spoof real domains.
- Double-check the exact URL in your address bar
Confirm you are actually on lichess.org and not a lookalike like l-ichess.org.com or an IDN homoglyph.
- Use a password manager
Password managers only auto-fill on the exact domain they were saved for — they refuse to fill lookalike domains, which is the single best phishing defence.
- OpenDiscuss this site on the forum
If you have first-hand experience with this site — good or bad — share it with the MalwareTips community.
Final Verdict
Lichess.org is a legitimate, non-profit chess platform. The domain is 16 years old, has clean security scans, and is operated by a registered French non-profit. User complaints focus on moderation issues rather than fraud.
Safety FAQ
Common questions, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.
- Our automated security review found no threat indicators on lichess.org, so it appears legitimate. All 92 antivirus engines we queried report it clean, it ranks among the world's most-visited sites, and the domain is 16.1 years old, registered on June 14, 2010 — established domains are far less likely to be scams. Even so, always double-check the exact address in your browser, because phishing emails routinely spoof real, trusted domains like this one.
- lichess.org passed our automated checks with a trust score of 94/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged it at the time of the last scan, and its signals line up with an established, legitimate site. Treat any unexpected login prompt or payment request on it with the same caution you would anywhere.
- Yes — and this is worth understanding. Even trustworthy domains get spoofed in phishing emails (a fake message that only looks like it's from lichess.org), and legitimate sites are occasionally compromised on specific pages. A clean verdict means the site itself checks out today; it does not mean every email or link claiming to be from lichess.org is genuine. Always reach the site by typing the address yourself rather than clicking links in unexpected messages.
- No — all 92 antivirus and blocklist engines in our malware network currently report lichess.org as clean. That's a good sign, though antivirus coverage is only one of the many signals we weigh, and brand-new scam sites can appear clean before vendors catch up.
- No — lichess.org is not currently on the major browser blocklist feeds that Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge rely on. Note that blocklists can lag behind brand-new scam domains, so "not listed" is reassuring but not a guarantee on its own.
- lichess.org is 16.1 years old, registered on June 14, 2010 through OVH sas. A multi-year registration history is one of the stronger signals against a scam, though it's never a guarantee on its own — established domains can still be misused.
- Yes — lichess.org presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Let's Encrypt · YE2, valid for another 39 days. Important caveat: SSL only encrypts the connection between you and the site — it does not verify who runs it. Almost all scam sites now have valid SSL too, so a padlock alone never means "safe".
- lichess.org resolves to an IP operated by OVH SAS in FR (Data Center/Web Hosting/Transit). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad — but hosting that doesn't match a brand's claimed country, or that sits on networks known for abuse, is one of the many signals we weigh alongside the verdict above.
- Yes — lichess.org ranks in the global top 100,000 most-visited sites, which means it has substantial real-world traffic. Genuine popularity doesn't automatically make a site safe, but throwaway scam domains almost never reach this level of traffic, so it's a meaningful point in the site's favour.
- This report is a record of the scan run on July 24, 2026, and the verdict reflects that point in time. Scam sites change fast — they can go live, get flagged, or vanish within days — so if you believe something about lichess.org has changed, MalwareTips staff can run a fresh scan that re-checks every signal from scratch and republishes an updated verdict.
User reviews & comments(0)
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