Fair Play & Conduct

Effective 2 August 2026 · Version 2026-08-02

ChessStride is a learning instrument, not a competition for prizes. Its ratings, leaderboards and progress records are only meaningful when they reflect your own thinking. This policy explains what fair use looks like and what happens when it is broken.

Solve with your own mind

Puzzles, tactics, endgames and practice re-tests must be solved without outside help while the position is live. Do not consult a chess engine, another person, a solver, an opening book, another device or notes to produce the answer before you commit your move. Studying the engine lines and explanations after an attempt is finished is encouraged — that is the point.

One honest identity

Use a single account that belongs to you (or, for a learner under 18, one parent-managed account). Do not create multiple accounts to inflate a rating, farm a leaderboard, evade a restriction, or impersonate another member. Connected Lichess and Chess.com usernames must be ones you are entitled to import.

Leaderboard & community integrity

Opted-in leaderboards and community profiles are a shared space. Do not manipulate rankings through deliberate losing, automated solving, shared answers, or exploiting a bug in scoring. Choose a username and avatar that are not offensive, deceptive or impersonating. You can leave the leaderboard and hide your community profile at any time from Settings.

Respect the service

Do not scrape, automate excessive requests, probe or attack the APIs, attempt to reach another member's data, or upload unlawful, abusive or infringing material. Rate limits and row-level security are in place; circumventing them is a conduct violation.

Report problems, not people

If a training position looks wrong — an illegal setup, an incorrect solution or a mis-categorised motif — use the in-app report control on that position, or the Support page. Reports help us quarantine faulty content quickly. Report suspected security issues privately with the subject “Security report” and never access another member's information while investigating.

Consequences

Depending on severity, we may reset an affected rating, remove leaderboard eligibility, quarantine reported content, temporarily restrict access, or close an account for repeated or serious abuse, unlawful use, or false parental-consent claims. Where practical we favour correction and a warning first, but integrity of the shared ratings comes first.

How this connects to the rules

Fair play is part of your agreement to use the service. See the Terms of Use for the full agreement, the Privacy Notice for how data is handled, and the Chess glossary if any term here is unfamiliar. Questions go to Support.