Lichess board editor
Place pieces, choose who moves, and copy a FEN. A legal position can start a game or an analysis.
How to set a position
Pick a piece from the tray and click a square. Move lets you drag or click a piece to another square. Erase clears a square. Start restores the opening array. Clear empties the board.
Castling checkboxes write the K, Q, k, and q flags into the FEN. They do not check whether the king and rook have actually moved. If you want a legal castle, leave the king and rook on their home squares and keep the matching box on. The side-to-move menu sets the next player.
The board will not offer Play or Analyze until the position has one white king and one black king and the FEN loads under the rules of chess. Two kings of the same color, or a missing king, stays on the editor until you fix it.
Where the FEN goes
Play from here opens the game at this diagram. Analyze opens the analysis board. Both read the FEN from the address, so you can bookmark it.
Lichess has its own board editor in the tools menu, and studies can store a chapter of positions. This editor does not write to a Lichess study. Copy the FEN if you want to paste it there.
Questions
What is a FEN?
Forsyth-Edwards Notation is one line of text for a position: piece placement, side to move, castling rights, en passant square, halfmove clock, and fullmove number. This editor writes the en passant square as a dash and both clocks as zero.
Can I set an en passant square?
Not from the tray. Paste a full FEN into the analysis board if the position needs an en passant target.
Keep going
- Lichess vs Chess.comHow the two sites differ on price, ratings, puzzles, and analysis.
- Lichess chess analysisWhat an eval bar means, and how a local search differs from Stockfish.
- Lichess puzzlesMate, fork, pin, and skewer drills with a score kept on this device.
- Lichess import gamePaste a PGN and step through the moves.