Effective 27 July 2026. Using the site means you accept these terms.
ChessClerk is a chess application with an AI coach attached. You can play games, work through puzzles, study openings, and talk to the clerk about any of it.
Playing chess is free and always will be. The board, the clock and the engine run in your own browser and cost nothing to use.
Talking to the clerk costs money, because every exchange calls a language model that charges us.
You need an account to talk to the clerk. One account per person. Don't share it, don't sell it, and don't create additional accounts to collect the free starting credit more than once.
You are responsible for what happens under your account.
ChessClerk is prepaid. You buy credit, and it is deducted as you use it. There is no subscription and nothing recurring.
You are charged only when a call succeeds. A failed request costs nothing.
Every charge is recorded with the rate that was in force at the time, so the arithmetic on your account is always checkable.
New accounts receive a small amount of free starting credit. It is a gift, not a purchase, and carries no refund value.
Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card details.
Unused credit can be refunded on request, less payment processing fees, for thirty days after purchase. Credit that has already been spent cannot be refunded.
Ask the clerk.
Conversations may be logged. What you say to the clerk, and what it says back, may be stored so that problems can be found and fixed. See the privacy page for what is kept and for how long.
Verified analysis enters the shared library. ChessClerk keeps a public library of chess lines. When analysis you and the clerk work out survives an engine check, the resulting position, evaluation and plans may be added to it.
Nothing identifying goes with it. The library has no authors. There is no record of who contributed a line and no way to find out — not hidden, absent. What enters is chess, not you.
Your games, your notes and your private repertoire are yours. Only positions that pass the engine check enter the public library, and only as chess.
Don't use ChessClerk to cheat in games against other people, anywhere, including on other sites. Don't attempt to break, overload or reverse the service. Don't resell access.
Accounts doing any of that can be closed, and unused credit refunded.
The clerk is a language model. It is often right and sometimes wrong, and it will occasionally state something incorrect with complete confidence. Engine evaluations come from Stockfish and are reliable; the words around them are generated and are not.
Treat it as a strong practice partner rather than an oracle.
ChessClerk is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. It may be unavailable, it may lose data, and it may be wrong.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, liability for any claim arising from your use of ChessClerk is limited to the amount of unused credit on your account.
These terms may change. Material changes will be posted here with a new effective date, and announced in the app. Continuing to use ChessClerk after a change means you accept it.
You can stop at any time. Ask and your account and its data will be deleted, and any unused credit refunded.
Accounts may be closed for the reasons under fair use above, or if the service shuts down. In either case unused credit is refunded.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Montana, United States.