Terms of Service

1. Who we are

The Service is operated by Chongchuan Xiaohanma Culture & Art Exchange Studio (崇川小悍马文化艺术交流工作室), a business registered in China, trading as “HummerChess” (“we”, “us”). HummerChess provides online chess play, a master games database, puzzles, training tools, engine analysis and related features.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 13 years old (or the higher minimum age required where you live) to use the Service; minors also need the consent of a parent or legal guardian. You must provide accurate registration information, keep your sign-in methods secure, and not share your account or use another person's account. You are responsible for all activity under your account. You may not impersonate others, register usernames in bad faith, or create accounts by automated means. We may reclaim usernames that infringe rights or mislead others.

3. License to use the Service — not a sale

We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable license to access and use the Service and its content for your personal, non-commercial use, subject to these Terms. Nothing in these Terms transfers any ownership or intellectual-property interest to you: access to the Service, to digital content and to paid features is licensed, not sold, and is available only while your account is in good standing.

4. Subscriptions, purchases and billing

Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns. Charges may appear on your card statement via Paddle (e.g. “PADDLE.NET”). Paddle collects and remits applicable sales taxes and VAT and issues receipts; billing, invoicing and refund requests are handled through Paddle (paddle.net) or via support@hummerchess.com, while questions about the product itself come to us.

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until cancelled. You can cancel at any time as described in the Refund Policy; cancellation stops future renewals and your plan stays active until the end of the paid period. Prices and included benefits may change as the Service evolves; changes never affect a period you have already paid for and will be communicated before they apply to a renewal.

5. Digital content and credits

Digital content that you purchase or that is included in a plan (such as courses, puzzle packs, database access and analysis features) may be used only within the Service, is licensed for your personal use, and may not be exported, copied, redistributed, resold or made available to third parties. Prepaid credits (for example AI-analysis credits) are a license to use a feature: they are not money or property, have no cash value, cannot be transferred or exchanged, and lapse when your account is closed. We may change our content catalogue over time; if content you purchased must be withdrawn for rights reasons we will offer a reasonable remedy, unless the withdrawal results from your breach of these Terms.

6. Fair play

Rated games must be played by you alone, without assistance from chess engines, tablebases, other people or any other outside help. Rating manipulation (including sandbagging and boosting), account sharing, interference with other players' games and abuse of matchmaking or rating systems are prohibited. We use automated and human review to detect violations and may act on statistical and behavioral evidence. Sanctions are applied at our reasonable discretion and may include warnings, rating adjustments, feature restrictions, and closure of the offending account and related accounts. If an account is terminated for a fair-play or other material violation, amounts paid are not refunded except where a refund is required by law. You may contest a sanction by writing to support@hummerchess.com.

7. Your content and feedback

You retain ownership of content you submit (such as messages, annotations, studies and avatars). You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license to host, store, reproduce, adapt, publish, display and distribute that content for the purposes of operating, improving and promoting the Service. You are responsible for content you submit and must hold the necessary rights to it. We may moderate, restrict or remove content that violates these Terms. Ideas, suggestions and feedback you send us may be used without restriction or compensation.

8. Game data

Moves, results, clock times and similar records of games played on the Service are factual game data and form part of the Service's records and databases. Your games are visible to your opponents and, where features provide for it, to other users. We may retain, display and use game records — including in aggregated or de-identified form and for anti-cheating analysis — and your opponents' copies of shared games remain part of their history even if you later delete your account.

9. Our intellectual property

The Service — including its software, design, branding, logos, curated databases, annotations, puzzle selections, training content and compilations — is protected by intellectual-property and database rights and remains the property of us or our licensors. Chess moves themselves are facts; our selection, curation, enrichment and presentation of them are protected. You may not use the HummerChess name, logo or branding without our prior written permission.

10. Acceptable use

You must not: use the Service for unlawful purposes; harass, threaten or defame others; scrape, crawl, bulk-download or systematically extract data from the Service; use content or data from the Service to train or improve machine-learning or AI models without our prior written permission; probe, disrupt or circumvent security measures, rate limits or paid-feature restrictions; reverse-engineer or copy the software except where the law expressly allows; operate bots or automated clients against the Service except through interfaces we document; resell or commercially exploit the Service; send spam; or abuse promotions, trials or refunds.

11. Service changes and third-party services

HummerChess is an evolving platform: we may add, modify, suspend or discontinue features (including free features) at any time, and may introduce or adjust usage limits. We will make reasonable efforts to announce material changes. The Service interoperates with third-party services such as sign-in providers (Google, Apple, WeChat) and may link to external sites; those services are governed by their own terms and we are not responsible for them.

12. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service at any time and may permanently delete your account in Settings. We may suspend or terminate your account, or restrict features, where we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, created fraud, security or legal risk, or where required by law; where practicable we will give notice. Upon termination your license ends and access to paid features and content ceases. If we terminate your account for a material violation, you are not entitled to a refund except where one is required by law; if we discontinue the paid Service entirely, we will refund the unused portion of amounts you have prepaid. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including content licenses, disclaimers, liability limits and dispute terms) survive.

13. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation, nor the accuracy or completeness of databases, ratings, engine analysis or training feedback, which are provided for information and study only. This section does not affect warranties that cannot be excluded by law.

14. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages, or for loss of profits, data, goodwill or business opportunity. Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for the Service in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim and (b) USD 50. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or under mandatory consumer-protection rules of your place of residence.

15. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by the law of your place of residence, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the operator and its staff and agents from third-party claims, damages and reasonable expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from content you submit, your use of the Service in violation of these Terms, or your violation of law or third-party rights. This obligation does not apply where such indemnities are unenforceable against consumers.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the People's Republic of China, without prejudice to mandatory consumer protections of the country or region where you live. Please contact support@hummerchess.com first — most issues can be resolved informally. Disputes that cannot be resolved informally shall be brought before the competent court at the operator's domicile, unless mandatory law gives you the right to another forum. Where these Terms are published in multiple languages, the English version controls to the extent permitted by law.

17. Changes to these Terms; general

We may update these Terms as the Service evolves; material changes will be announced in the app or by other reasonable means, and the “Last updated” date revised. Your continued use after changes take effect constitutes acceptance. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remainder stays in effect. We may assign these Terms to an affiliate or a successor of the business; you may not assign them. These Terms, the Privacy Policy and the Refund Policy form the entire agreement between us regarding the Service.