# Terms of Service and Legal Statements
**Effective date:** Sept 30, 2026
**Last updated:** Sept 30, 2026]
Welcome to ChessLand.games. ChessLand offers information, community activities, and virtual chess experiences, including chess played in Decentraland. Our goal is to provide an enjoyable, respectful environment for players and spectators.
These Terms apply to the ChessLand.games website and the games, tournaments, and community spaces operated or administered by ChessLand (collectively, the “Services”). The Services are operated by ChessLand, a project of Applied Talent LLC (“ChessLand,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).
## 1. Agreement to these Terms
Please read these Terms before using the Services. By creating an account, registering for an event, or otherwise accepting these Terms, you agree to follow them. If you do not agree, do not register or participate. Use of the website is subject to these Terms to the extent permitted by applicable law.
Individual tournaments may have additional published rules. Those rules govern event-specific matters such as eligibility, registration deadlines, time controls, pairings, scoring, tie-breaks, and prizes. They do not override our prohibition on cheating or any rights protected by law.
## 2. Eligibility and player identity
You must meet the age requirements and other eligibility conditions of each platform you use to access ChessLand. Participation in ChessLand activities within Decentraland requires meeting Decentraland’s own age and eligibility requirements. Tournament organizers may impose additional eligibility conditions in the published event rules.
Provide accurate registration and contact information. Use the Decentraland name and player identity you registered for an event. A public Ethereum address or an identity created through a supported email sign-in may be used to distinguish players and assign games.
Do not impersonate another person, share an identity to conceal who is playing, use multiple identities to manipulate results, or evade a restriction or ban. Tell the organizers before an event if your registered identity changes.
You are responsible for securing your accounts, devices, and wallets. ChessLand will never need your wallet recovery phrase or private key. Do not send us those secrets or your account passwords.
## 3. Respectful conduct and spectator etiquette
Treat players, spectators, organizers, and volunteers with courtesy. Harassment, threats, hate speech, discriminatory abuse, doxxing, scams, spam, and disruptive conduct are prohibited. Refrain from trash-talking and repeated unwanted messages.
When watching a game, stand back from the board and avoid distracting the players. Do not use voice chat in the scene while games are underway, jump around in the players’ view, or use distracting emotes, animations, or sound effects. Do not suggest moves, reveal analysis, or otherwise assist either player during a game.
Use only available boards. Do not interfere with an active game, reset a board being used by others, or occupy a board reserved for tournament participants. Follow reasonable instructions from ChessLand organizers and moderators.
## 4. Fair Play Policy
**ChessLand has a zero-tolerance policy for cheating in tournaments and all player-versus-player games, whether rated or unrated.**
In a game against another person, your moves must be your own. During the game, you may not use:
– Chess engines, chess bots, AI assistants, or computer-generated move recommendations.
– Opening books, opening explorers, game databases, or endgame tablebases.
– Advice or analysis from another person, including spectators, coaches, or other players.
– Any other outside assistance for selecting or evaluating moves.
Do not arrange false results, deliberately manipulate ratings or leaderboard positions, collude with opponents, or exploit a software defect to gain an unfair advantage. An opponent’s permission does not waive these rules for a player-versus-player game.
**Outside assistance is permitted in Solo and Bot modes** for learning, teaching, practice, and analysis. Those modes are unrated. If you want to study a position together, use Solo mode. You may analyze a completed game using outside tools after it has ended, provided that analysis does not assist someone in another game still underway.
## 5. Fair-play review and consequences
ChessLand may review game records, PGN data, account history, registration information, and other relevant evidence to investigate suspected cheating or misconduct. Tournament results and prize awards may remain provisional while review is underway. Strong play or a single engine-matching move does not, by itself, establish cheating.
If ChessLand determines that you cheated, you will be permanently banned from ChessLand tournaments, will not receive prizes for the affected event, and your rated games will be changed to unrated and removed from rated leaderboards. ChessLand may also restrict access to other Services we control.
For other violations, ChessLand may issue a warning, remove content, restrict participation, suspend access, or impose a ban, depending on the circumstances. Attempts to evade enforcement may result in further restrictions.
ChessLand’s fair-play and tournament decisions are final for administering its activities, and no internal appeal process is offered. This does not limit legal rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be waived.
## 6. Tournament participation
Register in advance using the designated registration process, and read the rules for the event you wish to enter. Admission is subject to meeting the published eligibility criteria and any verification requirements.
An event may require a confirmed Chess.com or Lichess account, a minimum number of completed games, an established rating history, or a specified rating deviation. The requirements published for that event control. Account confirmation must establish that you control the account; do not provide your password.
Before your first tournament, visit a ChessLand venue and start at least one game using the identity you plan to use in the tournament. This establishes your player record and helps you learn the board controls and clock. Use a current, supported Decentraland client, and practice with the device and client you intend to use.
Arrive on time and be at your assigned board when each round begins. Tournament clocks may start automatically, including when a player is absent. Missed rounds, byes, absent opponents, disconnections, and withdrawals are handled under the event’s published rules. Inform the organizer promptly if you need to withdraw.
Organizers determine board assignments, colors, pairings, and the tournament format. A live leaderboard may show provisional scores and may not reflect final tie-breaks or fair-play review. Final standings are confirmed by the organizers.
## 7. Prizes and payment eligibility
Prize amounts, payment methods, and any conditions are stated in the individual event announcement. A past event’s prize schedule does not promise prizes for future events. Tournaments described as free to enter require no entry fee or purchase.
Prizes are subject to final results, fair-play review, eligibility verification, and applicable law. ChessLand may request information reasonably needed to verify identity, residence, payment details, or tax requirements. We cannot make a payment prohibited by applicable sanctions or other law, or unsupported by the payment provider. Do not misrepresent your location or identity to obtain a payment.
Where offered, a prize may be paid through PayPal or in USDC using an agreed blockchain network. Recipients must provide accurate payment details and confirm the network and destination address before a cryptocurrency payment is sent. Blockchain transfers may be irreversible, and tokens, networks, and payment providers carry risks and may impose fees or restrictions.
Any announced payment timeframe is an estimate unless the event rules expressly guarantee it. We will communicate material delays. Winners are responsible for taxes applicable to their prizes; ChessLand may withhold or report payments where legally required. Prize administration, including any forfeiture or redistribution, follows the published event rules and applicable law.
## 8. Technical issues and event administration
ChessLand and the platforms it depends on may experience bugs, outages, lag, clock or synchronization problems, or interruptions. Some features may be experimental or in testing. We do not guarantee uninterrupted operation or compatibility with every device or client.
Report a technical problem promptly, with the board, round, and relevant details. Do not exploit a problem or assume that a disconnected game has been paused. A disconnection or device failure does not automatically entitle a player to a replay, clock adjustment, or prize.
Organizers may investigate errors and, where reasonably necessary to preserve fairness, correct scores, adjust pairings, order a restart or replay, postpone a round, or suspend or cancel an event. We will explain material changes where practical. Confirmed prize obligations remain subject to the event rules and applicable law.
## 9. Game records, leaderboards, and privacy
ChessLand game records, player histories, PGN data, scores, and leaderboard entries may be available to other players and the public. Display names and public player identifiers may be associated with those records. Do not assume that your games or your activity in a public virtual venue are private.
Our **Privacy Policy** https://chessland.games/privacy-policy explains how ChessLand handles personal information, including registration details, account information, public identifiers, technical information, and website cookies. Third-party platforms have their own privacy policies. Please review those policies before submitting information or using their services.
These Terms do not replace a Privacy Policy or any separate consent required by law.
## 10. Event photography and recordings
ChessLand events may be photographed, streamed, or recorded. To the extent permitted by law, by participating in an event after receiving notice of its recording policy, you permit ChessLand and its authorized event partners to use your publicly displayed avatar, display name, gameplay, and public event contributions in event coverage, archives, and promotion of ChessLand activities, without payment.
This permission does not authorize recording private communications or using unrelated personal information. Any consent required by law will be obtained separately. Contact us before participating if you have a recording concern; we cannot guarantee that participation in a public venue will remain unrecorded.
Other attendees may make their own recordings. They are responsible for following applicable law and platform rules. These Terms do not give every attendee unrestricted rights to use your likeness, voice, or personal information.
## 11. Website use and submitted content
Do not attempt unauthorized access, introduce malware, disrupt the Services, bypass security controls, or collect other users’ personal information without permission. Automated access must not interfere with normal operation or evade access restrictions.
If you submit comments, images, messages, or other content, you retain any rights you have in that content. You grant ChessLand a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, display, and format it as reasonably needed to operate and moderate the Services where you submitted it. You must have the rights necessary to submit it and grant this permission.
We may remove submissions that violate these Terms, infringe others’ rights, or disrupt the community. Suggestions and feedback may be used to improve ChessLand without an obligation to pay compensation, subject to applicable law.
## 12. Intellectual property and third-party services
ChessLand website text, artwork, branding, and other materials are protected by applicable intellectual property laws where those rights exist. You may access them for personal, noncommercial use. Further use requires permission from the relevant rights holder unless permitted by law or an applicable license. Software released under an open-source license remains governed by that license.
Third-party names, logos, software, and materials belong to their respective owners. References to Decentraland, Chess.com, Lichess, Discord, MetaMask, PayPal, or other services do not imply their sponsorship or endorsement of ChessLand unless expressly stated. A specifically announced event collaboration applies only as described in that announcement.
Third-party services are governed by their own terms. ChessLand does not control their availability, security, moderation, payment processing, or policies. Our rules apply to the ChessLand activities we administer and do not replace platform rules.
If you believe content on our Services infringes your rights, contact us with the location of the content, a description of the rights involved, and your contact information.
## 13. Disclaimers and limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. We do not guarantee that information, ratings, bot strength estimates, game records, or provisional results will always be accurate or complete.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, ChessLand and its organizers and volunteers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from use of the Services, including lost profits or lost opportunities arising from interruptions or technical failures.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Nothing removes mandatory consumer protections or excuses payment of a prize properly due under applicable event rules and law.
## 14. Changes, disputes, and contact
We may update these Terms and will post the revised version with an updated date. Material changes will receive reasonable notice through the website or another appropriate channel, with renewed acceptance where required. Changes apply prospectively and will not retroactively alter an event’s announced prize obligations or standards for completed play.
If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply to the extent permitted by law. A failure to enforce a provision on one occasion does not waive our ability to enforce it later.
These Terms are governed by the laws of Louisana USA, subject to applicable federal law and any mandatory protections that apply where you live. Please contact us first about a dispute so we can try to resolve it. These Terms do not require arbitration or waive rights to pursue legal remedies.
For questions, misconduct reports, privacy concerns, or legal notices, contact:
**ChessLand operator:** Chessland c/o Applied Talent LLC
**Email:** info.chessland@gmail.com
**Mailing address:** Applied Talent LLC, 1 Tennyson Pl, New Orleans, LA USA
For routine gameplay support, you may also use the support-and-suggestions channel in the [ChessLand Discord](https://discord.gg/ZZyafVba8v). Send sensitive information and legal notices directly to the contact listed above.