Policies
The rules that govern accounts, privacy, conduct, and fair play on TeachingChess.
About these policies: these documents govern your use of TeachingChess and cover the platform’s features — accounts, ratings, matches, tournaments, moderation, and children’s age bands. For any question about them, contact us at info@teachingchess.com.
Terms of Service
1. Who we are and what these terms cover
These Terms of Service govern your use of TeachingChess (“the Site,” “we,” “us”), an online chess education platform offering lessons, puzzles, a computer opponent, timed and correspondence play against other members, tournaments, and a rating leaderboard. By creating an account or using the Site, you agree to these terms.
2. Accounts and eligibility
You must provide accurate information when registering, including your full name, email address, country, and date of birth. One account per person. You are responsible for your account credentials and for all activity under your account.
Younger members (Under 12) may use the Site, but a parent or guardian is responsible for supervising that use and agreeing to these terms on the child's behalf.
3. Acceptable use
You agree not to: impersonate another person; harass, threaten, or abuse other members; attempt to manipulate ratings or match outcomes; use automated tools, engines, or external assistance during rated or tournament play; attempt to access another member's account; or interfere with the Site's operation or security.
See the separate Gaming & Fair-Play Policy below for rules specific to rated play, computer assistance, and tournaments.
4. Content and conduct
Display names must comply with the Site's naming rules (Latin letters and numbers only, 5–20 characters, no terms implying staff or admin status, no sexual or gender-based terms). We may reject or change a display name that violates these rules.
You retain ownership of anything you submit to the Site, but grant us a license to display it as part of the service (for example, a certificate or a leaderboard entry).
5. Moderation and enforcement
We may freeze, suspend, or permanently block any account, remove or modify any account information, or remove any uploaded photo, at our sole discretion — including where we judge content unacceptable on religious or national grounds — and we are not required to justify that decision to the affected user. Where practical, we will explain the reason, but a lack of explanation does not make the action invalid.
Frozen accounts cannot create matches or join tournaments. Blocked accounts cannot sign in at all. We may also permanently delete an account and its associated data on request, or for serious or repeated violations.
6. Subscriptions and payment
Where the Site offers paid plans, pricing is shown on the Pricing page at the time of purchase. Refund and cancellation terms will be stated at checkout and take precedence over any general statement here.
7. Disclaimers and limitation of liability
The Site is provided “as is.” We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability or error-free operation. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of the Site.
8. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms from time to time. Continued use of the Site after a change is posted constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.
9. Governing law
These terms are intended to be read alongside applicable local consumer-protection law in your country of residence, which may give you rights these terms do not limit.
Privacy Policy
1. What we collect
Account information: full name, display name, email, country, gender, age group, and school or club (where provided).
Gameplay data: matches played, results, ratings, tournament participation, puzzle and lesson progress, and certificates issued.
Usage data: approximate time spent on the Site, used only to show you your own statistics.
We do not knowingly collect more personal information from children than is necessary to provide the service, and we do not use children's data for advertising.
2. How we use it
To operate your account, calculate ratings, run tournaments, issue certificates, and show the public leaderboard.
To keep the Site safe: enforcing display-name rules, investigating reports, and applying moderation actions (freezing, blocking, or deleting accounts) where necessary.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it to serve third-party advertising.
3. What is shown publicly
Your display name, rating, country flag, admin status (if applicable), and finished-match history are visible to any visitor on the public leaderboard and public profile pages — this is a core feature of the Site, not an incidental disclosure. In-progress game positions are not shown publicly.
Your real name, email, gender, exact age, and school are never shown publicly.
4. Where your data is stored
Account and gameplay data is stored with our database provider on secured cloud infrastructure. If you are in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or Saudi Arabia, any transfer of your data outside your region is made under appropriate safeguards.
5. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, or delete your personal data, and to object to certain processing. You can update most profile fields yourself from My Account; for anything else, or to request full account deletion, contact us at info@teachingchess.com.
6. Retention
We keep account data for as long as your account is active. If your account is deleted, associated personal data is removed; some non-identifying gameplay statistics may be retained in aggregate form.
7. Children's privacy
The Site collects an age band (Under 12, 12–17, 18 and over) so lessons and content can be presented appropriately. Where local law requires verifiable parental consent for children's accounts, a parent or guardian must provide that consent before a child under the relevant age creates an account.
Code of Conduct
1. Treat other members with respect
No harassment, hate speech, threats, or discrimination based on race, religion, nationality, gender, or any other personal characteristic — in matches, messages, or display names.
This applies in every language used on the Site.
2. Play in good faith
No deliberately losing (“sandbagging”) to manipulate your rating, no colluding with an opponent to fix a result, and no creating multiple accounts to play yourself or to evade a block.
3. Keep names and content appropriate
Display names must follow the Site's format and content rules (see Terms of Service, Section 4). This is a platform used by learners of all ages, including children, and content should be appropriate for that audience throughout.
4. Reporting and enforcement
If you experience or witness a violation, stop the interaction and, where a reporting option is available, use it. Violations may result in a warning, a temporary freeze, a permanent block, or account deletion, depending on severity and history, at our discretion.
Gaming & Fair-Play Policy
1. Why fair play matters here specifically
Because this Site tracks a real rating and a public leaderboard, fairness in rated games and tournaments protects the meaning of that rating for everyone, not just the two players in a given game.
2. No engine or outside assistance in rated play
Do not use a chess engine, another person, or any external analysis tool to choose moves during a rated game, a tournament game, or the placement test. This applies for the entire game, not just difficult moments.
The “Play the Computer” mode against the Site's own opponent is exempt, since that is specifically a practice mode against a known engine.
3. No manipulating results or ratings
Deliberately losing to lower your own rating, agreeing a scripted result with an opponent, or exploiting a bug in the rating or pairing system to gain an unfair advantage are all treated as fair-play violations.
4. Time controls and disconnections
Correspondence, Classical, Rapid, Blitz, and Bullet games each run on their own clock as shown at the start of the game. If your opponent disconnects, “Claim win on time” becomes available once their clock has genuinely run out — verified on our server, so it cannot be triggered early.
5. Tournament conduct
Pairings and results in organized tournaments are set by the tournament format and administered by Site staff or designated organizers. Disputes about a specific pairing or result should be raised with the organizer before the next round begins where possible.
6. Consequences
Confirmed fair-play violations may result in the loss of the affected rating points, removal from a tournament, a temporary freeze, or a permanent block, depending on severity and whether it is a repeat violation.