VS Code Extensions
Lichess for VS Code

Lichess for VS Code

by gugasth

Play Lichess games, solve chess puzzles, and challenge Stockfish AI directly inside Visual Studio Code.

Downloads

112

Rating

5.0 / 5 (1)

Version

0.2.0

Last updated

Apr 10, 2026

Play chess without leaving your editor. Solve Lichess puzzles and play games right inside VS Code.

Features

  • Puzzles — Daily puzzle, random puzzles, hint & solution
  • Play vs AI — Stockfish levels 1-8, multiple time controls
  • Play online — Find opponents, accept challenges (rapid/classical)
  • Live games — Real-time board updates, clocks, resign/draw
  • Authentication — OAuth2 or Personal Access Token
  • Flexible layout — Place the board in any panel or sidebar

Drag the Lichess tab to the right sidebar (secondary sidebar) for the ideal setup:

┌──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ Explorer │  Editor  │ Lichess  │
│          │  (code)  │ (board)  │
├──────────┴──────────┴──────────┤
│           Terminal             │
└────────────────────────────────┘

Commands

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and type "Lichess":

Command Description
Lichess: Daily Puzzle Load today's puzzle
Lichess: Random Puzzle Load a random puzzle
Lichess: Play vs AI Start a game against Stockfish
Lichess: Find Opponent Seek a human opponent
Lichess: Login Authenticate with Lichess
Lichess: Logout Sign out
Lichess: My Games View and join ongoing games

Authentication

Required for: playing games, finding opponents, personalized puzzles.

Not required for: daily puzzle, random puzzles.

Two options:

  1. OAuth2 — Click "Login to Lichess", authorize in browser
  2. Personal Access Token — Generate at lichess.org/account/oauth/token with scopes: board:play, challenge:read, challenge:write, puzzle:read

Contributing

git clone https://github.com/gugasth/lichess-for-vscode.git
cd lichess-for-vscode
npm install
npm run build

Then press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host.

License

GPL-3.0 (required by Chessground)