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Terms of Service

Last Modified: Sunday 2nd April 2023

TL;DR

  • Do not cheat or receive assistance in games (from a chess computer, book, database or another person)
  • Be nice and courteous to all other players, always
  • Don't do bad things or break any laws
  • Enjoy the site!

The Lichess Terms of Service

Hello there, and welcome to Lichess.org (known as Lichess), an association governed by the Law of Associations of July 1, 1901. Or, in more human-friendly language, we are an official French charitable organisation which notably publishes the website Lichess.org.

Lichess is free/libre open source software, with the express charitable purpose of promoting and encouraging the play and study of chess. This means that in addition to using our website and its features, technologies or software for free (collectively, the "services"), you can also inspect, copy, and (within certain licensing requirements) use our source code. To discover more about our values and philosophy, you can find out more here and here.

These Terms of Service (Terms) are a legally binding agreement made by and between us (Lichess.org) and you individually, and if it additionally applies to you, any organisation or entity you represent (collectively, "you"). This page governs your use of our website and the Services that we offer, so take care to read through it carefully. Although in some places we've had to use certain legal phrasing and terminology for these Terms to be valid, overall we've done our best to explain everything in clear everyday English.

By accessing or using any part of this website or our services, we take that to mean that you have read, understood, and agree to contract with us on the basis of these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use our website or services. From time to time, we may need to make changes to these Terms. We will edit the "last modified" date when we do, and if you continue using our website and/or services after that, we will take that to mean you have accepted the changes to our contract.

This TOS should be read in conjunction with our GDPR compliant privacy policy, and with our Fair Play and Community Guidelines. These are incorporated into these Terms by reference, and make up part of the legally binding agreement we're both entering into.

Useful information and resources

Support our work:
https://lichess.org/patron
https://shop.spreadshirt.com/lichess-org
https://crowdin.com/project/lichess
https://lichess.org/help/contribute

Features and updates:
https://lichess.org/features
https://lichess.org/changelog
https://lichess.org/blog
https://lichess.org/team/lichess-curator

Contact, FAQs, and help:
https://lichess.org/contact
https://lichess.org/faq
https://lichess.org/page/fair-play
https://lichess.org/help/master
https://lichess.org/page/documentation
https://lichess.org/page/streaming-fairplay-faq
https://lichess.org/page/blog-etiquette
https://lichess.org/page/chat-etiquette
contact@lichess.org

Lichess.org
350 Chemin du Pré Neuf
38350 La Mure
Grenoble
France

Social media:
https://discordapp.com/invite/lichess
https://twitter.com/lichess
https://www.facebook.com/lichessdotorg/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr6RfQga70yMM9-nuzAYTsA
https://www.twitch.tv/lichessdotorg

For programmers:
https://lichess.org/source
https://lichess.org/api
https://github.com/lichess-org
https://github.com/lichess-org/lila/blob/master/COPYING.md

Using our website

We invite anyone to access our website, although it is solely at our discretion which parts of the website - if any - are accessible to you. From time to time, all users may be affected by any maintenance we may need to carry out, or rarely, technological disruption. We are not liable for any losses or harm to you, real or otherwise, for the website being unavailable at any time. We are also not responsible if some parts or all of the website does not work with your hardware or software.

You are free to decide if you want to register an account or not - it's entirely optional. Bear in mind that some of our features on our website are not fully accessible without an account ("anonymous" users). The features accessible to anonymous users and registered users may also change from time to time, and we reserve the right to amend, suspend or entirely remove any aspect or feature of our website.

All users, registered or anonymous, must also comply with our Fair Play and Community Guidelines, which cover that our website must be used in a lawful way. For the purposes of this section of our Terms, you must particularly comply with the following rules:

  • You must not attempt to gain unlawful access to the website, any server connected to our website, any database or computer connected to our website;
  • You must not attack our website via any kind of volumetric attack, or attempt to exploit any bugs, weaknesses and vulnerabilities present in our website. Attempts to identify weaknesses in our site to report to us are appreciated, so long as they do not breach the relevant rules.
  • You must not misuse the site by introducing harmful materials, programmes, or code designed to negatively affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

In addition to being against our Terms, conducting the above activities are illegal, and you may be committing a criminal offence and charged if you engage in these activities. We reserve the right to report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authority, and we reserve the right to cooperate with them by disclosing relevant information to them. Users engaging in these activities will immediately have access to their account removed, and a public label added to the account that our Terms were violated.

You are welcome to use and reproduce our website for your personal and commercial use, so long as you comply with the relevant licenses applicable to the website and their component parts (such as fonts, designs, piece sets). Please refer to the "Licenses" section of these Terms for further information.

For all purposes, commercial or non-commercial, for registered or anonymous users, our website is provided "as is" and we can't guarantee the full or partial functioning or full or partial accuracy of what is on our website. Consequently, we cannot be held liable for any of your damage or losses sustained, of any type.

Using our services

In addition to publishing our website, we also offer services which we invite anyone to utilise so long as the relevant licenses and our rules are followed in using them. Our services include (but are not limited to): API access, content, game databases, puzzle sets, piece and board sets, streamer sections, coaches sections, user blogs, relying on our moderation or other expertise, and all or some of our software.

You can use our services for your own personal or commercial use, such as in your own applications, projects, research, or products. Please refer to our Fair Play and Community Guidelines which may further apply to the use of or access to some or all of our services. For further information relating to the licensing of using some or all of these services, please refer to the "Licenses" section - as different licenses may apply to different services.

All use of our services are subject to reasonable caps, limits, restrictions, or other bottle-necking which are purely determined at Lichess' discretion. This includes private messages which are subject to a reasonable use limitation, as well as public chat messages. For more information on these points, please refer to our privacy policy.

The services available may change from time to time, and we reserve the right to amend, suspend or entirely remove any aspect or feature from our services. Our services are provided "as is" and may require your own efforts, modification, and resources to ensure they work satisfactorily. We cannot guarantee the full or partial function or full or partial accuracy of any of our services. Consequently, we cannot be held liable for any of your damage or losses sustained, of any type.

In addition, we reserve the right to change the licensing of our services, or the services we own that we make publicly available. We also reserve the right to give privileged access to certain categories of our services (such as special API access) or revoke access temporarily or permanently as we see fit, at our sole discretion, and potentially without any advance warning.

Our moderation services can also be used to moderate your events, including commercial, but please be aware that in the absence of any special agreement beyond this, our moderation services will purely be on an ad hoc "as is" basis. For any special or additional moderation services, please contact us directly.

In addition to the Fair Play and Community Guidelines, we reserve the right to exclude people from using our services at our sole discretion, and to determine what constitutes abuse of our services, insofar as the relevant licenses and statute allow for.

Creating an account

Users can optionally choose to register an account with us. In select and special circumstances, a user may have multiple accounts (see our Fairplay & Community Guidelines for more information). All users who choose to register an account with us must explicitly agree to our privacy policy and other documentation. Because users must also agree to our privacy policy, you must be at least 15 and be the legal age in your jurisdiction to enter into a digital contract (hereafter "relevant legal age") with us to register an account, or if younger, you must be authorised by your parent or legal guardian.

Those under the relevant legal age may in some circumstances be allowed to have an account if invited to Lichess by their teacher, parent or legal guardian, who can make "kid accounts" for them. In these circumstances, the teacher or other adult taking the "teacher" role is responsible for securing the relevant consent and permissions for the child to use the account.

The parents of a child who has signed up via this method are responsible for ensuring that "kid mode" is enforced on the child's account, which adds additional child-protection measures to that account, such as turning off the ability to see public chats. Those under the relevant legal age are assumed to have kid mode enforced by their parents or legal guardian. Consequently, Lichess refuses any and all liability for any inappropriate content any user, including those under the relevant legal age, may have been exposed to.

When users register for an account, they are asked to choose a username and password. These usernames must comply with our Fair Play and Community Guidelines, namely around inappropriate usernames and impersonation. We reserve the right and sole discretion to determine if a username is inappropriate or if impersonation has occurred - either directly in the account name, or from other profile data. Breaching these rules can lead to the suspension of the account from our website and services, and remove your access to the account.

All activity that happens on the account is the responsibility of the account holder, consequently you must keep your account secure. This means you must not share your password with anyone. To keep your account more secure, you can also enable two-factor authorisation on the account. We recommend everyone, but especially titled or high-profile users, set up two-factor authorisation to help keep your account secure. If you forget your password, you can notify us through the "forgotten password" link to have account recovery options emailed to the email address linked to your account. You can find out more about keeping your account secure and how to set up two-factor authorisation here.

If any other person accesses your account, you are solely responsible for all their actions whether or not you authorised, allowed or enabled their access in any way. You agree to indemnify us of any consequences from someone else accessing your account, or of any costs, expenses, claims or damages which arise in connection with a third party using your account. If we reasonably suspect a third party has gained access or control of your account, you further agree and further indemnify us of any costs, expenses, claims or damages relating to any and all actions we take against your account.

In addition, as fully detailed in the Fair Play and Community Guidelines, you agree that we reserve the right to take any action we see fit against your account, and at our sole discretion can determine if an account has breached our Terms, including our Fair Play and Community Guidelines.

For more detailed information on the data we collect from registered accounts, as well as enforcing your rights under GDPR or other data protection regimes, please refer to our privacy policy.

Content on our website (and/or services)

You may be able to submit content to our website or services via various tools and features. Content is a broad term including data, software, text, PGN, annotations, images, graphics, video or other material. This list is non-exhaustive, and only for illustrative purposes. Any content submitted is the responsibility of the user who submitted it, including the user's compliance with any applicable laws, rules and regulations. In addition to this, you should only share content you are legally allowed to share and which you are comfortable sharing with others.

If you use or rely on any content or materials submitted to our website or services or obtained by you through our website or services, this is at your own risk. We may not monitor or control the content posted on our website or our services, and we cannot take responsibility for the content.

Consequently, content appearing on our website or services is not an endorsement from Lichess, nor does it mean Lichess is supportive of the content or any opinions in the content. Because we may not monitor or control the content, we also cannot guarantee the completeness, accuracy, or reliability of any content submitted.

You understand that by using our website and services, you may be exposed to content that might be offensive, harmful, pornographic, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate. In some cases, you may be exposed to content that is mislabelled or is otherwise deceptive.

We reserve the right to remove content that violates these Terms, with particular reference to our Fair Play and Community Guidelines section. This also includes content which may constitute copyright infringement, trademark violations or other intellectual property misappropriation, or other unlawful conduct.

If you believe your content has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please report this via using the https://lichess.org/report function, filling in the relevant form: https://forms.gle/EZiLCDJF2fA7vGiR7 or by getting in touch with us as outlined on our contact page.

Alternatively, you can physically write to us at:

Lichess.org
350 Chemin du Pré Neuf
38350 La Mure
Grenoble
France

Permissions you give us

You retain your rights in any content you submit to or through our website or services.

By submitting or displaying content on or through our website or services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sub-license that content), with or without attribution, unless the content you are submitting - for example, to our code repository - is licensed separately and defined clearly. This means we are free to use your content, such as to promote it and our website, without needing to contact you or pay you for it.

You agree we can use, copy, reproduce, publish, modify, and distribute such content in any and all current and future distribution methods and media. You agree that this license includes the right for us to provide, promote or improve our website and services. This additional use is made with no compensation to you, as you agree the use of our website and services is sufficient compensation for the content and grant of rights you give us. You affirm and warrant that you have the rights necessary to grant the rights expressed above, and that the uses contemplated in these Terms will not infringe the proprietary or intellectual property rights of any third party.

Fair Play and Community Guidelines

Both registered and anonymous users of our website and services agree to behave with good conduct. You agree that if, at our sole discretion, we determine your account is not behaving with good conduct, you may have your access or use of our website and/or services partially or fully suspended or terminated. You further agree that if, at our sole discretion, we determine your content to have breached these Terms you may have your content partially or fully removed, hidden, deleted or otherwise made inaccessible, either to yourself and/or others.

In all circumstances, you agree that we have the right to partially or fully suspend or terminate your access to our website and services (such as banning or closing your account), for any reason without warning, and without having to substantiate, clarify or otherwise provide evidence of your breach of these Terms. You agree that this may include your account being publicly labelled as having violated our Terms if, at our sole discretion, we reasonably believe you to have done so.

Further and additional information may be found in a relevant documentation page.

Fair Play Violations:

Some examples of poor fair play are provided below. This is not an exhaustive list, and is provided for illustrative reasons only. We reserve the right to take action beyond the examples of bad sportsmanship provided here, and to have sole discretion in determining what constitutes bad sportsmanship.

  • Cheating - We prohibit the use of any external assistance used whilst a game you are involved in is ongoing, which has the effect of improving your knowledge, calculation ability, or otherwise gives you an unfair advantage over your opponent. Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to, using a chess engine, opening books, endgame tablebases, and receiving move recommendations from another person or software (including human commenters whilst streaming or social media services), and certain software or extensions at our discretion.In correspondence games only, you may use the Lichess opening explorer, plus any other chess books or opening databases. For clarity, these rules have been expressed in this grid.
  • Boosting - This is where a rating is artificially inflated, such as by arranging wins in advance with an opponent, or knowingly playing an opponent who is artificially deflating their rating, in an attempt to sandbag.
  • Sandbagging - This is where a rating is artificially deflated, such as by resigning early, losing or drawing having put no real effort into the game, against an opponent who may be an active and willing participant or a victim.
  • Speedruns - Where not covered by any of the other sections, a speedrun (starting from a low rating and trying to increase it as quickly as possible) either being streamed or not, is not currently allowed on Lichess.
  • Ragesitting, Ragequitting, and Aborting - This is when a player chooses to keep the clock running or leave the game, forcing their opponent to wait for them, rather than playing on or resigning. These are all considered bad sportsmanship, along with aborting too many games too frequently.
  • Sledging - Whilst linked to the communications section in our Community Guidelines, this is the use of chat, draw offers, move take-back requests, time addition, or challenge to a game offers to intentionally distract or throw off an opponent or player.
  • Account sharing - The sharing of accounts is generally not permitted. Users may share an account for activities like "hand and brain", for streaming or educational purposes, but this must be clear in the account profile description, with names and ratings where relevant, and to opponents (e.g., by accepting viewer challenges, or playing pre-arranged matches, rather than from general lobby seeks).
  • Cheating accusations - The public accusation of a player suspected of cheating is not tolerated, and is bad sportsmanship. If you suspect a user of cheating, please report them via the icon on their profile page, or from the report page
  • Ban avoidance - The creation of new accounts to avoid restrictions applied to previous accounts, to avoid the respective bans, without explicit permission from us to make a new account, is not allowed.
  • Multiple accounts - Having more than one account is not allowed, barring specific circumstances. For example, titled players are automatically entitled to one "public" account, for play in certain prize events hosted either by Lichess or another tournament organiser, and one "private" account, for casual play online whilst still displaying their titled status. Untitled players can create a second account for similar reasons, with some examples including having a private account to hide opening preparation, playing "blindfold" games, or playing games with any other self-imposed impairment. Creating an excessive number of accounts (typically any more than three) will generally not be allowed, regardless of reasons. Creating and closing multiple accounts will also be treated as contributing to this maximum number. As with all other rules, the specific circumstances where multiple accounts are allowed remain at Lichess' discretion.

Penalties may include, but are not limited to: time outs; rankbanning; leaderboard bans; a public mark on the account; identifying the account as violating our Terms; closure of the offending account and any related accounts; revocation of some or all communication privileges; having access to our website and/or services partially or entirely removed or being in a separate playing pool; and IP banning or device banning. Multiple penalties may be applied, or any mix or combination at our own discretion.

Community Guideline Violations:

Some examples of bad conduct are provided below. This is not an exhaustive list, and is provided for illustrative reasons only. We reserve the right to take action beyond the examples of bad conduct provided here, and to have sole discretion in determining what bad conduct is.

  • Inappropriate communications - These include any private or public chat which makes another person feel distressed or attacked. Some non-exhaustive examples are abuse, harassment, spam, public shaming, cheating accusations, extremism, trolling, racism, sexism, or bigotry. In addition to being against our Terms, on some occasions these communications may also amount to unlawful or illegal behaviour and we will cooperate with relevant law enforcement authorities when deemed necessary. You can find more information on chat etiquette, forum etiquette, blog etiquette, and our communication guidelines by following the relevant link.
  • Inappropriate usernames - Usernames are public and displayed all over the website, meaning children or vulnerable users may read them. A username chosen with the intent of generating negative emotional reactions will be closed. This includes sensitive topics, disparaging usernames, sexism, racism, bigotry, adult language, or usernames otherwise likely to cause harm or offence.
  • Abusing copyrighted material or intellectual property - Examples of these would be the sharing or distribution of chess literature, puzzle sets, annotations, or any other material or intellectual property you do not have the right to share or distribute. If you think your own copyrighted material or intellectual property has been used without permission, please report the user and get in touch with us.
  • Impersonation - This is when a user pretends to be someone else, including direct impersonation or implying you have a national or FIDE title. This may be due to a misleading username or other public or private profile information or communications. In some cases, we may ask for ID confirmation to check who you claim to be.
  • Abuse of our infrastructure or resources - This includes abuse of our APIs, violating our rules on multiple accounts, abuse of payment features, and any attempts to circumvent our protections generally. This also applies to abusing any third party service provider we rely on, or are hosted by. Please contact us if you would like to discuss our protections, including any rate limits.
  • Financial crime - Those who donate with stolen credit card or other financial details, or are suspected of donating with stolen credit card or other financial details are absolutely not tolerated. We work closely with our payment providers to spot and prevent this, and take robust action against those violating or suspected of violating this policy, including working with the relevant law enforcement authorities where appropriate on this issue and related (such as proceeds of crime and suspected money laundering).
  • Breaking into accounts - any kind of activity such as a programmatic approach or social engineering approach to access another user's account or password is not allowed. This activity is illegal in most circumstances and jurisdictions, and we will cooperate with the relevant law enforcement authorities.
  • Any volumetric or programmatic attack or exploit (including DOS and DDOS attacks) - it should go without saying that attacking or exploiting our website or services is not allowed. This activity is illegal in most circumstances and jurisdictions, and we will cooperate with the relevant law enforcement authorities. Please report any detected security vulnerabilities to us.

Penalties may include, but are not limited to: rate limits; removal of Patron wings; time outs; a public mark on the account as having violated our Terms; revocation of some or all communication privileges; closure of the offending account and any related accounts; having access to our website and/or services partially or entirely removed or being in a separate playing pool; and IP banning or device banning. Multiple penalties may be applied, or any mix or combination at our own discretion.

Your right to appeal:

All users publicly marked or restricted from using our website or services have the right to appeal. When a user appeals, Lichess moderators will look at the relevant information and evidence again. The exact composition of the appeal panel is not set, but includes highly experienced moderators with additional expertise or qualifications in the fields of statistics, computer science, law, and chess (including active titled players FIDE-rated 2400+).

For general information about appeals, and what you should include in an appeal, you can find out more here.

All Fair Play marks are considered in light of the jurisprudence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and whilst we are not bound to them or a signatory to that court, we follow their precedents and required burdens of proof closely.

It is important to note that you agree our word is final, and that penalties will be applied at our discretion, and that we have no obligation or duty to provide you with our evidence or reasoning. In some jurisdictions, this will not affect your statutory rights.

We will never share the reason for a mark with anyone other than the account holder, without their agreement or without the existence of a contract to which they are a party. Outside of the existence of an agreement or a binding contract, we will not share the reason with a coach, friend, parent, arbiter, or the media, national federations, or with FIDE. Consequently, because there are multiple reasons for a mark, nobody other than the account holder will ever be entirely sure of why a mark occurred.

If you are appealing six months or more after a moderator action was taken against your account, we may not be able to investigate it. In circumstances where more than six months have passed since the moderator action, we reserve the right to not investigate the appeal from your account.

Patron

As a French charitable organisation, which doesn't believe in advertising or tracking, we're entirely dependent on donations from our users to stay running. Your support is really important to us, and allows us to do more of what we do.

Users who donate to us are called "patrons". Patrons are publicly visible on the donation page, and also by receiving an icon on the user's Lichess profile page which displays the user as a donor.

A donation is an entirely voluntary gift, and doesn't exempt the donor from these Terms or our Fair Play and Community Guidelines. Donors do not get a different set of rules to follow, and beyond the visual Patron aesthetic and trophy on their Lichess profile page, unlock no additional features.

A donation to Lichess is a gift. If you donate, you are not getting a share of Lichess, nor does it create a contract between you and Lichess. Once you have donated your gift, you give up your claim on those funds without any expectation of additional services.

To donate to Lichess, you may need to provide additional details to our payment providers, such as PayPal or Stripe. By donating, we assume you are familiar with the TOS and privacy policies of the payment provider you use, and accept to be bound by their policy documents.

When donating, please refer to our Fair Play and Community Guidelines, as some practices such as fraudulent payments or using stolen credit cards will result in your account being closed, and may constitute illegal acts, where we will cooperate with the relevant law enforcement authorities.

If you make a mistake during the donation process, please get in touch with us. Although refunds are at our discretion, if it's clear you made a mistake or were double charged (rather than donating and then violating these Terms) we will generally give you a refund if you contact us within 14 days of the donation.

Ending these Terms and Termination

You may end your legal agreement with us at any time by deactivating your account and no longer using our website or services. See our privacy policy for more information on what happens to your information.

We may suspend or terminate your account, or stop providing you with part or all of our website or services features or functionality at any time for any or no reason, including (but not limited to), if we reasonably believe:

  • You have violated these Terms or our Fair Play and Community Guidelines;
  • You create risk or legal exposure for us;
  • Your account should be removed due to unlawful conduct;
  • Your account should be removed due to prolonged inactivity;
  • The provision of our website or services to you is no longer financially reasonable for us.

We may not be able to provide you with reasonable written notice of any action we are planning to or intend to take.

In all such cases, the Terms shall terminate including without limitation your license to use our website or services, except all sections which can have force, shall continue to apply to you and us, even on termination of your account.

If you believe your account was terminated in error, you may be able to file an appeal. Review our Fair Play and Community Guidelines for more information about appeals.

For the avoidance of doubt, these Terms survive the deactivation or termination of your account.

Privacy

By agreeing to these Terms, you also agree with our privacy policy, and our privacy policy applies to relevant sections of these Terms even if or when not explicitly highlighted.

External links or third party providers

To make full use of our website and services, you may need to follow a link which takes you away from our domain. You may also need to register with or make an account with a third party (for example, making an account at GitHub). We are not responsible for any content or material posted on those external websites or services, and are not responsible for the accuracy or correct labelling of links.

They naturally will have their own privacy policies and TOS we assume you are familiar with and agreed to, if you take part in our communities, website or services which are off the Lichess.org domain.

Likewise, we are not responsible for any issues directly or indirectly arising out of their oversight, irresponsibility, negligence or which occur via a third party's website or service. We have no power over Discord, or GitHub, or Twitch, for example - and so cannot be held liable for problems relating to or happening on those sites.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Lichess, our contractors, contributors, licensors, and partners; and the respective directors, officers, employees and agents of the aforementioned ("indemnified parties"), from and against any and all third party claims and expenses, including legal or attorney fees, arising out of or related to your use of our website and services (including, but not limited to, from your content submissions or from your violation of any of these Terms).

Disclaimer; Limitation of Liability

Our website and services are provided "as is'' with all faults. To the extent permitted by law, Lichess and the indemnified parties hereby disclaim all warranties, whether express or implied, including without limitation warranties that the website and services are free of defects, merchantable, fit for a particular purpose, and non-infringing. You bear the entire risk as to using the website and services for your purposes and as to the quality and performance of the website and services, including without limitation the risk that your hardware, software or content is deleted or corrupted, that someone else gains unauthorised access to your information, or that another user misuse or misappropriates your submitted content. This limitation will apply notwithstanding the failure of the essential purpose of any remedy. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of implied warranties, so this disclaimer may not apply to you.

Except as required by law, Lichess and the indemnified parties will not be liable for any indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or exemplary damages arising out of or in any way relating to these Terms or the use of or inability to use the communications, including without limitation direct and indirect damages for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, lost profits, loss of data, and computer failure or malfunction, even if advised of the possibility of such damages and regardless of the theory (contract, tort, or otherwise) upon which such claim is based. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential, or special damages, so this exclusion and limitation may not apply to you.

Licenses

Various parts of the website and services use different licenses. Anyone intending to use or replicate the website and services should do their own research and due diligence into the various licenses used to ensure they are suitable for an intended purpose.

Lichess is not responsible for a person or legal entity failing to do their own due diligence. Whilst we attempt to update the licenses and their authors on a best efforts basis, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information or that we have submitted the most recent license history.

The majority of Lichess (the Lila open source project) is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. Lila is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty, without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

For more information on the license on specific libraries, please find more information here.

For more information on the source code, please find more information here.

Happy coding!

Disputes and Jurisdiction

In the event of any dispute, in the first instance you will seek to settle this with us informally via the lichess.org/appeal process. In the event of the appeal process being exhausted, you may further write to us via our contact page.

Alternately, you can contact us in writing at:

Lichess.org
350 Chemin du Pré Neuf
38350 La Mure
Grenoble
France

If we're unable to informally come to a solution, you agree we will go through arbitration at a place of our choosing. In any event, you'll need to give us written notice otherwise we won't be able to help you.

These Terms represent an agreement between you and us. If any provision of these Terms are held to be invalid or unenforceable, you agree that provision will be limited to the minimum enforcement possible, and the remaining terms held with full effect.

As a French registered charitable organisation, our website and services are provided from our registered address in France. We cannot guarantee and make no representation that our website and services are appropriate or available in other countries or jurisdictions. You agree to be bound by French law in following these Terms, and agree to be responsible for following any local laws or regulations with which you must be compliant beyond these Terms.

Modification of these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, to address a new feature of the website or services, or to clarify a provision. The updated terms will be posted online. If the change is substantive, we will announce the update through our usual channels. Your continued use of our website or services after the effective date of any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the changes.

Advertisement

On the domains that we own and have control over, as well as our official mobile apps (current and future) we guarantee neither currently have, or will host advertising or trackers or cookies beyond one which ensures you do not need to log in after every refresh (which you can see and control through your browser settings). We consider there to be an ethical difference between online tracking advertisement and sponsorship of an event; where appropriate and in reasonable quantities we will recognise the official sponsors of an event (such as a chess tournament).

We unfortunately cannot guarantee an advertisement-free experience on third-party websites and services out of our control. Twitch, for example, does not allow us to fully opt out of adverts appearing on our official channel. However, where we can we take a best efforts attempt to reduce or minimise advertisement on our third party provided channels as much as possible.

Miscellaneous

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us concerning our website and services and supersede any prior versions of these Terms. The website and services and these Terms are governed by the laws of France and the EU where relevant. In the event of a conflict between a translated version of these Terms and the English language version, the English language version shall control. In the event of a conflict between these Terms and relevant additional terms, the additional terms shall control, if the additional terms are unclear these Terms shall control.