Geek Chess online terms and community rules

Version 2026-10-14-adult-de-v2 (14 October 2026)

Geek Chess is provided by Appdevelz UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Waldstraße 7a, 82319 Starnberg, Germany. Questions about online play, these rules or a moderation decision: helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com. Our privacy policy is at https://playgeekchess.com/privacy.

What is new in this version

This version replaces version 2026-10-09-adult-de-v1 of these terms. Adults aged 18 or older whose ordinary residence is Germany can now create an online account themselves and confirm their age and residence in the game. The community rules now also cover emotes and match chat, and there are new rules for usernames and fair play. The terms now also explain the testing period, sign-in, the leaderboard and profiles, emotes and text chat between friends, how we moderate and review decisions, how anyone can report illegal content, ending the agreement, deletion by email, liability, contact, the binding language and governing law.

Scope and agreement

These terms apply to the online features of Geek Chess: the online account, online matches, friends lobbies, the leaderboard, profiles, friends, emotes and chat. The agreement for the online features is made when you create an online account, verify your email address and accept this version in the game. The online features are free of charge during testing. We store which version you accepted. The text of this version remains available at https://playgeekchess.com/terms/2026-10-14-adult-de-v2.

Testing period

The online features are in a testing period, which is planned to end on 31 January 2027. We may end the testing period and the online features earlier with 30 days' notice. Before the online test ends, we tell you at least 30 days in advance, in the game and by email. During testing, the online features may contain bugs, be unavailable at times and change. We may add, change or remove features where this is reasonable for you. There is no entitlement to any particular availability. Ratings, leaderboards and statistics may be reset during or at the end of testing; we announce this in the game beforehand. Offline play is not affected.

Online accounts

Online play is optional. You can play the offline modes without creating an online account. During testing, only adults aged 18 or older whose ordinary residence is Germany may create and use an online account. Online admission for 16–17-year-olds remains deferred. Choosing an age band alone does not authorize an account or messages. Keep your password private and use an email address you control. Do not impersonate another person or Appdevelz, share accounts to evade a restriction, or use another person's account without permission.

After you verify your email address and accept these terms, you confirm in the game that you live in Germany and are 18 or older. We do not check this confirmation against documents, so your answers must be true. If they are not, we may close online access and delete the account. A confirmation is valid for 30 days and never beyond the end of the testing period. The game asks you to confirm again during the last 7 days; without a current confirmation, online access ends until you confirm again. While registration is limited to invitations, your first confirmation also needs a valid invite code. We may limit how many new players we admit per day, or pause registration.

Until your email address is verified, online matches, a username and messages stay locked. You can sign in with your email address and password or, where available, with your Google account. The game remembers your sign-in on your device until you sign out, so sign out after playing on a shared device or someone else's device. Tell us at helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com if you suspect misuse of your account.

Each person may have only one online account unless we agree otherwise. Do not sell, give away or transfer your account. Do not create a new account to get around a restriction or exclusion. Do not use bots, scripts or other programs that operate the game automatically, and access our game servers only through the game.

Online participation follows deliberate acceptance of the identified terms version while signed in. Acceptance does not by itself qualify an account or grant permission to choose a profile name or send messages; those permissions are checked separately. If you decline, or do not accept a later version, safety reports, requests for review, privacy rights and account deletion remain available through the applicable support and account routes.

Choose a username that follows the community rules. Other players can see your username and online game information described in our privacy policy. Do not put contact details or other sensitive personal information in a username or message.

A username has 3 to 20 characters, uses only the letters A to Z, digits and the underscore, and starts with a letter. Usernames are not allowed if they:

If a username breaks these rules, we may replace it with a neutral placeholder name and require you to choose a new one; until you do, online features are locked, for at most 30 days.

Leaderboard, emotes and chat

If you play ranked games, you appear in the leaderboard with your username, rating, rank and ranked results. Other players with online access can open your profile by your username, unless one of you has blocked the other; it shows your rating and the results of your games. There is no setting to hide from the leaderboard during testing. If you do not want to appear in the leaderboard, play only casual games; your profile stays visible. Details are in our privacy policy.

In online matches you can send your opponent emotes from a fixed set, during the match and until 5 minutes after it ends. You can exchange free text only with friends, meaning players whose friend request you accepted or who accepted yours: in match chat, in friends lobbies and as direct messages. You decide whose friend request you accept. You can end a friendship at any time, block players and mute lobby chat. Do not use emotes or messages to pressure others, for example by constant repetition. There are limits on how many messages and emotes you can send. Text chat may be unavailable at times, and we may pause text chat or emotes, for example while we cannot review reports. We do not routinely read messages; they are not end-to-end encrypted.

Community rules

These rules cover usernames, emotes, match chat, direct messages, lobby messages and report notes. Do not submit or encourage:

Any illegal content is also prohibited, even if this list does not name it.

Compete fairly and respect players who decline contact or block you. Use reports to explain the problem; do not repeat abusive content unnecessarily or include unrelated personal information.

Play your games yourself. In ranked games, help from programs or other people, arranged results, deliberately losing to benefit another account, using several accounts to influence the leaderboard and exploiting bugs are not allowed. Please report bugs to helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com instead of exploiting them. Violations can lead to the measures described under How we moderate.

Reporting, blocking and moderation

Use REPORT in a player's · · · menu to report their username or behavior. Choose a reason and, if useful, add a short note. The report can include recent messages from the relevant shared conversation as evidence. For a match, this can include the reported player's recent match-chat messages and emotes. ALSO BLOCK lets you block the player when sending the report. BLOCK is also available separately in player menus. Lobby MUTE CHAT hides messages locally; use BLOCK to stop contact from that account.

If you cannot use the in-app report path, contact helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com. Never send a password or sign-in token. A report receipt confirms receipt; it does not mean a moderator has already reviewed the report.

Appdevelz reviews reports and takes proportionate action against prohibited content or behavior, which may include removing content, requiring a username change or restricting online access. We do not promise that every message is reviewed before other players see it. During testing, Samuel reviews reports and checks the testing helpdesk daily. This is not an emergency service or a guarantee of a particular response time or result. Contact helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com to ask for review of a moderation decision; the same reviewer, Samuel, handles requests to reconsider a decision.

You allow us to store and deliver the content you submit to the intended recipients and to review narrowly necessary evidence when investigating abuse, as described in the privacy policy. This permission is limited to operating and protecting the service; it does not give us ownership of your content. Our privacy policy separately explains the purposes and handling of personal data and your privacy rights.

Ordinary direct-message content is available for 30 days from its original server creation, lobby-message content for 7 days, and completed match/recent-opponent history for 30 days from match completion, unless the applicable deletion rules remove it earlier. Match-chat messages and emotes can be read by both players during the match and until 5 minutes after it ends; a copy is kept for 7 days from sending so that reports can be reviewed, unless the applicable deletion rules remove it earlier. Reads, retries or copies do not restart those periods. Ratings remain until account deletion, unless they are reset during testing as described under Testing period. Separate report evidence, deletion guards and provider copies follow the privacy policy; these availability cutoffs are not a promise of immediate physical removal from every provider system.

How we moderate

We review content and behavior when it is reported to us, in the game with REPORT or by email, or when we learn of it in another way. A human decides on reports, currently Samuel. We do not use automatic content filters. Only technical rules apply automatically: allowed characters and lengths, limits on messages, emotes, requests and reports, the fixed set of emotes, and the restriction of free text to friends.

We decide carefully, objectively and proportionately. We take into account how serious and frequent a violation is, whether it was intentional, its effect on others, and the fundamental rights of everyone involved, in particular freedom of expression. Possible measures are:

If we remove your content, require a username change, restrict your account or end the agreement, we tell you which measure we took and how long it applies, which facts we relied on and whether a report led to it, which rule of these terms or which law we consider broken, that a human decided, and how you can challenge the decision. We send this statement of reasons (Article 17 of the EU Digital Services Act, DSA) by email to your account's email address. ACCOUNT STATUS in the game also shows a current restriction or a required username change.

You can ask for a review of a decision within 6 months of the decision. Write to helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com and explain why you think the decision is wrong. Someone who reported content can ask in the same way for a review of a decision not to act on it. Samuel looks at the case again, including any new facts, and tells you the result with reasons. If the original evidence has expired by then, he decides on the remaining record. If the decision was wrong, we reverse it as far as possible. Your right to go to court is not affected.

If we learn of content that gives rise to a suspicion of a criminal offense threatening a person's life or safety, we inform the competent law-enforcement authorities (Article 18 DSA).

Reporting illegal content, also without an account

Anyone, including people without an online account, can report content in Geek Chess that they consider illegal by email to helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com. So that we can review the notice, please include:

We confirm receipt, review the notice promptly and tell you our decision and how to ask for a review. If there is an immediate danger to life or health, call the police (110) straight away; we are not an emergency service. Anyone who repeatedly sends manifestly unfounded notices may, after a warning, be excluded from having further notices processed for a reasonable time.

Ending the agreement

You can end the agreement at any time without notice by deleting your online account.

We may end the agreement with 30 days' notice by email, for example if we discontinue the online features. For good cause we may end it without notice, in particular for serious violations of these terms or of the law, untrue age or country answers, or repeated violations despite a restriction. We tell you the reasons as described under How we moderate. When we end the agreement, we close the online account and delete it as described under Deleting an online account. After we end the agreement for good cause, you may not create a new account without our consent.

Deleting an online account

Request deletion in the game with DELETE ACCOUNT in the online ACCOUNT tab, or by email to helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com, if possible from your account's email address. The page https://playgeekchess.com/delete-account explains both routes. In the game you confirm the deletion with your password; if you sign in only with Google, that page explains how to set a password first, or you can use the email route. The email route also works if you have uninstalled the game. We carry out deletions requested by email within one month of your confirmed request. Uninstalling the game by itself does not delete an online account.

Deletion ends any active online match once as a resignation, with the match's existing result and rating rules. It removes the account, associated profile and social data, direct conversations in both directions, and lobby messages sent by that account. It also removes match-chat messages and emotes that the account sent or received. The username becomes available for reuse. Only opponents' own results and statistics may remain, with the former player shown as Deleted player and without that player's account ID, username or email. A replay is removed if it cannot safely meet that rule.

Narrowly necessary moderation evidence may remain under restricted access for up to 30 days from the report's creation. Deleting an account or closing a report does not restart that period. Only if we have reported a threat to life or safety to the authorities, or an authority has asked us for it, do we keep the evidence concerned longer, until the matter is settled and for at most 90 days from the report's creation. If a moderation decision concerned the account, we keep a short note of the decision without message text for 6 months after the decision, so that a review can still be requested. A minimal pseudonymous deletion guard and operation state prevent old sessions or late requests from recreating deleted data; they are not anonymous and have a separate retention policy. During testing, the minimal completed guard has no automatic expiry and its necessity is reviewed afterwards. Pending recovery remains until resolved. Our privacy policy explains the handling of provider logs and backups. We confirm when the required deletion is complete; a pending request is not a completion confirmation.

Liability

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz) and where we have given a guarantee. Because the online features are free of charge, we are otherwise not liable for slight negligence. These rules also apply if ratings, statistics or messages are lost through a fault during testing.

Service and terms changes

Send technical feedback to helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com without passwords or unnecessary personal information. We will identify the terms version you accept and explain material community-rule changes before asking you to accept a new version for further content submissions.

We may change these terms for a valid reason, for example new features, changes in the law or security reasons. We explain material changes when we ask you to accept a new version. A new version applies to you only once you accept it in the game. If you do not accept it, you can no longer submit new content such as usernames, messages or report notes, or renew your confirmation, so online access ends when your current confirmation expires. You can end the agreement at any time.

Contact point and language

Our single point of contact for players, for the authorities of EU Member States, the European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services (Articles 11 and 12 DSA) is helpdesk@srogersdevelopment.com. You can write to us in German or English; a human writes the replies. The English version of these terms is binding; the German version is a translation for your convenience.

Governing law and dispute resolution

German law applies. Mandatory consumer-protection rules of the country where you have your ordinary residence are not affected. We are neither obliged nor willing to take part in dispute-resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.