Arcanum Chess · play free

⚖ In final legal review. The practices described below are accurate as of 1 July 2026. Fields marked in legal review (company registration details and dates) will be completed when review concludes.

Arcanum Chess — Terms of Service

Effective date: in legal review · Version: 1.0-draft

1. Acceptance of these Terms

1.1 These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legally binding agreement between you ("you", "your", a "user") and , a company incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number ) whose registered office is at ("we", "us", "our", the "Company", or "Arcanum Chess**").

1.2 These Terms govern your access to and use of the Arcanum Chess website, progressive web app (PWA) and related services available at arcanumchess.com and any sub-domains (together, the "Service").

1.3 By creating an account, or by accessing or using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy and Fair-Play Policy, each of which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.

1.4 Additional terms apply to specific features. Where you purchase a subscription or cosmetic item, or (when introduced) enter a prize competition, the relevant additional terms — including any per-event competition rules — also apply. If there is a conflict, the more specific terms govern for that feature.

1.5 You can contact us at any time at **.

2. Eligibility

2.1 General use. The Service is intended for a general audience. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under the age of 18 (or the age of majority in your country), you confirm that a parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf and consents to your use of the Service.

2.2 Money and prize features (18+). Any feature that involves payment, real-money prizes, paid prize-competition entry, or payouts is strictly restricted to users aged 18 or over. Where such features are introduced, you must be 18 or over to participate, and we may require you to verify your age and identity before you participate or receive any payout (see clauses 6 and 7).

2.3 Accurate information. You agree to provide a valid email address and accurate, current information when you register, and to keep it up to date. We use email and password authentication only — we do not offer anonymous or guest accounts for online play. Providing false information, or registering on behalf of another person without authority, is a breach of these Terms.

2.4 Territory. The Service is operated from the United Kingdom and is offered to a global audience. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of the Service is lawful in your jurisdiction. We may restrict or withhold certain features (including any money or prize features) in territories where they are not permitted, and we may exclude residents of specified territories from paid prize play.

2.5 Bots and automated access. Accounts are for individual human users. Automated registration or access is prohibited. We use a bot/abuse check (Cloudflare Turnstile) at sign-up and may apply other anti-abuse measures.

3. Accounts and security

3.1 One human, one account. Each account must correspond to a single, distinct human being. You may not create or control multiple accounts for ranked play, prize competitions, or to evade a suspension or ban ("multi-accounting"), except where we expressly permit it.

3.2 No sharing. You must not share your account, share your login credentials, allow any other person to play on your account, or play on anyone else's account.

3.3 Your credentials. You are responsible for keeping your password and account secure. We store your password using the authentication provider's industry-standard hashing; we never see or store your password in plain text. You should choose a strong, unique password and not reuse it elsewhere.

3.4 Responsibility for activity. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account, whether or not authorised by you, unless and until you notify us of unauthorised access. You agree to notify us promptly at ** if you suspect any unauthorised use of your account or any security breach.

3.5 Username. Usernames are subject to availability and our rules (length, permitted characters, and a list of reserved/restricted names). Usernames are public. We may reclaim, change or require you to change a username that is offensive, impersonates another person or brand, infringes rights, or otherwise breaches these Terms.

3.6 Email verification. We may require you to verify your email address. Certain features — including ranked play — may be gated on a verified email and may be unavailable until verification is complete.

4. Acceptable use and prohibited conduct

4.1 You agree to use the Service fairly, lawfully and respectfully. In particular, you must not:

(a) Cheat in any game, including by using, consulting, or receiving assistance from any chess engine, computer program, bot, opening-book lookup, or third party for move suggestions during a live game;

(b) Engage in multi-accounting, account sharing, or playing on another person's account;

(c) Collude with another player or manipulate game results — including arranging outcomes, "sandbagging" (deliberately losing or under-performing to lower your rating), boosting, rating manipulation, or deliberate stalling/timewasting;

(d) Harass, threaten, defame, bully, or abuse other users, or post hateful, obscene, sexually explicit, discriminatory, or otherwise objectionable content in chat, usernames, or anywhere on the Service;

(e) Send spam, advertising, scams, phishing, or unsolicited links via chat or any other channel;

(f) Discover, exploit, or fail to disclose bugs, glitches, or vulnerabilities for advantage, or attempt to disrupt, overload, or interfere with the Service, its servers, or its security and anti-cheat systems;

(g) Reverse-engineer, decompile, scrape, data-mine, or use automated means to access the Service, except as permitted by law and only to the extent we cannot lawfully prohibit it;

(h) Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any account, server, or system, or circumvent any access control, rate limit, or geographic restriction;

(i) Forge, spoof, or tamper with any data sent to or from the Service (including presence, challenge, chat, or game data), or impersonate us, our staff, or any other person;

(j) Infringe the intellectual property or other rights of any person, or use the Service for any unlawful purpose.

4.2 This list is not exhaustive. We may take action against any conduct we reasonably consider abusive, fraudulent, unfair, or harmful to other users or to the Service.

4.3 Server-authoritative results. Game results, ratings, and timing in ranked and official play are determined by our servers, not by your device. You agree not to interfere with, falsify, or attempt to override server-authoritative results or the per-move timing record.

5. Fair play

5.1 Fair play is fundamental to the Service. Our separate Fair-Play Policy (available at **) forms part of these Terms and sets out prohibited conduct, how we investigate, and how we enforce. You agree to comply with it.

5.2 Investigation and enforcement. Where we reasonably suspect cheating, engine assistance, collusion, multi-accounting, account sharing, sandbagging, identity fraud, or any other breach of these Terms or the Fair-Play Policy, we may (acting reasonably and proportionately):

(a) investigate, including by reviewing game records, move-by-move timing, account and device signals, and reports from other users;

(b) void or annul affected results and adjust ratings accordingly;

(c) restrict, suspend, or permanently close the account(s) involved;

(d) withhold, refuse, or claw back any prize, payout, or entitlement (where money or prize features are live), including recovering amounts already paid; and

(e) where (when introduced) prize competitions are involved, require successful completion of identity verification and any proctoring as a condition of any payout.

5.3 Standard of proof and fairness. We will act on reasonable suspicion based on the information available to us. Because cheat detection necessarily relies on patterns and indicators rather than certainty, you acknowledge that we may act without disclosing the full detail of our detection methods, where doing so would undermine their effectiveness. Where we take action against you, we will, so far as reasonably practicable and consistent with protecting the integrity of the Service, give you notice and an opportunity to respond, and (for prize matters) an appeal route as set out in the Fair-Play Policy and any applicable competition rules. Nothing in this clause removes your non-excludable legal rights.

5.4 Reports. You may report suspected breaches through the in-app reporting tools. You must not file reports in bad faith, abusively, or to harass another user.

6. Purchases and subscriptions

6.1 What we sell. We offer optional paid items through the Service, including a cosmetic store (e.g. board and piece designs) and an "Arcanum Plus" subscription. Buying anything is entirely optional; the core chess experience is available without payment.

6.2 Payment processing (Stripe). Payments are processed by Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd. and its affiliates). When you pay, you provide your card and billing details directly to Stripe and are subject to Stripe's terms and privacy policy. We never receive or store your full card number — we receive only confirmation of your purchase and limited transaction metadata. You are responsible for any taxes, currency conversion, or charges your payment provider applies. Prices are stated at the point of purchase and are inclusive of applicable taxes unless we say otherwise.

6.3 Arcanum Plus — auto-renewal. Arcanum Plus is a recurring subscription. Unless you cancel, it automatically renews at the end of each billing period (e.g. monthly or annually as selected) and your payment method is charged the then-current price for the next period. We will tell you the price and renewal terms before you subscribe. You can cancel renewal at any time via your account settings or by contacting **; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period, and you retain access until then. We will give you reasonable advance notice of any price change before it takes effect.

6.4 Your statutory cancellation right (digital content). If you are a consumer in the UK, you ordinarily have the right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 to cancel a purchase of digital content within 14 days of entering into the contract and receive a refund.

6.5 Waiver of the 14-day right on immediate access. Where you ask for immediate access to digital content (for example, a cosmetic item or Plus benefits that become available straight away) before the 14-day cancellation period ends, you will be asked to acknowledge that you want immediate access and that you will lose your statutory right to cancel once delivery/access has begun. Where you have given that acknowledgement and access has begun, the 14-day cancellation right no longer applies to that content. Where you have not received immediate access, your 14-day cancellation right is unaffected.

6.6 Consumer Rights Act 2015. Nothing in this clause affects your statutory rights as a consumer, including your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 that digital content be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. If digital content we supply is faulty, you may be entitled to a repair, replacement, price reduction, or refund as provided by law.

6.7 Refunds generally. Except where required by law (including under clauses 6.4–6.6) or where we choose to offer one, payments are non-refundable. Virtual items, cosmetics, and in-game entitlements have no monetary value, are not your property, are non-transferable, and cannot be exchanged for cash. We may modify, discontinue, or remove cosmetic items, subject to your statutory rights.

6.8 Failed payments. If a renewal payment fails, we may retry, suspend the subscription benefits, or cancel the subscription.

7. Prize competitions (when introduced)

Note: As at the effective date of these Terms, no real-money prize competitions or paid-entry events are live. The following terms apply where and when such features are introduced, and are subject to separate per-event rules and to our solicitor's confirmation that they may lawfully launch.

7.1 Skill-based competitions. Any prize competitions we run are games of skill (chess), decided by server-authoritative results. The only element of chance is standard colour allocation. They are not gambling, betting, gaming, or lotteries, and are designed to operate outside the licensing regime of the Gambling Act 2005.

7.2 Free to enter where stated; operator-funded prizes. Where an event is stated to be free to enter, no purchase or membership is necessary to enter that event. Prizes are funded by the Company as fixed, guaranteed prizes announced in advance. Prizes are not a pool of entrants' stakes or entry fees and do not vary with the number of entrants or amounts paid. We do not pool, stake, or redistribute players' money as prizes.

7.3 Per-event rules. Each prize competition is governed by its own separate competition rules and terms ("Event Rules"), published for that event, covering eligibility, the entry method (including any free entry route), format, schedule, time controls, the prize and its value, judging/result basis, closing dates, and any territorial exclusions. By entering, you agree to the applicable Event Rules. If there is a conflict between the Event Rules and these Terms for that event, the Event Rules govern.

7.4 Eligibility for money/prize events. You must be 18 or over, hold a registered account, satisfy any territorial restrictions, and not be an excluded person (e.g. our staff, the director, or connected persons, where stated). One verified human per payout account.

7.5 Identity verification before payout. Before any prize is paid, we may require you to complete identity verification (and, for money finals, anti-cheat proctoring) to confirm your eligibility, your age, that you are a single human, and that you have played fairly. Cooperation is a condition of receiving any prize; refusal, or failure to verify, forfeits the prize. See clause 7.7 and our Privacy Policy.

7.6 Taxes. Prizes are paid gross. You are solely responsible for any tax arising on a prize in your hands and for reporting it to the relevant authorities. We may withhold or report where required by law.

7.7 Anti-cheat for money finals (where applicable / when introduced). Money finals may use webcam and/or screen proctoring to deter and detect cheating. This may involve processing special-category or biometric-adjacent personal data and identity documents. Where introduced, such processing will be carried out only with your explicit consent, on the basis of a completed Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), with defined retention limits, as more fully described in our Privacy Policy and the relevant Event Rules. If you do not consent, you will not be able to take part in a proctored money final.

7.8 Void and clawback. We may void results, withhold prizes, or claw back prizes already paid, and disqualify entrants, on reasonable suspicion of cheating, collusion, multi-accounting, identity fraud, or breach of the Event Rules or these Terms (see clause 5).

8. Intellectual property

8.1 The Service and all its content — including software, source code, designs, 3D models and boards, graphics, animations, the "Arcanum Chess" name and branding, logos, text, and audio — are owned by or licensed to the Company and are protected by copyright, trade marks, and other intellectual property laws.

8.2 We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Service for your own personal, non-commercial enjoyment, in accordance with these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

8.3 You must not copy, modify, distribute, sell, licence, publicly display, or create derivative works from any part of the Service, or remove or alter any proprietary notices, except as permitted by these Terms or by applicable law.

8.4 If you send us feedback, ideas, or suggestions, you grant us a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use them without obligation or compensation to you.

9. User content, chat, and moderation

9.1 Your content. You are responsible for any content you create or submit through the Service, including your username and chat messages ("User Content"). You must have the right to submit it, and it must comply with clause 4.

9.2 Licence to us. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence to host, store, reproduce, display, transmit, and otherwise use your User Content for the purposes of operating, providing, moderating, securing, and improving the Service. This licence lasts as long as needed for those purposes and survives to the extent necessary (e.g. for records, moderation logs, or where another user has received your content).

9.3 Moderation. Chat and other public content are not private and may be monitored, filtered, recorded, and reviewed for safety, fair play, and abuse prevention. We may remove, edit, or refuse to display any User Content, and may restrict your chat or other features, at our reasonable discretion and in line with these Terms. We are not obliged to monitor User Content but may do so.

9.4 No endorsement. User Content reflects the views of the user who submitted it, not us. We are not responsible for User Content created by users, beyond our responsibilities under applicable law.

10. Disclaimers and liability

10.1 Service "as is". The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we make no warranties that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of bugs, or that results, ratings, matchmaking, or third-party services (including Supabase, Stripe, Cloudflare, and Vercel) will always be available or accurate. We may modify, suspend, or withdraw all or part of the Service.

10.2 Liability we do not exclude. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, and for any breach of your non-excludable statutory rights as a consumer (including under the Consumer Rights Act 2015).

10.3 Liability we do limit (subject to clause 10.2). Subject to clause 10.2, and to the fullest extent permitted by law:

(a) we are not liable for loss or damage that is not reasonably foreseeable, nor for loss of profit, loss of opportunity, loss of data, loss of goodwill, or any indirect or consequential loss;

(b) we are not liable for loss or damage arising from the conduct of other users, from User Content, from your failure to keep your account secure, or from your breach of these Terms;

(c) our total aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of (i) the total amount you paid us for the Service in that period, and (ii) £[CAP AMOUNT, e.g. 100].

10.4 Consumers. If you are a consumer, you have legal rights that these Terms do not affect, and we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these Terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. This clause 10 does not apply to or limit those rights to the extent the law does not allow.

10.5 Business users. If you use the Service in the course of a business, the limitations in clause 10.3 apply to the maximum extent permitted by law and you agree we have no liability for business losses.

11. Suspension and termination

11.1 By you. You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time via your account settings or by contacting **.

11.2 By us. We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to all or part of the Service, and/or close your account, with or without notice, where we reasonably believe that: (a) you have breached these Terms, the Fair-Play Policy, or any Event Rules; (b) it is necessary to protect the Service, other users, or third parties, or to prevent fraud, cheating, or harm; or (c) we are required to do so by law. Where reasonably practicable and lawful, we will give you notice and reasons.

11.3 Effect of termination. On termination, your right to use the Service ends. Suspension or termination may affect pending games, ratings, entitlements, subscriptions, and (where live) prize-competition entries. Subscriptions cancelled for your breach are not refundable except as required by law. Clauses that by their nature should survive (including clauses 8, 9.2, 10, 12.4, and 13) survive termination.

11.4 Data. On account closure, we will handle your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection law, including any retention required for legal, fair-play, security, or accounting purposes.

12. Changes

12.1 Changes to the Service. We may add, change, or remove features of the Service at any time, including ratings systems, matchmaking, cosmetics, and subscription benefits, acting reasonably.

12.2 Changes to these Terms. We may update these Terms from time to time, for example to reflect changes in the Service, in law, or in our practices (such as the introduction of prize competitions). We will post the updated Terms with a new effective date.

12.3 Notice of material changes. Where changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you (for example, by email or in-app notice) before they take effect, and — where required by law — seek your consent.

12.4 Continued use. If you continue to use the Service after changes take effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Service and may close your account. Where the change materially disadvantages you in respect of a paid subscription, you may cancel as described in clause 6.

13. Governing law and jurisdiction

13.1 These Terms, their subject matter, and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims arising out of or in connection with them) are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

13.2 The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service.

13.3 Consumers. If you are a consumer resident outside England and Wales, you benefit from any mandatory protections of the law of your country of residence, and nothing in this clause deprives you of the right to bring proceedings in, or rely on the mandatory laws of, your home jurisdiction where the law so requires.

14. General

14.1 Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Fair-Play Policy, and any applicable Event Rules, form the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.

14.2 Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.

14.3 No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.

14.4 Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms. We may assign or transfer ours to an affiliate or successor (e.g. on a sale or reorganisation of the business), without reducing your rights.

14.5 Third parties. Except as stated, no one other than you and us has any right to enforce these Terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

14.6 Severable services. Some features rely on third-party providers (Supabase, Stripe, Cloudflare, Vercel). Your use of those features may also be subject to those providers' terms.

15. Company details and contact