ASCENDCHESS Terms of Service

Effective date: October 28, 2026 Operated by: ASCENDCHESS, Inc. ("ASCENDCHESS," "we," "us," or "our") Contact: joseph.hungerman@ascendchess.com

ASCENDCHESS is in beta. These terms govern your use of the platform during beta and after public launch. Please read them. By using ASCENDCHESS, you agree to them.

1. Acceptance of these terms

By accessing or using ASCENDCHESS, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

2. The service

ASCENDCHESS is a chess improvement platform that analyzes your games, identifies weaknesses, and builds a structured study plan and coaching around them. The service is currently in beta, which means features may change, be added, or be removed, and the platform may have errors or interruptions. We provide the service on an evolving basis.

3. Eligibility and accounts

You access ASCENDCHESS through a WilCo Chess Club account, which provides single sign-on. You are responsible for the activity that occurs under your account and for keeping your login secure. You must provide accurate information and keep it current.

ASCENDCHESS is not intended for children under 13. If you are a minor, you should use the service only with the involvement of a parent, guardian, or coach who agrees to these terms on your behalf.

4. Beta access, subscriptions, and billing

During beta, access is provided to eligible WilCo Chess Club members at no additional charge as part of their membership. Beta access may be changed or ended as the platform moves toward public launch.

When paid subscriptions become available, the applicable prices, tiers, and billing terms will be presented to you before you subscribe, and payment will be handled by our third-party payment processor. Subscriptions renew according to the terms shown at signup unless cancelled. You can cancel a subscription as described in the platform or by contacting us. Except where required by law, fees already paid are non-refundable.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to: use the service for any unlawful purpose; attempt to gain unauthorized access to the platform, other accounts, or our systems; interfere with or disrupt the service; scrape, harvest, or bulk-extract data from the platform except through features we provide; reverse engineer or attempt to extract source code except to the extent permitted by law; resell or commercially redistribute the service without our permission; or upload content that infringes the rights of others or that is unlawful.

6. Your content

You retain ownership of the chess content you bring to or create on the platform, including your imported games, your repertoire, your study collections, and your notes. By using the service, you grant ASCENDCHESS a limited license to store, process, analyze, and display that content for the purpose of operating the service for you, including sending relevant chess data to our AI providers to generate analysis and coaching as described in the Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for ensuring you have the right to upload any content you bring to the platform.

7. Coaching and sharing

If you choose to share your profile with a coach, you authorize ASCENDCHESS to make the chess and study data you share visible to that coach through the platform. You control whether to share, and you are responsible for choosing who you share with. Coaches who use the platform agree to use shared data only to support the coaching relationship and in accordance with these terms.

8. Lessons with coaches

Who you are dealing with. Coaches on ASCENDCHESS are independent. They are not employees or agents of ASCENDCHESS. A lesson is an agreement between you and your coach. ASCENDCHESS provides the booking, payment and lesson-room tools, and handles payment on the coach's behalf.

Who can book. To book and pay for a lesson you need an active Apprentice membership. Only coaches with an approved listing take bookings. Your membership only needs to be active when you book; if it lapses later, lessons you already booked still go ahead.

Prices and fees. Each coach sets their own price. The price you see is the price you pay. ASCENDCHESS keeps a platform fee, a percentage of the lesson price taken from the coach's share, which covers card processing. Some lessons are free, and no fee applies to them.

How a booking works.

• When you request a lesson, we place a hold on your card for the lesson price. You are charged only when the coach accepts.
• If the coach declines, or does not answer in time, the hold is released and you are not charged.
• Coaches are paid through Stripe. Stripe verifies each coach's identity and handles their tax forms.

Canceling and rescheduling.

• You can cancel or reschedule for free up to 24 hours before the lesson starts.
• If you cancel within 24 hours of the start, the coach keeps the lesson fee.
• If you book a lesson that starts within the next 24 hours, we tell you before you book that an accepted lesson is not refunded if you cancel.
• If your coach cancels, at any time, you get a full refund.

If something goes wrong.

• If your coach does not show up, report it within 48 hours after the scheduled end of the lesson. We give your coach 24 hours to respond. If they do not respond, your full refund goes out automatically. If they do respond, we decide within 24 hours.
• If you do not show up, the lesson counts as delivered.
• Report any other problem with a lesson within 48 hours and we will review it.

When a coaching relationship ends. You get a full refund for any upcoming lesson that has not happened yet if:

• you block your coach;
• your coach ends sharing with you or is removed from ASCENDCHESS;
• either account is deleted.

If you stop sharing with your coach, the 24-hour rule above applies to upcoming lessons.

Meeting links. Lessons take place on the video link your coach provides, such as Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. ASCENDCHESS does not host or record the video. The lesson room shows the link and who hosts it.

Your data. Your lesson bookings and their history are included when you download your data from your account. When you delete your account, your personal details are removed from them. Payment records are kept as the law requires, without your name.

9. Intellectual property

The ASCENDCHESS platform, including its software, design, methodology, training content, written coaching frameworks, and brand, is owned by ASCENDCHESS, Inc. and is protected by intellectual property laws. These terms do not grant you any ownership of the platform or its content. You may use the platform only as permitted by these terms.

10. AI-generated content

ASCENDCHESS uses artificial intelligence to generate analysis, recommendations, and coaching. This content is informational and is intended as a study aid. It may contain errors, and it is not a substitute for a qualified human coach. We do not guarantee any particular result, rating gain, or improvement from using the service.

11. Third-party services

The platform connects to third-party services, such as Lichess and Chess.com for game import, and relies on third-party providers for AI processing, hosting, and payments. Your use of those third-party services is governed by their own terms and policies. We are not responsible for third-party services we do not control.

12. Disclaimers

The service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, and during beta especially may be incomplete, interrupted, or subject to change. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will produce any specific improvement in your chess.

13. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, ASCENDCHESS, Inc. will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits, or goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use the service. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim relating to the service will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim or one hundred United States dollars.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless ASCENDCHESS, Inc. from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from your misuse of the service, your violation of these terms, or your violation of the rights of any third party.

15. Termination

You may stop using the service and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the service. On termination, the provisions of these terms that by their nature should survive, including ownership, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnification, will survive.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the platform evolves. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date and, where appropriate, notify you. Your continued use of the service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.

17. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Any dispute relating to these terms or the service will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Tennessee, and you consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.

18. Contact us

Questions about these terms can be sent to joseph.hungerman@ascendchess.com.

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This document is a beta draft prepared by the ASCENDCHESS team and has not yet been reviewed by legal counsel. It is intended to be reviewed by an attorney as the business scope expands.