Live Chess Broadcast Software for Clubs & Tournaments

How ChessMotion Live works

• Connect the games: Paste a Lichess Broadcast link, or give ChessMotion the live PGN feed your board software publishes. A PGN push from a relay works too.
• ChessMotion finds the event: The tournaments, rounds and boards of a Lichess event appear by themselves, with the round being played chosen. Every board is followed from then on.
• Choose how it looks: Vertical, landscape or both; the board and pieces; engine analysis behind a fair-play delay; your event name, club and sponsor logos.
• Watch the real broadcast: The preview is the broadcast itself, frame for frame. Record a short test and download it to check everything end to end.
• Go live: Add YouTube, Twitch or any platform that takes an RTMP stream key, confirm exactly where it goes, and start. ChessMotion renders, encodes and streams the broadcast from its own servers.
• Direct the event: Put another board on air, follow the next round, or let the broadcast move to the next live game when one ends — the stream never restarts. Players, clocks and moves stay current as the feed updates.

Stream a chess tournament without building every scene manually

A round with twenty live boards is twenty scenes to keep current in general streaming software: a board graphic for each game, the names and ratings, the clocks, and a scene switch every time the interesting game changes. ChessMotion handles the chess-specific broadcast layer, so organizers don’t have to maintain board graphics and switch scenes throughout the event.

It reads the moves, clocks and pairings from the feed and draws the board, both players and their clocks — with engine analysis on, a headline when something happens, such as a sacrifice or a forced mate. You decide which game is on air; ChessMotion keeps it current. That is chess tournament streaming from the games you already relay, with one person directing. How to stream a chess tournament covers the whole setup, from the boards to the platforms.

Turn a Lichess Broadcast into a live stream

A Lichess Broadcast gives you the live games of an event — moves, clocks and pairings, board by board — but it is a page to follow on Lichess, not a video stream you can put on YouTube. ChessMotion Live turns it into one.

Paste the broadcast link from your browser. ChessMotion finds the event, its tournaments, the round being played and every game through Lichess’s public API. All the boards appear in the control room: choose which one is on air, switch while live, and stream the result to YouTube, Twitch and your other destinations. How to stream a Lichess Broadcast to YouTube goes through it step by step.

ChessMotion is not affiliated with Lichess. It follows public broadcasts as any visitor can; a private one needs a Lichess token from an account that can see it.

Live streaming for chess clubs

Club championships, league matches, rapid and open tournaments, the weekly club night: if the games are on electronic boards or relayed to Lichess, you already have the games. ChessMotion turns them into the broadcast.

One volunteer sets the event up, previews it and goes live. The broadcast runs on ChessMotion’s servers, not on a laptop at the venue, and can go to the club’s YouTube channel and Twitch at the same time. ChessMotion for chess clubs covers what else a club can do with it, from game replays to social clips.

Vertical and landscape chess broadcasts

Every broadcast can be produced in two compositions at once, each designed for its shape rather than one letterboxed into the other: landscape (1920×1080) for YouTube, Twitch, Kick and websites, with the players and recent moves beside the board, and vertical (1080×1920) for phone-first viewers, with the board across the width.

Each destination takes the composition you choose, so one event can stream landscape to YouTube and vertical to a platform made for phones. Instagram, TikTok and X can be added where your account is allowed to go live with a stream key — the platforms decide that, not ChessMotion. How to stream chess live in vertical 9:16 explains what each platform needs.

Switch games without stopping the stream

In a round with many live boards, the interesting game moves around. The control room lists every game of the event beside the picture — players, ratings, the move, the clocks and the result. Choose another game and a short “next game” card covers the change while the stream carries on; nobody watching sees it drop.

Turn on auto-switch and the broadcast moves to the next live board when the game on air ends. When the next round starts, follow it from the control room without going off air. A multi-board chess broadcast stays one continuous stream.

Keep the broadcast after the event

ChessMotion streams the broadcast; the platforms keep it. YouTube normally saves a finished live stream on your channel as a video, and Twitch keeps past broadcasts when that setting is on. ChessMotion itself does not store a copy of the whole broadcast.

Before the event, a test recording writes the same broadcast to an MP4 you can play and download — up to two minutes on Free, up to fifteen on the Live plans. Afterwards, the games themselves can become replays and short videos with the rest of ChessMotion.

What your viewers see

• Board and players: The board as ChessMotion draws its exports, names, ratings and titles where the feed has them, and material.
• Clocks: From the feed, counting down for the side to move. Never invented when the feed has none.
• Moments: Sacrifices, forced mates, turning points and promotions as headlines, checked by a deeper search before they go on air.
• Evaluation: An evaluation bar and number from ChessMotion’s own engine, behind the fair-play delay.
• Every board: The event’s games beside the picture: switch the board on air with a short card, or let it move to the next live game when one ends.
• Your branding: Event name, organisation, club and sponsor logos on the broadcast.

Plans

Creator Live: 5 Live hours a month and up to 2 destinations at once. Club Live: 30 Live hours a month and up to 6 destinations. Included Live hours reset each billing period and do not roll over. See Live plans.

Guides

• How to stream a Lichess Broadcast to YouTube
• How to stream a chess tournament
• Chess streaming software: what you need

Frequently asked questions

What software can I use to stream a chess tournament?

You need three things: the live games (electronic boards relayed to Lichess, or a live PGN feed), a broadcast layer that turns the moves into a picture, and a way to send that picture to YouTube or Twitch. General streaming software such as OBS can do the last part, but the board graphics and scene switching are then yours to build and run. ChessMotion Live does the broadcast layer and the streaming together: it reads the feed, draws the board, players and clocks, and streams to your platforms.

Can I stream a Lichess Broadcast to YouTube?

Yes. Paste the broadcast link into ChessMotion Live, add your YouTube stream key and go live. ChessMotion follows every board of the round and you choose which one is on air. Streaming needs Creator Live or Club Live; the preview is free.

Can ChessMotion stream multiple chess boards?

It follows every board of an event and lists them all in the control room, with one board on air at a time, and you switch between them while live. It does not put several boards side by side in one picture.

Can I switch games during a live chess broadcast?

Yes. Choose another game in the control room and it goes on air behind a short card, without the stream restarting. Auto-switch can move to the next live game when the one on air ends.

Can I create vertical chess broadcasts?

Yes. Vertical (9:16) and landscape (16:9) are produced at the same time from one broadcast, and each destination gets the one you choose.

Does ChessMotion replace OBS?

For a board broadcast you do not need OBS: ChessMotion renders and streams it from its own servers, so nothing has to run on your computer. It does not add webcams, commentary or scenes of your own; for those, OBS or similar software is still the tool.

Can I save the broadcast after the event?

The platform keeps it: YouTube normally saves a finished live stream on your channel, and Twitch keeps past broadcasts if that setting is on. ChessMotion does not store the whole broadcast; a test recording made before the event can be downloaded as an MP4.

Can chess clubs use ChessMotion Live?

Yes. Club Live is made for clubs and tournaments: 30 Live hours a month and up to 6 destinations at once, on one account. Creator Live has 5 hours and up to 2 destinations.

What counts as a Live hour?

Time a platform is actually receiving your broadcast. Setting up, previewing, browsing an event and test recordings never count, and neither does a start that never reaches a platform. Live hours count time on air: one hour to YouTube and Twitch at once is one hour.

Do unused Live hours carry over?

No. Included Live hours reset each billing period and do not roll over. They are not credits and cannot be exchanged for anything.

How many broadcasts can run at once?

One per account. ChessMotion Live runs on its own servers; when they are all busy with other broadcasts, a new one waits, and the page says so before you go live.

Is the engine fair to the players?

With analysis on, the whole broadcast runs behind the feed (15 seconds to 2 minutes) and nothing the engine says about a position appears until that position has been answered at the board. Turn analysis off for events where players could watch.