Terms and Conditions

Last updated: 8 May 2026 · Effective date: 8 May 2026 · Version 1.0

In plain English (TL;DR)

This is the short version. The full terms below are what legally applies.

Ochess is free, and currently in beta. Things may break, change, or disappear without notice.
It's a personal project, not a company. There is no support team, no SLA, no guarantees.
You must be at least 16 years old to use it. By signing up, you confirm that you are.
Don't be a jerk. No harassment, no cheating, no spam, no illegal content, no impersonation, no using the Service to attack anyone.
Your content stays yours. But by sharing a lab publicly or via link, you let others view and reference it. By sending direct messages, you accept that the recipient (and the Service Operator, in limited cases) can see them.
We can suspend or close your account if you break these rules.
Imported chess data (games from Lichess, Chess.com, Lichess opening database) is licensed by those sources. You're responsible for respecting their terms.
No warranty, no liability beyond what UK law requires.
Disputes go through English law and the courts of England and Wales.

1. About these Terms

These Terms and Conditions (the "Terms") form a legally binding agreement between you ("you", "the User") and Yevhenii Chebotarkyi, an individual operating Ochess as a personal project, based in the United Kingdom (the "Service Operator", "we", "us").

Contact: support@ochess.app

The Terms govern your use of the Ochess website (currently hosted at ochess.app) and any related subdomains operated by us (the "Service").

By creating an account, ticking the agreement box, or otherwise using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. About the Service

Ochess is a chess training tool that allows registered users to:

Create and study opening labs (move trees with chapters, notes, and training drills)
Import their games from Lichess, Chess.com, or in PGN format
Look up opening statistics via Lichess Opening Explorer
Analyse positions using a local Stockfish chess engine running in your browser
Send direct messages to other registered users
Share labs publicly, by unlisted link, or keep them private

The Service is currently free of charge and provided in beta. We may introduce paid features in the future; if and when we do, we will update these Terms and notify registered users.

3. Eligibility and account registration

3.1 Age

You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service. By registering, you confirm that you meet this minimum age. We may close any account if we discover the account holder is under 16.

3.2 Account creation

You can register using:

An email address and password
A Google account (via Google OAuth)

After registration, you must choose a unique username (minimum 3 characters). Usernames must not be offensive, impersonate another person or organisation, or violate the rights of any third party. We reserve the right to reclaim usernames at our discretion if they breach these rules.

3.3 Accuracy and security

You agree to provide accurate information. You are responsible for keeping your password secure and for all activity on your account. If you suspect your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at support@ochess.app.

You may have only one account, unless we explicitly agree otherwise in writing.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law;
harass, threaten, defame, or impersonate any other person, including other users or the Service Operator;
post, share, or transmit content that is hateful, discriminatory, sexually explicit, violent, or otherwise inappropriate;
post, share, or transmit content that infringes any third party's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights;
use the Service to send spam, unsolicited messages, or commercial promotion of any kind;
attempt to gain unauthorised access to other users' accounts or to non-public areas of the Service;
interfere with the operation of the Service, including by uploading malicious code, exploiting bugs, or making excessive automated requests;
scrape, harvest, or mass-download data from the Service except where explicitly permitted (e.g. exporting your own data via the API where provided);
reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the Service beyond what is permitted by applicable law;
use the Service to facilitate cheating in chess games on any platform (this includes using imported analysis to cheat in real-time games elsewhere).

Violation of these rules may result in warnings, content removal, account suspension, or permanent account closure, at our sole discretion. We are under no obligation to provide a reason or to offer an appeals process, although we will try to act reasonably.

5. Your content

5.1 Ownership

You retain ownership of all content you create on the Service, including opening labs, notes, comments, direct messages, and any text or data you upload (collectively, "Your Content").

5.2 Licence to us

To operate the Service, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, transmit, and display Your Content solely for the purpose of providing the Service to you and to other users you choose to share with. This licence ends when you delete the relevant content or your account, except for backups retained for up to 30 days as described in our Privacy Policy.

5.3 Public and shared content

If you choose to make a lab "public" or share it via an "unlisted" link, you grant any user who accesses it the right to view and study its content. If a lab is set to public, it may be discoverable through the Service's interface; if unlisted, it is accessible only via the share link, but anyone with that link can pass it on.

You are solely responsible for what you choose to make public or share.

5.4 Direct messages

Direct messages are visible to the recipient. The Service Operator does not routinely read messages, but can technically access them for security, abuse-handling, or legal compliance purposes. Do not send anything through Ochess messages that you would not want a third party to read.

5.5 Removal of content

We may remove any content that, in our reasonable judgement, breaches these Terms or applicable law, without prior notice.

6. Imported and third-party data

6.1 Games imported from Lichess and Chess.com

When you import games, the chess data (moves, results, metadata) originates from those platforms and remains subject to their respective terms. We process it solely to display, store, and analyse it within your account.

6.2 Opening database

The opening database used by the Service is derived from publicly available chess game data published by Lichess (lichess.org) under the Creative Commons CC0 licence. Source: github.com/lichess-org/chess-openings.

6.3 Lichess Opening Explorer

Opening statistics in a lab are served through our own caching proxy (api.ochess.app), which fetches data from the Lichess Opening Explorer API (explorer.lichess.ovh) on the server side. This underlying data is governed by Lichess's terms of use.

6.4 Stockfish

The Service uses Stockfish, an open-source chess engine, which runs locally in your browser. Stockfish is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3. We do not modify Stockfish; the npm package source is available on npmjs.com/package/stockfish.

6.5 Fonts

The Service uses Google Fonts (Cormorant Garamond, IBM Plex Mono), served by Google. Use of fonts is governed by the SIL Open Font License.

7. Our intellectual property

The Service's source code, design, layout, graphics, trademarks (including the name "Ochess" and any logos), and original content are owned by us or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable laws. These Terms do not grant you any right to use any of these other than as necessary for normal use of the Service as a registered user.

8. Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. Please read our Privacy Policy to understand what personal data we collect, why, and how we handle it. By using the Service, you also agree to the practices described in the Privacy Policy.

9. Service availability

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not guarantee that:

the Service will always be available, uninterrupted, or error-free;
the Service will meet your specific requirements;
any data you upload will be permanently retained or never lost.

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature or the entire Service at any time, with or without notice. As Ochess is a personal project in beta, we reserve broad discretion here.

You are responsible for maintaining your own backups of any content important to you.

10. Account termination

10.1 By you

You may delete your account at any time from the profile page. Deletion erases your profile, username reservation, imported games, training progress, opening labs (private, public, and shared), Cloud Storage files associated with your labs, and all your direct messages. See the Privacy Policy for details on what is retained in backups for up to 30 days.

10.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your account, without notice, if:

you breach these Terms;
we are required to do so by law;
the Service is being discontinued.

In the event the Service is discontinued, we will use reasonable efforts to give registered users at least 30 days' notice and a chance to export their data.

11. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

11.1 Disclaimer

Except as expressly stated in these Terms or required by applicable law, the Service is provided without any warranties or conditions of any kind, whether express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement.

11.2 Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for:

any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages;
any loss of data, profits, revenue, business, or goodwill;
any inability to access or use the Service;
any actions or content of other users;
any reliance you place on opening statistics, Stockfish evaluations, or other information provided by the Service.

If, despite the above, we are found to be liable, our total aggregate liability to you in connection with the Service is limited to £100 or the amount you have paid us in the previous 12 months, whichever is greater. As the Service is currently free, this means our liability is capped at £100.

11.3 What we don't disclaim

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for:

death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
any other liability that cannot be excluded under English law.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claim, loss, damage, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Service, or your infringement of any third party's rights.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the latest revision.

For material changes, we will notify registered users by email and/or through the Service. On your next login after a material change, we will require you to accept the updated Terms before continuing to use the Service. If you do not accept, you may delete your account; continued use after the effective date of the new Terms means you accept them.

14. Miscellaneous

14.1 Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

14.2 Jurisdiction

Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, except that, if you are a consumer in the EEA or another jurisdiction with overriding consumer protection rules, you may also have the right to bring proceedings in your country of residence.

14.3 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force.

14.4 No waiver

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that right or provision.

14.5 Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service, and supersede any prior agreements.

14.6 Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account to anyone else. We may assign these Terms (for example, if we move the project to a corporate entity in the future); we will notify you if we do.

14.7 Language

These Terms are provided in English and Russian. In case of any conflict between versions, the English version prevails.

15. Contact

For any questions about these Terms:

Email:support@ochess.app