Play on Lichess

Connect and open the lobby

Choose Play → Online → Lichess lobby or the bottom Lichess button to open the lobby directly. If signed out, the lobby shows Sign in with Lichess and Reconnect saved session. Opening it does not start OAuth. Choose the sign-in control when ready, authorize Ironwood on Lichess, then return to the lobby. Ironwood never asks for your Lichess password.

The lobby opens manually. Being connected does not make it reopen whenever you start a local game or load a saved game. Refreshing reconnects your account without automatically engaging an existing correspondence game. Open the lobby and select a game when you want to resume it.

The lobby and bottom status bar show the Lichess account connection independently of which service owns the board. The account link opens Lichess in a new browser tab. Your authorization stays in this browser session and is excluded from saved games and backups.

Arrange or pop out the lobby

Drag the lobby title or outer background to move it; drag its edges or corners to resize it. Quick-pairing tiles wrap to fit narrower windows. Your account name appears in larger bold text. The selected Quick pairing, Create a game, or Correspondence tab is gold, and inactive tabs are gray. Matchmaking controls sit in a sunken paper-grain section; Leave online play and Sign out sit below it on the outer background.

Click the raised ↗ button beside × to open the lobby in a separate browser window. It shares the main Ironwood window’s Lichess connection, ongoing games, and matchmaking state. Matchmaking, challenges, sign-in, sign-out, and game actions use that connection. Player profile and the Resign… confirmation open in the main window. Games continue on the main board.

Keep the main window open while using the lobby pop-out. Closing the pop-out with × leaves the connection running; Leave online play and Sign out retain their respective effects. To focus an existing pop-out, reopen the lobby from the main window’s bottom Lichess button and click ↗ again. Allow pop-ups for Ironwood if the browser blocks it.

Quick pairing and creating a game

Quick pairing offers time-control tiles. The first number is each player’s starting time in minutes; the second is the seconds added to that player’s clock after each move.

The first three are rapid choices; the 30-minute choices are classical. Your clock runs only during your turn. Increment gives you extra time for each move, including in the endgame.

Choose Custom or Create a game to set minutes, increment, rated or casual play, and your preferred side. Find opponent starts matchmaking. Ironwood’s Lichess Board API connection supports rapid and classical matchmaking; direct challenges can also use blitz. Bullet games must be played on Lichess.

Challenge a friend lets you enter a Lichess username and send a challenge. Direct challenges expire after 20 seconds if not accepted. Incoming challenges appear in the lobby with accept and decline controls.

Cancel matchmaking cancels an active real-time seek. Correspondence seeks remain on Lichess until someone joins them; closing Ironwood does not cancel them.

Play against computer

Choose Play against computer in the lobby. The setup has three position choices:

• Standard starts from the usual chess position.
• Chess960 starts with a legal randomized back rank. Ironwood supports Chess960 moves and castling.
• From Position starts standard chess from a position you supply. Paste a valid FEN into the input that appears. The start button stays disabled until the position is valid. This option accepts standard-chess FEN, not a custom Chess960 FEN.

For a standard middlegame test, use:

r1bq1rk1/ppp2ppp/2np1n2/2b1p3/2B1P3/2NP1N2/PPP2PPP/R1BQ1RK1 w - - 0 8

Choose a time mode:

• Unlimited has no move deadline or clock.
• Real time uses starting minutes and increment.
• Correspondence gives you a selected number of days for each move.

Choose Strength from 1 to 8, then White, Random side, or Black. Press the gold Play against computer button to start a casual game against the Lichess computer. Strength 1 is the easiest and 8 is the strongest. These games use Lichess’s computer, separately from Ironwood’s local Stockfish games.

Correspondence and ongoing games

In the Correspondence tab, choose 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, or 14 days per move, then Casual or Rated and Find a correspondence opponent. Colors are assigned automatically. The deadline keeps running while you are away; for example, two days allows up to 48 hours for each reply. Correspondence is also available against the computer through its setup screen.

Your ongoing games lists games still active on Lichess. Entries show the opponent, speed, rated or casual mode, your color, and whether it is your turn. Start date and time and time-control details appear when available from Lichess. Select an entry to resume it.

While playing correspondence, choose Return to lobby · keep this game ongoing to put that game aside without resigning or signing out. You can resume another game or create a new one. Ironwood displays one online game at a time, while Lichess keeps your other games ongoing.

Game library → Saved games also puts an active correspondence game aside and keeps your Lichess sign-in. The saved game remains on the board instead of being replaced by the correspondence game. Resume the online game manually from the lobby later. Loading a saved game during a live online game disconnects online play; it does not resign the game on Lichess, and its clock continues.

Moves, chat, and game controls

Play on Ironwood’s board, including promotion and castling. A move appears immediately as a translucent ghost while waiting for Lichess. It becomes solid when confirmed or disappears if rejected. This preview does not advance the official move history. Clocks and results come from Lichess. After a dropped connection, Ironwood reconnects and recovers the full move history.

During an active Lichess game, the Analysis tab shows Game chat beside the board. Type a message and press Enter or Send. This is the game’s player chat, separate from spectator chat. After the game ends, the tab returns to full-game analysis.

Game controls appear below the active board and in the lobby:

• Resign… asks for confirmation before giving up the game.
• Abort game ends a game when Lichess allows an abort.
• Offer draw sends a draw offer. When your opponent offers a draw, you can accept or decline it.
• Request takeback asks your opponent to undo a move. An incoming request can be accepted or declined.
• Claim draw asks Lichess to recognize a claim. A victory claim may appear when the opponent has left and Lichess permits it.

Lichess decides whether each action is allowed in the current position.

Analysis and leaving online play

Connecting your account or browsing the lobby leaves local position analysis and full game analysis available. Engine assistance is disabled when an online game is engaged. When the game finishes, Ironwood saves it to the local library and restores review and analysis.

Leave online play disconnects the game streams and returns to the local workspace, while keeping your sign-in for reconnecting. It clears an unfinished online board locally. It does not resign or abort that game on Lichess.

Sign out revokes Ironwood’s Lichess authorization. It is available when you are not actively playing. Use it when you want to remove the account connection.

Leaving the Play page or closing the app stops that page’s live connection; it does not end your game on Lichess. Live clocks and correspondence deadlines continue. When you return, open the lobby to resume an ongoing game.

The Lichess Board API documentation describes supported time controls and game actions.

Profile statistics in the status bar

The bottom status bar shows the Lichess button, connection state, and connected username. Click Lichess to open the lobby, or click the username to open your player profile. The profile contains your game record, ratings, rating history, and detailed time-control performance. Ratings with ? are provisional; — means no rating has been established in that category.

Lichess account access alongside FICS

Signing in to Lichess preserves an existing FICS connection and board. You can keep the Lichess account session for Opening Explorer while using FICS. Tablebases do not require a sign-in.

Only one game controls the board. An active FICS game cannot be replaced by a background Lichess game event. Finish the current game before opening another service’s game. Opening a Lichess game switches board ownership and disconnects FICS; account sign-in alone does not. Analysis tools remain unavailable during live games.

Player profiles and followed players

See the dedicated Lichess player profiles guide for browsing, comparison windows, performance statistics, following, activity, and game playback.

Click the bottom Lichess button and choose Player profile, or click your connected username. Load My account or enter any Lichess username to view their public biography, ratings, game record, rating history, and latest 12 completed games. Public details depend on what the player has shared. The title includes the player’s name and account ID. Expand Rating history when you want the chart. Recent games load independently, and cached content remains visible during refresh. See profile loading and caches.

Choose Bullet, Blitz, Rapid, Classical, or Correspondence and a date range (1M, 3M, 6M, YTD, 1Y, or ALL). Hover the graph to inspect a date and rating. If a period has no history, try ALL or another time control. The graph has its own sunken paper-grain surface. Game-record counters and recent-game cards adapt to narrow windows.

Biography and website links open in new tabs. Clicking the FIDE rating opens the player’s FIDE page when an ID is available, or the FIDE ratings directory otherwise.

Follow and Unfollow update your Lichess following list. Expand Following to search followed players and open their profiles. Older sign-in sessions may need Sign in again for follow access before these controls work.

Use Load in new window, or reopen Player profile from the lobby, to compare players in independent windows. Each gold-bordered window keeps its own player, filters, size, and position.

Detailed performance by time control

Click a Bullet, Blitz, Rapid, Classical, or Correspondence rating chip to open Performance details. The section shows rating, rank and percentile when available, highest and lowest ratings with dates, game record, average opponent rating, playing time, and current/longest win and loss streaks.

Best wins and Worst losses load up to five games each. Click a mini board for enlarged playback or use the game’s Review on Ironwood control to review it on Ironwood’s full board. Reviewing stays temporary until Play → Save current game saves it. Refresh retries statistics and game loading; Close details hides the section. Statistics are cached separately for each time control and player-profile window. The Puzzles chip has no performance-details endpoint.

Preview or review a recent game

Click Recent games to collapse or expand the list.

Hover a recent-game mini board for its gold outline and magnifying-glass indicator, then click to open the larger move viewer. It shows White and Black, the result, step controls, and autoplay without importing the game into Saved Games. The two controls in the right column offer Open game on Lichess in a new tab or Review on Ironwood on the full board.

Review on Ironwood opens a temporary review. To keep it, choose Play → Save current game; this saves the full game even when you are viewing its starting position. Merely previewing or opening the review does not add it to Saved Games. Finish active online play or training before opening a full-board review.

Daily activity

Expand Activity beneath the profile graph to load recent daily game and puzzle results. Each date lists wins, losses, and draws by time control, plus solved and missed puzzles. Rating changes show the before/after ratings when Lichess supplies them. Activity loads only when expanded and shares cached data across profile windows for the same player. Use Refresh activity to reload it. This is the player’s Lichess activity, separate from Ironwood’s local puzzle progress.