Fair Play and Community Policy
Last Updated: September 1, 2024
ICC’s Fair Play and Community Policy supports our mission to maintain a safe, fun, and fair platform for chess players around the world.
If you use our Website or become a Member, you must abide by this Fair Play and Community Policy and our Terms of Service. In the event of any conflict between our Terms of Service and this Fair Play and Community Policy, our Fair Play and Community Policy will supersede.
All capitalized terms used but not defined in this Fair Play and Community Policy have the respective meanings set forth in the Terms of Service. We reserve the right to modify this Fair Play and Community Policy at any time with or without notice to you, in which case we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this Fair Play and Community Policy.
You agree to refrain from engaging in any dishonest, deceitful, fraudulent, or other similar conduct when playing on our Website or when competing in Competitive Events, including the following:
- All chess moves must be your own.
- Do not cheat in any way.
- Be kind to others.
- Do not abuse, attack, threaten, discriminate, or mistreat other users or Members in any way.
- Do not hijack threads, troll, or post distracting or meaningless content.
- Do not post spam, advertisements, or copy/paste comments and messages.
- Do not publicly debate religious or political topics.
- Do not post obscene or pornographic content.
- Do not discuss or promote illegal activities.
- Do not open more than one Account.
- Do not abort games frequently.
- Do not make your opponent wait unnecessarily.
- Do not disconnect or quit without resigning when lost.
- Do not harass or accuse your opponents.
- Do not get help from any other person, including parents, friends, coaches or another player.
- Do not use chess engines, software of any kind, bots, plugins, browser extensions, or any tools that analyze positions during play. We can detect if you are using any of these programs.
- Do not use tablebases or any other resources that show the “best” chess move.
- Do not perform any automated analysis or “blunder checking” of your games in progress.
- Do not allow anyone else to use your Account.
- Do not use anyone else's Account.
- Do not artificially manipulate ratings, matches, or game outcomes.
- Do not interfere with the gameplay of other users and Members.
If you have credible information about alleged misconduct, mistreatment, or behavior that violates this Fair Play and Community Policy, please report it to us by contacting us at support@chessclub.com.
If we determine or suspect that you have violated our Fair Play and Community Policy in any way, then we may close your Account and label it publicly closed for violation(s). We also reserve and maintain the complete right to take any action that we may deem appropriate in response to a violation(s) or suspected violation(s) of our Fair Play and Community Policy, including but not limited to publicly disclosing facts,
communications, and findings regarding any violation(s) of the Fair Play and Community Policy and disclosing such materials to governmental authorities or chess governing bodies.
All Account status changes are made in our sole discretion. Under some circumstances, including for titled players, we may, at our discretion, allow you to open a second-chance account, subject to additional terms and conditions, including your provision of a written acknowledgment of your violation(s) in the form of the agreement we provide.
If further violations of the Fair Play and Community Policy are detected, you will be subject to a lifetime ban from ICC. For the avoidance of doubt, ICC has no obligation to provide second-chance accounts, even for titled players, and reviews Fair Play and Community Policy violations on a case-by-case basis.