Terms of Service

These terms govern your use of Ancient Chess (ancient-chess.online). By creating an account or otherwise using the Site, you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use the Site.

Who can use Ancient Chess

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account or use the Site. By using Ancient Chess, you confirm that you meet this requirement.

Your account

• You're responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for anything that happens under your account.
• The information you give us (email, display name, etc.) should be accurate.
• Only one active game is allowed per person at a time — this is a deliberate design choice, not a bug.
• We may suspend or ban an account that violates these terms, using the durations and process described in "Enforcement" below.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Harass, threaten, or abuse other users, in the forum, in chat, or anywhere else on the Site.
• Post illegal content, spam, or content that infringes someone else's rights.
• Impersonate another person or historical figure in a way intended to deceive.
• Use a bot, script, or engine assistance to play chess games on your behalf against another human player (playing our built-in AI ladder is, obviously, the whole point, and is fine).
• Attempt to bypass a ban, scrape or systematically collect data from the Site, or interfere with its normal operation.

Your content

You keep ownership of the original content you post — forum threads and replies, news comments, your profile bio, and so on. By posting it, you grant Ancient Chess a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, display, and distribute that content as needed to operate the Site (for example, showing your forum post to other visitors).

We consider the data generated through your use of the Site — including account records, gameplay history, and aggregate usage statistics — to belong to Ancient Chess. As described in our Privacy Policy, we don't sell, rent, or share that data with third parties.

The AI historical figures

The historical figures you play against and chat with are AI-generated personas built for entertainment. Their in-character replies do not represent the actual views, statements, or historical record of the real people they're based on, are not fact-checked, and should not be relied on as historical, medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of professional advice.

Enforcement

If you violate these terms, we may remove content, apply a temporary ban (in one of a small number of fixed durations), or, in serious or repeated cases, take further action against your account. Where reasonably possible, we'll try to make clear which of these applies and why.

The Site is provided "as is"

Ancient Chess is a free, independently-run project. We do our best to keep it running smoothly, but we don't guarantee it will always be available, error-free, or uninterrupted, and we may add, change, or remove features — or the Site as a whole — at any time. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Site is provided without warranties of any kind, and we aren't liable for any damages arising from your use of it.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If we make a meaningful change, we'll update the "Last updated" date above. Continuing to use the Site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Western Australia, Australia, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

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