Lichess is Being Politicized

- This sentence, taken from the renowned tweet by Lichess, encapsulates the platform’s core value in my eyes. When they say "everyone," I interpret it as an indication of their indifference towards an individual's background and their lack of political bias. In my view, their sole focus is on enhancing the user experience.

I have great admiration for the website and have been supporting it in every possible way. Recently, however, I have noticed that Lichess appears to be straying from these central priorities. The steps being taken by the website's management are not in line with their foundational values. This discrepancy is troubling to me, prompting me to express my concerns in this post.

Lichess may have been adopting political stances for some time, but I first became aware of this last month (June). During the backlash against Woke culture, many profit-driven companies either refrained from observing the so-called “Pride Month” or scaled down their celebrations.

In contrast, Lichess's management chose to celebrate "Pride Month." They announced their intentions through a published article) and a tweet. However**, both channels disallowed comments, which I find disingenuous. For a platform that prides itself on being open source, restricting user freedom of speech and feedback seems contradictory.**

I struggle to understand the correlation between sexual orientation and playing chess, or why Lichess felt compelled to take a position. The platform's supposed focus is solely on chess. It appears as though the management is consciously or inadvertently imposing their beliefs onto users and exploiting the platform for personal agendas.

For those of you who, like me, are indifferent to the personal lives of others, you may find it irritating that a chess platform is promoting an agenda unrelated to the game.

At the time, I chose not to voice my thoughts to avoid getting entangled in controversy while preparing for my chess tournaments. But when Lichess broached a subject sensitive to my people (Azerbaijanis), I felt compelled to respond.

They opted to add the flag of "Artsakh," a “country” not recognized by any UN member state. I won't delve into the history of my country, but it's crucial to note that the display of this name and flag is offensive to my people.

My fellow Azerbaijanis and I have lodged complaints, requesting the removal of this flag and name from the site, but to no avail. Lichess cited users' rights to self-identify as the reason for their refusal. To me, this is an absurdity, and an example of the encroaching Woke culture. It appears that Lichess's management is increasingly aligning with this ideology. It seems people are allowed to self-identify and have their flags displayed on the site as long as it aligns with the management's beliefs. Upon reviewing the list of country flags, I noticed several names that could potentially be offensive to those of differing belief systems.

This concept of self-identification is illogical. Recognition from another entity is necessary, especially for a country that requires the acknowledgment of other nations. This is the fundamental principle upon which human society operates, and a chess website should not be trying to disrupt this system.

In closing, I urge Lichess to refrain from taking political stances. I am calling for reforms from the website's management and am seeking support from its user base.

My proposed reforms are as follows:

1. Lichess should not take a political stance and should solely focus on chess-related topics.
2. The identities of the Lichess management team should be made public. We have the right to know who is making decisions on this platform.
3. The decision-making criteria need to be clear and consistent with the core values.
4. The website should not suppress members' voices by closing the comment section or any other form.
5. The list of countries should only include territories recognized by the UN countries.