Terms of service

Last updated September 11, 2026

These terms cover your use of Zugzwang (zugzwang.ca), a site for personal chess training and over-the-board chess clubs, run by Enter Design ("we", "us"). By creating an account or using the site, you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use Zugzwang.

How we handle personal information is explained in the privacy policy, which is part of these terms.

Your account

• You need to be at least 13 to create an account. If you're under the age of majority where you live, you need a parent's or guardian's permission. They're responsible for your use of the site.
• Give us a real email address and keep it up to date. It's how you confirm your account and reset your password.
• You're responsible for what happens under your account. Keep your password to yourself, and tell us at privacy@zugzwang.ca if you think someone else has got into it.
• One person per account. Don't create accounts for other people without their permission. Setting one up for your child is fine.

Using the site fairly

Please don't:

• use Zugzwang for anything illegal, or to harass, impersonate or harm anyone
• upload games, names, notes or club descriptions that are abusive or hateful, or that share someone's personal information they wouldn't want shared
• use the phone scoresheet, the engine review or any other part of the site to get help during a game where that isn't allowed. Under FIDE, national federation and most club rules, a phone at the board, or any outside help, is against the rules. Follow the rules of the event you're playing in. You're responsible for that, not us.
• try to get into other people's accounts, clubs or games, or probe, overload or disrupt the site
• scrape the site, or use automated tools to pull data from it, except for the exports we provide
• send spam through club invitations

Your content

The games, notes, repertoires and club details you add ("your content") stay yours.

So we can run the site, you give us permission to store, copy, process and display your content, but only as needed to provide Zugzwang to you and to the people you choose to share it with. That permission includes running engine analysis on your games and showing the games you share to members of that club. It ends when you delete the content or your account, apart from routine backups that roll over within about a week.

Only add content you have the right to add. Games often include other players' names. Recording and sharing results of games you played is normal in chess, but please use common sense and respect people's wishes.

A few things we can do:

• remove content, or restrict an account, that breaks these terms
• act on a valid complaint about content

We're not obliged to review what people upload.

Clubs

• Whoever starts a club is its owner. Owners and the admins they appoint decide who joins, and manage their members and the club's details. They're responsible for running their club fairly and within these terms.
• When you share a game to a club, its members can see it, as described in the privacy policy. You can unshare it at any time.
• If someone tags you in a game, you can remove the tag yourself.
• Club standings, head-to-head records and ratings on Zugzwang are informal. They aren't official ratings or results of any federation, unless your club decides to treat them that way.
• We can remove clubs that are abandoned, abusive or used to break these terms.

Other services

Some features connect to other services, and their own terms apply when you use them:

• Google, for sign-in
• Lichess, for opening statistics, and when you use Share to Lichess on a game

We're not responsible for those services, and features that depend on them can stop working if they change.

Our stuff

The site itself belongs to Enter Design and its licensors: its design, code, text and training material. The chess pieces and some libraries are used under their own open-source licences.

Use of the site gives you a personal, non-transferable right to use it as intended. It doesn't give you ownership of any of it, or the right to copy the training material out of the site.

Engine analysis and training results

Engine evaluations, accuracy scores, move labels (like ?! and ??), coverage figures and training schedules are computer-generated. They're there to help you learn, and they can be wrong. Don't rely on them for anything important, like deciding a disputed result.

Availability and changes

Zugzwang is currently free to use. We work to keep it running and your data safe, but we can't promise it will always be available or error-free. We may:

• change or remove features
• set usage limits
• stop running the site

If we plan to shut it down, we'll give reasonable notice so you can export your games and repertoires.

If we introduce paid features, we'll tell you first. Nothing you already use for free will start costing money without your agreement.

Ending your account

You can delete your account at any time from Account & sign-in → Delete account.

We may suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms. Where it's reasonable, we'll tell you why and give you a chance to export your content first.

No warranty

Zugzwang is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose. Nothing in these terms limits any rights you have under consumer protection law that can't be waived.

Limit of liability

To the extent the law allows, Enter Design won't be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, or for lost data, lost games, lost results or lost profits, arising from your use of Zugzwang. Since the site is free, our total liability for any claim is limited to $100 CAD. This doesn't limit liability that can't be limited by law.

You agree to be responsible for, and to cover us against, claims that come from content you add or from you breaking these terms.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the site changes. We'll change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect. If you keep using Zugzwang after that, the new terms apply. If you don't agree with them, you can delete your account.

Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of New Brunswick and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. Any dispute goes to the courts of New Brunswick, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring it somewhere else.

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.

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