Terms of service

Last updated October 18, 2026.

These terms are a contract between you and Primal Chess (“we”, “us”) for primalchess.com and the training chamber. If you do not agree, do not use the product. Creating an account, typing a username, or pasting a game means you accept them.

The product

Primal Chess shows moves from public games and lets you train patterns from those games, from puzzle packs, from lines you build, and against practice bots. It is a practice tool. It is not a coach you have hired, not a guarantee that your rating will rise, and not advice you should treat as professional, financial, or competitive instruction.

Features can change, pause, or disappear. A free scan of one game does not promise later access to the same game, the same analysis, or a paid plan. Prices, if shown after you sign in, can change before you buy. We may refuse service, cap usage, or require an account.

Accounts

You sign in with a one-time code sent to an email you control. You are responsible for that inbox and for anything done through a code sent to it. Give us accurate information. One person, one account, unless we agree otherwise. Do not share the account, sell it, or use it to impersonate someone else.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, abuses the service, or creates risk for other people or for us. We may do that without notice when the risk is immediate.

Your games and content

You keep the rights to PGNs, positions, notes, and decks you create. You give us a worldwide license to host, copy, display, and process that material only to run the product: to analyze it, to show it back to you, to sync it, and to show a shared deck to someone you give the link. The license ends when you delete the material, except for copies we need to keep for security, backups, or a legal duty, and except for anything already shared with a link.

You promise that:

• You have the right to submit the games and text you submit.
• You will not upload someone else’s private notes, paid courses, or non-public games.
• Public Chess.com and Lichess games are fetched because you asked. You will not use the product to scrape, stalk, or harass another player.
• You will not submit malware, or content that is illegal, exploitative of minors, or meant to break the service.

We may remove content that breaks these terms. We do not have to monitor everything you store.

Acceptable use

You will not:

• Probe, scan, or attack the site, or bypass a limit or access control.
• Overload the service, or use a bot against it except as we allow.
• Reverse engineer the product except where the law forbids that limit.
• Resell access, or present our output as your own paid product.
• Use the product to break the law or someone else’s rights.

Practice bots are opponents inside the app. They are not a person, and a win against a bot is not a rated result.

Other people’s games

Chess.com and Lichess operate their own services under their own terms. We are not those companies. A username lookup reads public games only. If a site removes a game, changes an API, or blocks a request, the analysis may fail, and that is not a breach by us.

Shared links

A shared deck can be opened by anyone who has the link. The first portion may be playable without an account. The rest, and saved progress, can require a sign-in. You choose what the link contains. Treat a shared link as public. We are not responsible for what a recipient does with it.

Paid plans

If a paid plan is offered, the price and what it includes are shown before you confirm. Fees are for access to the service, not for a rating result. Unless the law requires a refund, fees are non-refundable once the period has started. We may change a plan’s contents. If we discontinue a paid feature you already paid for, your remedy is a pro-rata credit or refund for the unused portion of that feature, and nothing more.

Our material

The site, the coach, the interface, the name Primal Chess, and the original writing and layout are ours or our licensors’. Puzzle data that comes from a public database stays under that database’s license. You may not copy the product, the coach art, or the branding for your own product. You may not remove a credit that the law or a license requires us to show.

Disclaimers

THE PRODUCT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE DISCLAIM EVERY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANALYSIS IS CORRECT, COMPLETE, OR FAST, THAT A STREAK OR A BOT MATCHES OVER-THE-BOARD PLAY, THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT YOUR RATING WILL CHANGE.

Engine evaluations and coach lines are estimates. You play your own games. You are responsible for decisions you make over the board, in a tournament, or in a rated game.

Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE AND OUR OPERATORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF RATING, GAMES, DATA, PROFITS, OR GOODWILL, WHETHER OR NOT WE WERE WARNED. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF THE PRODUCT WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE THREE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR FIFTY U.S. DOLLARS.

Some places do not allow these limits. In those places, the limits apply as far as the law allows. Nothing here limits liability that cannot legally be limited, including liability for fraud or for death or injury caused by negligence where a statute forbids that limit.

Indemnity

You will defend and indemnify us and our operators against claims, damages, losses, and reasonable legal costs arising from your content, your use of the product, a shared link you created, or your breach of these terms. We may control the defense of a claim that names us. You will not settle a claim that admits fault by us, or that binds us, without our written agreement.

Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and by the state law that applies where the operator of Primal Chess resides. Those courts have exclusive jurisdiction, except that either party may seek a temporary restraining order for misuse of intellectual property or unauthorized access. You and we waive a jury trial to the extent the law allows. You may bring a claim only on your own behalf, not as a class, collective, or representative action.

Before filing, you will email the Contact page and give us 30 days to try to resolve the dispute. If a clause in this section is unenforceable, the rest of these terms still stand.

Ending use

You may stop using the product at any time. We may stop providing it. Sections that should survive — licenses you granted for material already shared, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, and disputes — survive.

The rest

These terms and the privacy policy are the whole agreement. If a court strikes one clause, the others remain. Our failure to enforce a clause once is not a waiver. You may not assign the contract. We may assign it as part of running or selling the product. There are no third-party beneficiaries. The headings are for reading, not for interpretation.

Questions go to the Contact page. Rights holders: write to rights@primalchess.com with the link and what it copies. We take it down within 2 business days.