How to Stream a Lichess Broadcast to YouTube

A Lichess Broadcast already has the live games of your event. Here is how to turn it into a stream on your YouTube channel — board, players and clocks — and direct it board by board without going off air.

The short version

Create a session in ChessMotion Live, paste the broadcast link, choose the round, add your YouTube stream key, watch the preview and press GO LIVE. Switch boards from the control room; press Stop broadcast when the round is over.

What a Lichess Broadcast gives you — and what it does not

A Lichess Broadcast relays over-the-board games, usually from electronic boards at the venue, to a page on Lichess where anyone can follow the moves, the clocks and the pairings of every board. For an organizer that is the hard part done: the data is live, public and reliable.

What it is not is a video. YouTube needs a stream — a picture, encoded and sent to YouTube’s servers with your stream key — and nothing on Lichess produces one. To get from the broadcast to YouTube you need two more things: a broadcast layer that turns the moves into a picture, and something that encodes that picture and streams it.

Two ways to do it

You can build it yourself: capture the Lichess page or a board widget in OBS, add your own overlays for the players and clocks, and switch scenes by hand as the interesting game changes. It works and costs nothing, but it keeps one person at a computer for the whole event, and what viewers get is a picture of a web page.

Or you can use a broadcast layer that reads the feed itself. ChessMotion Live takes the moves, clocks and players from the broadcast, draws the board for video in landscape and vertical, and streams it to YouTube from its own servers. The rest of this guide uses it; the YouTube side is the same whichever way you choose.

Step by step

  • Get your YouTube stream key: In YouTube Studio choose Create, then Go live, then Stream, and copy the stream key. The first time a channel goes live, YouTube may take up to 24 hours to enable live streaming, so do this well before the event. ChessMotion fills in YouTube’s server address for you.
  • Create a session and paste the broadcast: In ChessMotion Live, create a session, choose Lichess Broadcast as the source and paste the address of the broadcast from your browser — the event, a tournament or a round all work. The tournaments, rounds and boards appear, with the round being played chosen.
  • Choose how it looks: Landscape (16:9) suits YouTube’s main player; a vertical (9:16) version can be produced at the same time. Choose the board and pieces, whether to show engine analysis (with its fair-play delay), and your event name and logos.
  • Add YouTube as a destination: Add a destination, choose YouTube, paste the stream key and choose which composition it gets. Adding a destination never streams anything. The key is stored encrypted and never shown again; you see the last four characters.
  • Preview, and record a test: The preview is the broadcast itself, following the live boards. Switch boards to see how a switch looks, and record a short test to check the whole picture end to end.
  • Go live: Press GO LIVE: ChessMotion shows exactly where the stream will go and anything in the way, then starts when you confirm. YouTube Studio shows the stream as soon as it arrives; whether it goes public at once or when you press Go live there is YouTube’s Auto-start setting.
  • Direct the round: Switch boards from the list beside the picture — a short “next game” card covers the change and the stream never restarts. Auto-switch moves on when the game on air ends, and Change round follows the next round without going off air.
  • Stop: When every game has finished, the broadcast holds the final board with “All games finished” on air until you press Stop broadcast. YouTube then keeps the stream on your channel as a video.

YouTube and Twitch at the same time

Add a destination for each platform: one broadcast can go to YouTube, Twitch and others at once, up to your plan’s limit, and each can take landscape or vertical. Live hours count time on air: one hour to YouTube and Twitch at once is one hour.

Streaming needs Creator Live (5 Live hours a month, up to 2 destinations at once) or Club Live (30 hours, up to 6). Setting up, previewing and a short test recording work on every plan. Included Live hours reset each billing period and do not roll over.

Common problems

  • Lichess says the broadcast is private: it needs a Lichess token with the study:read permission from an account that can see it. A public broadcast needs no token, and a saved token Lichess no longer accepts can be removed from the session.
  • The round has not started: the pairings appear from the broadcast and each board goes live as play begins, so you can set up and preview before the first move.
  • YouTube says the bitrate is lower than recommended: ChessMotion sends about 6 Mbps, which is plenty for a chess board; the stream plays normally.
  • The board is behind Lichess: with engine analysis on, the broadcast deliberately runs 15 seconds to 2 minutes behind the feed. Turn analysis off, or choose a shorter delay, when that matters more.
  • The stream key does not work: YouTube keys belong to one channel; check you copied it from the channel you mean to stream to.

Frequently asked questions

Is ChessMotion part of Lichess?

No. ChessMotion is not affiliated with Lichess; it follows public broadcasts through Lichess’s public API, as any visitor can.

Do I need OBS to stream a Lichess Broadcast to YouTube?

Not with ChessMotion Live: it renders and streams the broadcast from its own servers. OBS is still useful if you want a webcam or commentary, which ChessMotion does not add.

Can I stream only one board?

Yes. Choose the board when you set up the session and leave auto-switch off; the broadcast stays on that game.

What does it cost?

Setting up and the preview are free. Streaming to YouTube needs Creator Live or Club Live.