Chess Champions — Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 12, 2026 — Version 2.0

1. Introduction

Chess Champions ("we", "our", or "us") is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your information when you use our Platform, in accordance with international privacy standards including GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), and COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act).

2. Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

Account Data

Email address, full name, and display name provided during registration or profile setup.

Personal Profile Data

Voluntarily provided information used to build your player profile:

Date of Birth — used for age verification and to enforce our minimum age policy
Gender — optional, used for demographic analytics only
Nationality — optional, used for leaderboard filtering
National Chess Federation — optional, for competitive player identification
FIDE ID — optional, used to link your profile to official FIDE records
Playing Style & Chess Title — used for matchmaking and public profile display
Biography — optional public profile text

Location Data (Optional)

Town, city, state/province, country, and continent — only if voluntarily provided by you. Used exclusively for regional leaderboards and geographic matchmaking. Location is publicly visible on your profile and leaderboard listings if provided.

Gameplay Data

Match history, ELO ratings, wins, losses, draws, game moves (PGN/FEN), time control preferences, and virtual coin balance.

Usage Data

Club & Social Data

Club memberships, club names, and your role within clubs (founder, admin, member). Club membership is associated with your display name and is visible to other club members.

Cosmetics & Shop Data

Records of cosmetic items purchased with virtual coins, equipped customizations, and coin balance. No payment data is ever collected as all items are purchased with virtual in-game coins.

3. How We Use Your Data

To operate and improve the Platform and its features
To manage your account and authenticate your sessions
To verify your age and enforce eligibility requirements
To calculate ELO rankings and maintain regional and global leaderboards
To enable matchmaking based on skill, location, and preferences
To process virtual coin rewards (which have no monetary value)
To send important service communications (e.g., terms updates)
To detect and prevent cheating, fraud, or abuse
To conduct aggregate demographic analytics (data is never sold)

4. Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties. Your data may only be shared in the following limited circumstances:

With platform infrastructure providers (hosting, database) under strict data processing agreements
If required by law, court order, or legal process
To protect the safety and rights of other users or the Platform

Your display name, ELO rating, win/loss record, chess title, and location (if provided) are visible to other users on public leaderboards and profiles. Date of birth, gender, FIDE ID, nationality, and national federation are never displayed publicly and are used only for internal purposes.

5. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you request account deletion, we will delete or anonymize your personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required by law. Match history may be retained in anonymized form for platform integrity purposes.

For users under 18 whose parental consent is revoked, we will delete associated personal profile data (date of birth, gender, nationality) within 14 days of receiving the revocation request.

6. Children's Privacy

ℹ️ Important — Children Under 18

We take the privacy of minors seriously and comply with COPPA (US), GDPR (EU), and equivalent international standards.

Minimum Age: Chess Champions requires users to be at least 13 years old to register.
Ages 13–17: Users between 13 and 17 must have the consent of a parent or legal guardian to use the Platform. By registering, a minor confirms that their parent or guardian has been informed of and approved their use of Chess Champions.
Parental Rights: Parents or guardians of minor users may contact us at any time to review, update, or request deletion of their child's personal data, or to withdraw consent entirely.
COPPA Compliance: We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. If we discover that a child under 13 has registered without consent, we will promptly delete their account and associated data.
Reduced Data for Minors: We encourage minors to provide only the minimum required information (display name and email). Optional fields such as FIDE ID, playing style, and biography are not required.
No Public Contact: Minor users' email addresses and personal contact details are never displayed publicly and are never shared with other users.

If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal data without consent, please contact us immediately through the Platform's support channel.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you have the right to:

Access — request a copy of your personal data
Rectification — correct inaccurate or incomplete data
Erasure — request deletion of your data ("right to be forgotten")
Portability — receive your data in a portable format
Objection — object to certain types of data processing
Restriction — request that we limit how we process your data

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us through the Platform's support channel.

8. Cookies & Local Storage

We use browser local storage to maintain session state and remember your preferences (such as terms acceptance and referral codes). We do not use third-party advertising cookies. Essential session cookies may be used for authentication.

9. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data, including encrypted data transmission (HTTPS), secure authentication, and access controls. However, no system is 100% secure; please use a strong, unique password for your account.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Material changes will be notified to users via the Platform, and re-acceptance will be required where applicable. The version number and date at the top of this policy reflect the most recent update.