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Terms of Service

The rules for using ChessCanvas, in plain English.

Version 1.0 · Effective 21 October 2026

In short

  • ChessCanvas is free. You can use it as a guest; an account lets you save and sync your work.
  • Your Studies, games and notes are yours. We store them only to run the Service for you.
  • Don’t use ChessCanvas to get help during a game, and don’t copy the database in bulk.
  • Analysis and move labels are automated estimates and can be wrong.
  • You can export your work and close your account at any time.

This summary is for convenience; the full Terms below apply.

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and Parallax Motion, LLC, a Maryland limited liability company doing business as ChessCanvas (“ChessCanvas”, “we”, “us”) about your use of the ChessCanvas website, application and sign-in pages (the “Service”).

By creating an account and ticking the box to agree, you accept these Terms. If you use ChessCanvas as a guest, these Terms apply to that use too. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information; it is a separate document and agreeing to these Terms is not consent to optional analytics.

2. Who can use ChessCanvas

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, or older if the law where you live requires it. If you are under 18, you need a parent’s or guardian’s permission, and they agree to these Terms for you.

You may not use the Service if we have previously closed your account for breaking these Terms, or if the law prohibits you from using it.

3. Accounts and security

You can use much of ChessCanvas as a guest. Saving Studies and games to the cloud, sharing, and using ChessCanvas on several devices need an account.

  • Give a valid e-mail address you control, and keep your password private. We recommend turning on two-step sign-in.
  • You are responsible for activity on your account. Tell us at support@parallax-motion.com if you think someone else has accessed it.
  • One person, one account. Accounts may not be sold or transferred.
  • Usernames must follow our username rules. We may reserve or reclaim names that impersonate others, including titled players, or that are offensive.

4. Using the Service

Subject to these Terms, we give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for your own chess study, analysis, teaching and preparation.

You agree not to:

  • Use ChessCanvas to get help during a game you are playing on any platform or over the board, where that breaks the rules of that game or event;
  • copy, scrape, crawl or download the master database, its indexes or other content in bulk, or use automated tools to query the Service beyond normal personal use;
  • interfere with, overload, probe or bypass the security of the Service, or access accounts or data that are not yours;
  • upload or share content that is unlawful, infringing, harassing, hateful, sexually explicit or that exposes another person’s private information;
  • impersonate anyone, including titled or well-known players, or misrepresent a FIDE identity;
  • use the Service to send spam or malware, or to run a competing service from our content;
  • reverse engineer the Service, except where the law or an open-source licence (such as Stockfish’s, section 7) allows it.

5. Your content

“Your content” means the Studies, chapters, comments, annotations, analysis, games and profile information you create or upload.

  • You keep ownership of your content, to the extent it is protected by law. The moves of a chess game are generally treated as facts that nobody owns; your own commentary and annotations may be protected as your work.
  • The licence you give us: you allow ChessCanvas to store, copy, process, display and transmit your content as needed to run the Service for you and for the people you share it with, according to the visibility and copy settings you choose. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies other users have already made under your settings, and backup copies kept for a short period (see the Privacy Policy).
  • Sharing: when you make a Study unlisted or public, anyone with access can view it and, if your settings allow, copy or export it. You are responsible for what you share and for having the right to share it.
  • Games from others: when you import games from Lichess, Chess.com or a PGN file, make sure you are allowed to use them. Games you played yourself are fine.
  • We do not claim ownership of your content and do not use it to advertise or train AI models.

We may remove content or restrict sharing that we reasonably believe breaks these Terms or the law. Where appropriate we will tell you and explain why.

6. The master database

The ChessCanvas master database is built from:

  • Lichess open database: official broadcasts, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, and standard rated games, dedicated to the public domain under CC0;
  • The Week in Chess (TWIC): a selectively curated collection of historical master games sourced with permission from The Week in Chess. TWIC games are always available free of charge.

Game records, names, events, dates, ratings, opening codes and time controls come from these sources as recorded. They may be incomplete or contain errors, and some details, such as time controls for many over-the-board games, were never recorded. ChessCanvas does not invent missing details. You may use the database inside ChessCanvas for your own study; bulk copying is not allowed (section 4). Games from CC BY-SA sources remain under that licence.

Opening names come from the lichess-org/chess-openings project (CC0). Players’ names and titles are shown as facts about public chess games. If you believe a record about you is wrong, contact us.

7. Chess engine and analysis

Analysis uses Stockfish 19, free software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3. It runs in your browser. The Stockfish licence, authors and complete corresponding source code are available from our licences page. Nothing in these Terms limits your rights under the GPL for Stockfish.

Engine evaluations, move classifications (such as “mistake” or “blunder”), accuracy figures and suggested lines are automated estimates. They can be wrong, depend on your device and the depth searched, and are not a guarantee of the objective value of a position.

8. Our intellectual property

The ChessCanvas name, logo, design, software, text and original artwork belong to ChessCanvas or its licensors and are protected by law. Third-party components are used under their own licences, listed on our licences page. These Terms do not give you any right to use our name or logo.

If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without obligation to you.

If you believe content on ChessCanvas infringes your copyright, send a notice to support@parallax-motion.com identifying the work, the content and where it is, your contact details, a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised, and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner, with your signature. We will remove infringing content and may close the accounts of repeat infringers.

10. Price and future paid features

ChessCanvas is free to use. There are no paid plans, subscriptions or trials today. If we introduce paid features, we will describe the price and terms clearly before you buy anything, and nothing will be charged without your explicit agreement. Features available for free at the time you used them will not be charged for retroactively.

11. Changes to the Service

ChessCanvas is under active development. We may add, change or remove features, and limits (for example, on the number of Studies or saved games). If we remove a significant feature you rely on for content you created, we will try to give you notice and a way to export your content first.

We aim to keep ChessCanvas available, but the Service may sometimes be interrupted for maintenance, failures or reasons outside our control.

12. Closing your account; suspension

You can stop using ChessCanvas at any time and close your account in Settings › Account (see the Privacy Policy for what happens to your data).

We may suspend or close an account, or remove content, if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms, if the law requires it, or to protect other users or the Service. Unless doing so would be unlawful or create a risk of harm, we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond and to export your content.

Sections 5 (licence for copies already shared), 8, 13, 14, 15 and 16 continue after your account is closed.

13. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties, express or implied, including of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement, and we do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or that content will not be lost. Keep your own copies of important work: you can export Studies and games as PGN.

Nothing in these Terms excludes rights you have as a consumer that cannot be excluded by contract under the law where you live.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, ChessCanvas will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for loss of data, profits or goodwill, arising from your use of the Service. Because the Service is free, our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to US$50.

These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

15. Your responsibility to us

If someone brings a claim against us because of content you shared or your breach of these Terms, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of that claim, to the extent the law allows. This does not apply to consumers where the law does not permit it.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute will be decided by the state or federal courts located in Maryland, and you and we agree to their jurisdiction. If you are a consumer in the European Union, the United Kingdom or another country whose law gives you that right, you keep the protection of the mandatory law of your country and may bring a claim in your local courts.

Before starting any formal dispute, please contact us at support@parallax-motion.com so we can try to resolve it informally.

17. General

  • Changes to these Terms: we will post updates here with a new version number and effective date. For material changes, we will tell you in the app or by e-mail in advance and, where needed, ask you to agree again. If you do not agree, you can close your account.
  • Entire agreement: these Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
  • Severability: if a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
  • No waiver: not enforcing a provision does not waive it.
  • Assignment: you may not transfer these Terms; we may transfer them as part of a transfer of the Service, with notice to you.
  • Language: these Terms are written in English; a translation, if provided, is for convenience.

18. Contact

Parallax Motion, LLC, a Maryland limited liability company doing business as ChessCanvas
9012 Shady Pines Dr, Frederick, Maryland 21704, United States
E-mail: support@parallax-motion.com