FAQs
What is this? How did I get here?
I don't know how you got here (I don't have any analytics on the site and would prefer to keep it that way), but ChessHair is a cloud engine analysis that works directly inside Lichess. The goal is to provide you with fast, reliable analysis, without you having to burn through your own CPU cycles or battery.
What do you mean, "cloud engine analysis"?
It means being able to run engine analysis on a different computer than the one you're using to play chess.
Why would I want cloud engine analysis?
A couple of the biggest reasons:
I don't know how you got here (I don't have any analytics on the site and would prefer to keep it that way), but ChessHair is a cloud engine analysis that works directly inside Lichess. The goal is to provide you with fast, reliable analysis, without you having to burn through your own CPU cycles or battery.
What do you mean, "cloud engine analysis"?
It means being able to run engine analysis on a different computer than the one you're using to play chess.
Why would I want cloud engine analysis?
A couple of the biggest reasons:
- Speed. If you're playing on a chromebook, or an old mobile device, you might not be able to analyze very many nodes per second with an engine, which can have a huge impact on analysis quality. You might have to wait a minute to reach the strongest move instead of a second. This can make a big difference if you're doing something like opening preparation or anything that requires deep analysis.
- Battery life. Running a chess engine uses up lots of your CPU cycles. This is especially annoying if you're on the go with a laptop, or if you like to analyze your games on a mobile device. Offloading the hard work to ChessHair means more battery life for you and fewer laptop fans running at full blast.
Where can I use this cloud engine?
Currently it only works on Lichess web. The apps don't support choosing your preferred engine yet, as far as I know, but this works on the Lichess mobile website, which I personally think works just as well if not better than the native apps.
In the future I plan on creating a version that could be used in chess GUIs like ChessBase, En Croissant or similar, as well as API access.
How fast is it?
Very fast, especially if you're the only person using it at the time. Speeds depend on stockfish version, the position itself, and how many other concurrent analyses there are on the server handling your request. For this early beta, I would expect to see speeds of at least around 10 MN/s, likely higher, but I can't make any guarantees.
Are there limits to how long I can analyze a position?
Yes, there are limits. You will see the current limits on your dashboard, the main one being how many seconds you're allowed to run analysis for any given position. I'm keeping these limits intentionally on the low end for new users for now to make sure this service can support a lot of users without needing to spin up a lot of extra analysis nodes. If you stop by my Discord and ask really nicely I would be happy to look at bumping up your limits if there is enough compute to go around.
Do you store the positions I analyze or the analysis itself?
Yes, for now. I know a lot of people would like their analyses to be completely private, and that's an option I plan on offering in the future.
I will never share the analyses or positions with anyone, though. You can read more about this in the privacy policy.
What if I want to delete my account?
If you're signed in, there's a big red button on the homepage that allows you to delete your account and any associated data at any time. Once again there are more details in the privacy policy.
How do I get started?
- Sign into this site using OAuth with Lichess. You will see something like this:
Lichess OAuth - After you return to chess.hair, your account will probably be in a pending state. Manual approval is currently required for most new accounts so I can make sure the system doesn't get overloaded. Please feel free to reach out in Discord or on Lichess if you've been pending for a while.
- Choose which engine and version you want to use from the dropdown. This will default to the latest stockfish.
Choose your engine - Go back to Lichess (desktop or mobile website -- the apps currently don't support external engines as far as I know) and you will see a new engine you can select:
ChessHair Engine options - You're done! Use Lichess analysis like you normally do. The analysis will now be taking place on a ChessHair server instead of your computer or phone.
Do you support engines other than stockfish?
Not at the moment, but I would be happy to add others if users want them. I definitely want to add an option for Leela in the near future.
Why is the Memory slider stuck at 1MB?
The memory setting has no effect on the ChessHair cloud engines. We handle setting the hash size ourselves, but there's no way to tell Lichess that the engine doesn't support memory configuration, so it will just look like it's stuck at 1MB when it is in fact much larger than that.
As this project matures, I plan on making contributions to Lichess itself to improve some of the rough edges around external engines.
Why doesn't changing the Search time do anything?
Because it doesn't. Search time is also handled entirely by ChessHair. There are limits to how many seconds you're allowed to run analysis for a given position. This is to ensure that a lot of people are able to use the limited server resources.
I don't like having such a low time limit for analysis, can you please increase it?
I can and I would be happy to if I'm able to! Please drop by the Discord and reach out.
(Yes, I want to incentivize getting people into the Discord because I want to start developing a community around this project).
Does this cost money?
It costs me money, haha
There's currently no charge to use cloud engine service and there will always be a free version. This is an early beta, and right now the most valuable thing you can provide is feedback and simply testing the service.
Eventually I do plan to start charging for things like faster speeds, longer analysis times, high priority queues, and other premium features, but one of my primary goals is to always have a free tier that is actually useful.
Does this work with the Lichess mobile apps?
Not yet. As far as I know, the apps don't support choosing a different engine. HOWEVER, this DOES work with the mobile web version of Lichess, which I think is better than the apps anyway, so you can use this on a mobile device as long as you're using the mobile website and not the app.
It looks like a backend engineer designed this site
First of all, that's not a question. Second of all, yes.
Why is it called ChessHair?
I thought it was funny and memorable, and it has a lot of potential for funny logos involving chess pieces with long flowing hair, or ridiculous amounts of chest hair.
Not yet. As far as I know, the apps don't support choosing a different engine. HOWEVER, this DOES work with the mobile web version of Lichess, which I think is better than the apps anyway, so you can use this on a mobile device as long as you're using the mobile website and not the app.
It looks like a backend engineer designed this site
First of all, that's not a question. Second of all, yes.
Why is it called ChessHair?
I thought it was funny and memorable, and it has a lot of potential for funny logos involving chess pieces with long flowing hair, or ridiculous amounts of chest hair.