Community Guidelines

Last updated: 16 August 2026

This page is the plain-language version of the fair play and conduct clauses in the Terms of Service. If the two ever conflict, the Terms of Service govern.

1. Fair play

Engine or software assistance

When playing human opponents you may not use a chess engine, analysis tool, opening book or any software that suggests moves. Getting move help from another person falls under the same rule.

What's fine: use whatever you like against bots — bot games are unrated. Studying a finished game in post-game analysis is also entirely fine; you're not playing anyone there.

Win-trading and collusion

Playing arranged games to inflate rating or tournament points is prohibited: losing in turns, deliberate resignations, pre-agreed results.

Multiple accounts

Using more than one account to manipulate matchmaking, play against yourself, or stay at a low rating is prohibited. If you changed devices you don't need a new account — move your existing one with your recovery code.

Automation and manipulation

Sending automated requests to the server, modifying the client, reverse-engineering it or overloading the service is prohibited. Move validation and the clock run on the server; a modified client gains you nothing and only puts your account at risk.

2. Leaving a game

If your connection drops, the game isn't lost — it lives on the server and resumes where you left off. But your clock keeps running.

When you know you're losing, use the resign button rather than closing the app: it saves your opponent a pointless wait. Repeated deliberate abandonment counts as a fair play violation.

3. Usernames

Usernames are public and appear in player search.

Technical rules (enforced by the system)

• 3–20 characters
• Only a–z, 0–9, dot and underscore — no spaces, accented letters or other symbols
• No leading or trailing dot/underscore; no two symbols in a row
• Case-insensitive: Alice and alice are the same name
• Reserved names such as admin, support, moderator and chessllenge cannot be taken
• Every name is unique

These rules exist to make impersonation harder: edge dots and lookalike characters would otherwise let someone clone the name of a player you know.

Content rules (enforced by us)

Your username may not contain:

• Insults, profanity or sexual content
• Hate speech; demeaning references to race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or disability
• Glorification of violence, or threats
• Impersonation — of real people, clubs, or Chessllenge staff
• Advertising, links or spam

We rename inappropriate accounts and close them on repetition. Also, for your own safety: don't use your real name or contact details as a username.

4. How we enforce this

• Server-authoritative play: every move and the clock are validated on the server. Modifying the client achieves nothing.
• Automatic flagging: the system scans repeated games between the same two players for one-sided result patterns and flags suspicious pairs for review.
• A human decides: being flagged is not being guilty. Every flag is reviewed by hand — the difference between a normal rematch streak and win-trading is something a person judges, not an automatic threshold.

5. How to report

Since the app has no player-to-player messaging, reports come by email. Write to us with the subject line Fair Play:

1. The opponent's username
2. The date and approximate time of the game (shown in your game history)
3. What looked wrong — a few sentences is enough

Your report stays confidential; the reported player is never told who reported them. Deliberately false reports are themselves a violation.

6. Sanctions

What we apply, depending on severity and repetition:

If you believe a decision was wrong, write to us with your player ID and we will review the record again.

7. Age requirement

You must be at least 13 years old to use Chessllenge.

Related pages

• Terms of Service — the binding text
• Privacy Policy — what we store
• Support — frequently asked questions
• Contact — reporting and request addresses