Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of BackRank, including the website at backrank.ai and the associated coaching emails (together, the "Service"), operated by BackRank ("BackRank," "we," "us," or "our"). By creating an account, signing up for our emails, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are between 13 and the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you may use the Service only with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian. By using the Service you represent that you meet these requirements.

2. Accounts

You are responsible for the information you provide, for keeping access to your email secure, and for any activity that occurs under your account. You agree to provide an accurate chess.com username that is yours to coach on, and to update your account information if it changes.

3. The Service

BackRank reads your publicly available chess.com games, analyzes them, and sends you coaching emails. The Service is provided for informational and educational purposes. Coaching is offered "as is," is generated in part by automated systems and machine-learning models, and may be incomplete or incorrect. It is not professional advice and should not be relied upon as such. Your rating, your results, and your decisions at the board remain your own.

4. Subscriptions, billing, and cancellation

• Some features of the Service may require a paid subscription. By starting a subscription you authorize us (through our payment processor) to charge the applicable fees, plus any taxes, on a recurring basis until you cancel.
• You can cancel a paid subscription at any time from your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Except where required by law, fees already paid are non-refundable.
• We may change the fees, plans, or features of the Service. If a change affects your active subscription, we will give you reasonable advance notice and you may cancel before the change takes effect.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service to violate any law or the rights of any third party, including the terms of chess.com or any other site whose data you ask us to read on your behalf.
• Submit a chess.com username that is not yours or that you are not authorized to coach on.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, interfere with its operation, scrape or crawl it at unreasonable volume, or probe it for vulnerabilities outside of a coordinated process.
• Reverse-engineer, resell, or sublicense the Service or its output without our written permission.
• Use the Service to send spam, harass others, or distribute unlawful or harmful content.

6. Email communications

The core deliverable of the Service is email. By signing up you consent to receive transactional and coaching emails from us. You may unsubscribe or pause emails at any time using the link in any email or from your account settings. Note that unsubscribing from coaching emails may effectively end your use of the Service.

7. Intellectual property

BackRank, the BackRank name and logo, the email templates, the coaching narrative we generate, and the Service itself (excluding your underlying game data and your personal information) are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for your own chess improvement. The chess engines and third-party libraries we rely on remain the property of their respective owners and are used in accordance with their licenses.

You retain ownership of your chess games and your personal information. You grant us a limited license to process them as described in our Privacy Policy in order to deliver the Service.

8. Termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service if you violate these Terms, if we are required to do so by law, or if we discontinue the Service. We will give you reasonable notice where practicable. On termination, your right to use the Service ends; sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive (e.g., intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution) will continue to apply.

9. Disclaimers

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any specific improvement in your rating or play will result from using it.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event will BackRank or its officers, employees, or affiliates be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to your use of the Service. Our total cumulative liability arising out of or relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless BackRank and its affiliates from any claim, demand, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any right of another party.

12. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. You and BackRank agree to resolve any dispute in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. Nothing in this section limits your rights under any mandatory consumer-protection law that applies to you.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will give you reasonable notice (for example, by email or by posting a notice on the Service). Your continued use of the Service after the changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

14. Miscellaneous

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and BackRank regarding the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in effect. Our failure to enforce any right or provision is not a waiver of that right. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent; we may assign them in connection with a corporate transaction.