Deutsch (binding version)

Terms of Service

Last updated: 16 April 2026. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Chessivity’s website and services (the “Service”). The operator of the Service is the entity identified in our Impressum.

Language: We publish these Terms in English for convenience. The German version at /terms/de (Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen) is the legally binding version in case of any discrepancy or conflict between the two language versions.

1. Agreement

By creating an account, clicking to accept these Terms where offered, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Scope of the Service

Chessivity offers a social experience for chess players, including feeds, posts, comments, reactions, follows, profiles, notifications, chess-related content features, and integrations such as sign-in or account linking with third-party providers (for example Lichess or Google) where we make them available. Features may change over time. The Service does not include third-party websites or services that we link to; their terms and policies apply to those services.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to use the Service, as confirmed where we ask during onboarding. By using the Service you represent that you meet this requirement. We do not knowingly allow accounts for users below that age.

4. Your account

You are responsible for the activity that occurs under your account and for keeping your login credentials confidential. You agree to provide accurate, current profile and registration information and to update it as needed.

You must not impersonate any person or organisation, or falsely state or imply who you are. In particular, you must not create or use an account in a way that misrepresents or falsely suggests that you are a well-known chess player or another widely recognised figure in the chess community when you are not. We may suspend or terminate accounts or content that violate this rule, in addition to other measures described in these Terms.

5. User content and licence to us

You retain any rights you already hold in content you submit to the Service (“User Content”). You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, adapt formatting of, and otherwise use User Content as reasonably necessary to operate, promote, and improve the Service (including moderation, security, backup, and technical adaptation such as resizing images), and to allow other users to view and interact with User Content according to the Service’s features and your privacy settings. Profile photos you upload may be stored on our object storage in the EEA (e.g. OVHcloud) as described in the Privacy Policy. Where the operator enables it, automated technical review of profile photos may occur before publication, as described in the Privacy Policy.

Profile photos — what you must not upload: You must not upload or submit as a profile photo any image or file that: is unlawful; you do not have sufficient rights to license to us as described below; shows intimate or sexualised depictions of another person without their valid consent; sexualises, exploits, or endangers minors; is extremely violent, hateful, terrorist, or similar material where prohibited by applicable law; or is misleading, fraudulent, or harmful (including files that impersonate or contain malware). The prohibitions in Acceptable use apply in full as well.

Display rights for profile photos: For profile photos you upload, you additionally grant us an unrestricted licence (within the scope described here) to use them for the duration we store or process them, without territorial limit, in connection with operating, promoting, and presenting the Service — including public and non-public display in all current and future Service surfaces and channels (e.g. profile, feed, search, notifications, previews, thumbnails), and to process and deliver them technically (e.g. scaling, transcoding, caching, CDN or hosting infrastructure, including processors in the EEA), without additional payment or further consent from you, except where your in-Service profile or privacy settings expressly provide otherwise. This grant is not revoked merely because we temporarily stop showing your image; it continues for as long as we store or process the image for the Service, and to the extent needed for legal holds or statutory retention.

You confirm that you have all rights needed to grant the licence above and that your User Content does not infringe third-party rights or applicable law. Illegal content is prohibited. We may process reports and take measures consistent with applicable law, including the EU Digital Services Act where it applies.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to misuse the Service. For example, you must not:

• violate applicable law or infringe others’ intellectual property, privacy, or other rights;
• harass, threaten, abuse, or discriminate against others, or encourage violence or self-harm;
• distribute malware, attempt to gain unauthorised access to our or others’ systems, or disrupt the Service;
• send spam or use the Service for unsolicited bulk communications;
• upload or share intimate imagery of others without consent, or exploit minors;
• cheat at chess in connection with the Service or use the Service to coordinate cheating, including using unauthorised assistance in ways that violate fair play or applicable platform rules we communicate;
• scrape or collect data from the Service in bulk without our prior written consent, except as allowed by public APIs we document or by law.

We may publish or update community guidelines; serious or repeated breaches of these Terms or such guidelines may result in enforcement action.

7. Moderation and termination

We may, but are not obligated to, review User Content or conduct. We may remove or restrict User Content, features, or accounts where we reasonably believe it is necessary to comply with law, protect users or the public, address abuse, or operate the Service. We may suspend or terminate your account with or without prior notice where permitted by law, including for breach of these Terms or for risk to the Service or other users.

You may stop using the Service at any time. Provisions that by their nature should survive (for example, limitations of liability where valid, and intellectual-property-related undertakings) will survive termination.

8. Third-party services

The Service may interoperate with third-party services (such as Lichess or Google for authentication). Those services are provided by third parties under their own terms and privacy notices. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party services or content.

9. Intellectual property and notices

Except for User Content, we and our licensors own the Service, including software, branding, and design, subject to open-source licences where we publish them (see Third-party licenses). You may not use our names or marks except as allowed by law or with our prior consent.

If you believe content on the Service infringes your rights, contact us using the details in the Impressum or support, with enough information for us to assess your notice. We may remove or disable access to material where required or appropriate under applicable law.

10. Paid features

The Service may be free today. We reserve the right to introduce paid features, subscriptions, or other offers. If we do, we will present applicable prices, billing terms, and—where required for consumers—information on withdrawal and payment in the checkout flow or separate terms at the time of purchase. Those terms will apply to the paid transaction in addition to these Terms, to the extent relevant.

11. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by mandatory applicable law (including mandatory consumer protection law in Austria and the EU), the Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components. Any statutory warranties that cannot be excluded remain unaffected.

12. Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by mandatory law, we are liable without limitation for intent (Vorsatz) and gross negligence (grobe Fahrlässigkeit), for injury to life, body, or health, and under any mandatory statutory liability (for example under product liability law).

Subject to the foregoing paragraph, our total liability for slight negligence (leichte Fahrlässigkeit) is limited to typical, foreseeable damages, except for breaches of essential contractual obligations (wesentliche Vertragspflichten)—in the latter case, liability for slight negligence is also limited to typical, foreseeable damages. Essential contractual obligations are those whose fulfilment enables proper performance of the contract and on whose compliance you may regularly rely.

Liability for slight negligence for data loss is limited to the typical recovery costs that would have arisen with proper backup behaviour on your part. Other or broader exclusions or limitations apply only insofar as mandatory law allows.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms to reflect legal, technical, or operational changes. We will publish the revised Terms on this page with an updated “Last updated” date. Where required by law, we will notify you (for example by email or in-app notice) and, if necessary, obtain your consent. If you do not agree to updated Terms, you must stop using the Service. Material changes will be called out where practicable.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms (in their binding German version) are governed by the laws of Austria, excluding its conflict-of-law rules, subject to mandatory consumer protections that apply in your country of residence if you qualify as a consumer and such protections cannot be waived by agreement.

If you are a consumer resident in the EU, you may also bring proceedings in the courts of your place of residence where such rights are mandatory under EU law. If you are a merchant (Kaufmann) or have no general jurisdiction in Austria, the courts at our statutory seat (see Impressum) have exclusive jurisdiction for disputes arising from these Terms, where permitted.

15. EU online dispute resolution

The European Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. We are not obliged to participate in alternative dispute resolution before a consumer arbitration body; we will state any participation or legal requirement in our Impressum or at checkout when we offer paid services, if applicable.

16. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us using the details in the Impressum or support.