Terms & Conditions

These Terms & Conditions ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and Zafronix LLC, which operates Next-Gen Chess (ngchess.com) (the "Service"). Please read them together with our License and Privacy Policy.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing, registering for, or using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms, the License, and the Privacy Policy. If you are using the Service on behalf of a school, district, or other organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, and "you" refers to both you and that organization. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility

You must be able to form a legally binding contract to create an account. The Service is not directed to children under 13 for independent account creation. Children may participate only through a teacher- or school-managed classroom (see Section 4) or with verifiable parental consent where required by law. If you are between the age of majority in your jurisdiction and 18, you may use the Service only with the involvement of a parent, guardian, or teacher.

3. Accounts & Sign-In

Accounts sign in primarily with a one-time "magic" link sent to your email address; you may optionally set a password as a fallback. You are responsible for (a) providing an accurate email address, (b) maintaining control and security of the email inbox associated with your account, and (c) all activity that occurs under your account. Sign-in links are personal to you — do not forward or share them. Notify us promptly of any unauthorized use. We may refuse, suspend, reclaim inactive usernames, or terminate accounts at our discretion as described in Section 12.

4. Educational & Classroom Use

Teachers and schools may create classrooms and invite students to join using a classroom code and an alias, without requiring student email addresses, passwords, or personal profiles. If you are an educator, you represent and warrant that you have obtained all consents and provided all notices required by your institution and by applicable law (including, where applicable, COPPA and FERPA) for your students to use the Service, and that you will use student data only for legitimate educational purposes. You are responsible for supervising your students' use of the Service.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Service lawfully and in accordance with fair-play principles. You will not:

• Use engines, bots, automated tools, or outside assistance to gain an unfair advantage in rated or competitive play;
• Harass, bully, threaten, impersonate, or infringe the rights of others, or submit content that is unlawful, abusive, hateful, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable;
• Attempt to access, hack, disrupt, overload, or damage the Service, its infrastructure, or other users' accounts or data;
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, or breach security or authentication measures, without our express written authorization;
• Scrape, harvest, or use automated means to collect data from the Service, or use the Service or its output to train or improve any machine-learning model;
• Upload malware or use the Service to transmit unsolicited or unauthorized communications.

6. User Content & Feedback

You retain ownership of content you submit (such as feedback, messages, or game data). You grant Next-Gen Chess a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, and use that content as necessary to operate and improve the Service. You represent that you have the rights to submit such content and that it does not violate any law or third-party right. Feedback is additionally governed by Section 7 of the License.

7. Subscriptions, Payments & Refunds

Certain features may be offered on a free tier and others through paid plans or subscriptions. Paid plans are billed through our third-party payment processor (Stripe); we do not store your full payment card details. Prices, features, and plan availability may change. Unless otherwise stated or required by law, fees are non-refundable, and recurring subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled. You are responsible for applicable taxes. You may cancel a subscription at any time, effective at the end of the then-current billing period.

8. Intellectual Property

The Service and its Content are owned by Next-Gen Chess and its licensors and are licensed to you, not sold, under the License. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

9. Third-Party Services

The Service integrates third-party services (for example, Stripe for payments, Cloudflare Turnstile for bot protection, and analytics providers). Your use of those services may be subject to their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services or content, and links to third-party sites are provided for convenience only.

10. AI Coaching Disclaimer

The Service provides AI-generated move evaluations, win-probability estimates, and coaching explanations for educational purposes. These outputs may be inaccurate or incomplete and are not guarantees of chess strength, results, or outcomes. Use your own judgment; do not rely on them as professional advice.

11. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, as more fully described in the License. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Next-Gen Chess and Zafronix LLC are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, and our total aggregate liability for any claim relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of the amounts you paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim or US$100.

12. Suspension & Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, in whole or in part, at any time, with or without notice, for conduct that we believe violates these Terms or is harmful to other users, us, or third parties. You may stop using the Service and request account deletion at any time. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive.

13. Changes to the Service & Terms

We may modify or discontinue the Service, or update these Terms, at any time. When we make material changes to these Terms, we will update the "Last Updated" date below and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

14. Governing Law & Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. You agree that any dispute not resolved informally will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Wyoming, except where applicable law provides otherwise. Nothing in these Terms limits any non-waivable statutory rights you may have.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be directed to Zafronix LLC, 30 N Gould St, Ste R, Sheridan, WY 82801, USA, or through the feedback form on the Service.