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Comment by fsiefken | Hacker News Reader

LiChess is one of the most amazing hosted platforms out there, it's very fast, it has a minimalistic design, it has no ads and does the thing that it does very well.

Furthermore they sympathetically state: "Lichess mobile is developed and translated to 80 languages by volunteers. Just like the website, it's 100% free forever, and there will never be advertisements. This is humanist software, made open source for the love of chess and user freedom."

But there are two things on my wishlist 1) make the website work off-line 2) new variant to change the chess rules to accommodate a smaller board 5x6, 4x5 or 6x6 for even shorter games.

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>new variant to change the chess rules to accommodate a smaller board 5x6, 4x5 or 6x6 for even shorter games.

That makes no sense. You can have games as short as you want. Just play using a different time control. I play 1+2 (minute plus seconds) and those games last 2 to 3 minutes at most.

BTW with variants, you're not really playing chess anymore. You're playing a different game with chess pieces. Not all the strategy and tactics transfer well if at all.

Yes, but variants are supported in the application, anti-chess, horde, atomic, three-check etc. Agreed, those are not really chess, as the rules or end conditions are significantly changed. But it's like chess960 chess, the pieces are on a different position or there are less pieces and a smaller board. The reason for my wish is that I want to play a small chess game with my son before bed, it should be a bit less daunting then a complete chessboard and only use a few pieces, so it would be both quick and easy. A time constrained regular chess game would be quick but less easy or usable for a young kid.

Can't you just make this yourself? Why does it have to be a part of the lichess platform?

Yes, of course. I was just explaining what the lichess platform would need (and why) to be perfect in my humble opinion. It would be nice to use the same chess app for everything chess related, with the social aspect working offline like a progressive web app.

Why do any rule variants have to be a part of the lichess platform?

Hi Derrick, I gave my personal answer and lichess gives this answer: "Chess variants introduce variations of or new mechanics in regular Chess that gives it a unique, compelling, or sophisticated gameplay. Are you ready to think outside the box?"

https://en.lichess.org/variant

I don't like time control, I can't handle the stress behind that.

I saw someone else above mention an iOS app, and it looks like there also is an Android app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.lichess.mo...

Hi Tom, yes, but mobile apps don't make a website work offline on windows, linux or osx unless you are proposing the Android app can be run through Chrome APK welder (if it works). But even if that were the case, I think the current Android/iOS apps don't allow you to asynchronously play chess, but only offline against the AI. Scenario's would be having a spotty or on/off connection for example, or playing one turn/hour or day. Progressive web apps can work offline and sync the state back to the cloud when online.

After some exploring I came across a "good enough feature": correspondence chess. On the website and the mobile apps you can login en logout a game (including the variants) in between turns and set the window from 1-14 days per turn! The only thing is that you don't get notified when a person has taken their turn, except when you are on iOS i read. Well, you can always exchange chess notation through Riot, e-mail or snail-mail :-)

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