Your data, in plain language

What we collect

Account

Your email address and a display name, so you can sign in and appear on boards and forums. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and are never visible to us.

Chess activity

Games you save from Play or Analysis, puzzle results, lesson and Learn-path progress, XP and badges.

Community

Forum posts and event entries you choose to publish, together with your display name.

On your device

Local settings like board theme, piece set, language and guest Learn progress. These live in your browser's local storage and never reach our servers unless you sign in.

Basic technical

Standard server logs from our hosting provider — approximate region, browser type, and pages requested — used for reliability and abuse prevention.

What we never collect

• Phone numbers, home addresses, or national ID details.
• Payment card numbers — when payments launch, processing will be handled entirely by the payment provider.
• Contacts, photos, microphone or camera access.
• Precise location.

Who we share with

We do not sell personal data, and we don't share it with advertisers for profiling. A small number of service providers process data so the site can run:

• Supabase — database and sign-in, storing your account and saved chess data.
• Vercel — hosting and delivery of the site.
• Google Fonts — typefaces served to your browser.
• Google AdSense — advertising on free areas of the site. Ads may use cookies to limit repetition and measure performance. Premium members browse ad-free.
• Chess.com and Lichess — only when you personally choose to import a game from those sites, in which case that request goes to their servers.

We may also disclose information if legally required, or to protect the safety of our users.

Cookies and local storage

We use local storage to remember your preferences and to keep guest lesson progress on your own device. Sign-in uses a session cookie so you stay logged in. Advertising cookies come from Google AdSense on free pages; you can manage them in your browser settings or at Google Ad Settings.

Visitors browsing from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland are asked before any advertising cookie is set, and the site works fully either way — declining simply means no ads. You can revisit that choice at any time:

Change my cookie choice

Children

Kids Academy and the beginner Learn path are designed to be usable without an account. When a child uses them signed out, progress stays on the device and nothing is uploaded. We do not knowingly create accounts for children under 13 without a parent or guardian, and we ask parents to set up and supervise any account used by a child.

If you believe a child's information has been submitted to us, email us and we will delete it promptly.

Your choices

• See your data — your saved games, puzzle stats and progress are all visible on your Profile page.
• Delete individual items — saved games and forum posts can be deleted by you at any time.
• Delete your account — email us and we will remove your account and associated data.
• Play as a guest — Play, Puzzles, Analysis and the first Learn section work without an account at all.

Security and retention

Data is stored on managed infrastructure with encrypted connections, and access is restricted to what's needed to operate the site. We keep your data while your account is open; when you delete it, we remove personal records and retain only anonymised counts that can't identify you.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes in a meaningful way, we'll update the date at the top of this page and note it on the site. Questions about your data, or a deletion request? Reach us through the contact page.