Review · Ranked #3 of 7

Lichess analysis review: everything free, nothing explained

A full-strength engine, a 7-piece tablebase and a 6-billion-game opening explorer at no cost. The trade-off is that you have to read the engine yourself.

Published November 12, 2026 · By the Chess AI Helper editors (ChessHelper team) · We compared published features

Our 2026 ranking puts ChessHelper (chesshelper.ai) first for learning at your level. Lichess comes third overall and first on price: no other helper gives this much analysis for free. This review covers what the tools do, a worked example, and why we still do not rank it higher.

What Lichess offers

Lichess describes itself as a free, open-source chess server powered by volunteers and donations. There are no ads and no paid tier for features: a Patron donation supports the site but does not unlock analysis. Its features page lists the same analysis access for free accounts and Patrons.

How you use it

After a game on Lichess, the analysis board opens with the moves loaded. Switching on the local engine starts Stockfish in your browser, which shows an evaluation, a best line and, if you raise the setting, several candidate lines at once. Requesting a computer analysis sends the game to the server, which marks inaccuracies, mistakes and blunders and draws an evaluation chart.

The step most players skip is the best one. Once a game has been analyzed, “Learn from your mistakes” jumps to each error and asks you to find a better move before showing the answer. It is the Lichess equivalent of Chess.com's Retry button, and it is unlimited.

Games from other sites can be pasted in as PGN and analyzed the same way, which is how many Chess.com players use Lichess as their free second opinion.

A worked example

Take the position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Nxe5 Qg5. White has taken a pawn, and Black's queen now attacks both the knight on e5 and the pawn on g2. Turn on several engine lines and the board shows that the position is close to balanced if White is careful, and lost if White is greedy.

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We ran the position through Stockfish at depth 20. Its top two moves were 5.Bxf7+ (about +0.4 for White) and 5.O-O (about +0.3). The tempting 5.Nxf7, forking the queen and rook, fails to 5...Qxg2, and the engine scores the position at about −8 for White, because the queen goes on to win the rook on h1 while the knight on d4 joins the attack.

Lichess will show you exactly those numbers. What it will not do is tell you in words that the problem is the g2 pawn and the open g-file. Working that out is your job, which is either the best way to learn or a wall, depending on your level.

Video tutorial

Lichess's own channel published this walkthrough of game analysis. The interface has been updated since it was recorded, but the workflow is the same.

Pros and cons

These points weigh Lichess against the other six tools in the ranking.

Why it is not ranked higher

On value, Lichess is unbeatable. We rank it below ChessHelper and Chess.com Game Review because this ranking is about helping you learn, and Lichess leaves the hardest part, interpretation, to you. A full-strength engine line at depth 20 is accurate, but it is not pitched at a 1000 or 1400 player. ChessHelper lets you choose the level of the suggestions, and Chess.com's coach puts key moments into words.

A practical setup for many players is to use Lichess for deep, unlimited analysis of important games and opening research, and a level-aware helper for everyday study. Our guide to choosing a helper has a short decision table for this.

Fair play on Lichess

Lichess's terms prohibit any external assistance while a game you are playing is in progress, and that explicitly includes chess engines, opening books, tablebases and move recommendations from people or software. All of the analysis tools above are for games that have finished and positions you set up yourself.