Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of ChessLead — the website at chesslead.org and the ChessLead dashboard application (together, the "Service"). By creating an account, signing in with Google, Microsoft, or Apple, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you are creating an account on behalf of an Organisation (a club, school, or academy), you confirm that you are authorised to accept these Terms on that Organisation's behalf, and "you" in these Terms refers to both you personally and the Organisation you represent.

2. The service

ChessLead is a management platform for chess clubs, schools, academies, coaches, players, and their families. Depending on your role, the Service may let you: manage an Organisation's members, sessions, and attendance; run lesson plans and coach reports; schedule and manage tournaments; generate invoices and process payments; message other members of your Organisation; and buy or sell chess equipment through our marketplace.

We may add, change, or remove features over time. We'll try to give reasonable notice of changes that materially reduce functionality you rely on, but the Service is provided on an evolving basis and specific features are not guaranteed to remain unchanged indefinitely.

3. Accounts & eligibility

• You must be at least 18 years old to create a ChessLead account as a Club Admin, School Admin, Coach, Parent/Guardian, Finance Admin, or Vendor.
• Players/students do not create their own accounts — their records are created and managed by an Organisation and/or their parent or guardian, as described in our Privacy Policy.
• You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for all activity that happens under your account. Tell us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorised access.
• You must provide accurate information when registering an account or an Organisation, and keep it up to date.

4. Organisation & admin responsibilities

If you administer an Organisation (as a Club Admin or School Admin), you are responsible for:

• Having the appropriate legal basis and, where a Player is a minor, parental/guardian consent before adding or uploading that Player's data to ChessLead — see our Privacy Policy's Children's Privacy section.
• Managing who at your Organisation has access to the platform, and promptly removing access for coaches, finance staff, or other admins who leave your Organisation.
• The accuracy of the records, invoices, and communications your Organisation creates on the platform.
• Complying with any additional obligations that apply to your Organisation under Kenyan law (for example, tax record-keeping, or your own obligations as a school or club to the families you serve).

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose, or in a way that infringes anyone else's rights;
• Access or attempt to access another Organisation's data, or another user's account, without authorisation;
• Upload data about a minor without the appropriate consent described in Section 4;
• Upload malicious code, attempt to breach the Service's security, or interfere with its normal operation;
• Scrape, resell, or redistribute data from the Service other than your own Organisation's data, which you may export using the tools we provide;
• Impersonate any person or Organisation, or misrepresent your affiliation with one;
• Use the marketplace to list counterfeit, unsafe, or illegal goods.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate this section — see Section 10.

6. Payments, fees & subscriptions

• Platform subscriptions — Organisations may use ChessLead on a free tier or a paid subscription tier with additional features. Subscription fees are billed in advance and, unless stated otherwise at the time of purchase, are non-refundable for the current billing period once that period has started.
• Payment methods — we support M-Pesa (via Safaricom's Daraja API), card payments (via Stripe), and bank transfer for platform subscriptions and invoices. ChessLead never receives or stores your full card number; Stripe handles that directly.
• Invoices between an Organisation and its members (e.g. a club invoicing a parent for term fees) are generated and collected by the Organisation using ChessLead's tools — the Organisation, not ChessLead, is responsible for the accuracy of those invoices and for resolving billing disputes with its own members.
• Failed or reversed payments (e.g. a failed M-Pesa transaction or a card chargeback) may result in restricted access to paid features until resolved.

7. Marketplace

ChessLead's marketplace lets approved Vendors list chess equipment, books, and services for sale to other users. ChessLead facilitates the listing and checkout experience but is not the manufacturer or seller of Vendor products. Vendors are responsible for the accuracy of their listings, for fulfilling orders, and for the quality, safety, and legality of what they sell. Buyers should direct product-specific questions, returns, and warranty claims to the Vendor first; contact [email protected] if a Vendor is unresponsive or you believe a listing violates these Terms.

8. Content & intellectual property

• ChessLead's software, design, branding, and documentation are our intellectual property (or licensed to us) and may not be copied or reused without permission.
• You and your Organisation retain ownership of the data you upload — player records, lesson plans, documents, branding assets, and messages. By uploading content, you grant ChessLead a limited licence to host, process, and display it back to you and your Organisation solely to operate the Service.
• If your Organisation stops using ChessLead, your data remains yours; see the Data retention section of our Privacy Policy for how long we keep it and how to request export or deletion.

9. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party providers — including Supabase, Resend, Stripe, Safaricom M-Pesa, Africa's Talking, Cloudflare, Vercel, Lichess, and Jitsi Meet — described in detail in our Privacy Policy. Your use of features built on these providers (for example, connecting your club's Lichess account, or joining a Jitsi video session) may also be subject to that provider's own terms.

10. Suspension & termination

• You may stop using the Service, or request deletion of your account, at any time — see Section 12 of our Privacy Policy.
• We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms, if required by law, or to protect the security or integrity of the Service — we'll aim to give notice where practical, but may act immediately for serious violations (e.g. a security threat or unlawful use).
• Sections that by their nature should survive termination (intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, governing law) continue to apply after your account is closed.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." We work to keep it reliable and accurate, but we do not guarantee that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of every possible security vulnerability, and we make no warranty as to the accuracy of data entered by Organisations, coaches, or other users (for example, attendance or rating records entered by a coach). To the fullest extent permitted by Kenyan law, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, ChessLead will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from your use of the Service, including loss of data, revenue, or goodwill. Our total liability for any claim arising from these Terms or the Service is limited to the amount you (or your Organisation) paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose, or KES 10,000 if you have not paid us anything. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under Kenyan law.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold ChessLead harmless from claims, damages, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your violation of any law, or content or data you upload without proper authorisation — including, in particular, uploading a minor's data without the consent required under Section 4.

14. Governing law & disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Kenya. Any dispute arising from these Terms or the Service will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Kenya, except where mandatory local law gives you the right to bring a claim in your own jurisdiction.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time as the Service evolves. We will post the updated Terms here with a new "Last updated" date and version number, and for material changes we will notify you by email or an in-app notification. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

16. Contact information

Questions about these Terms:

• Email: [email protected]
• Platform: ChessLead
• Location: Nairobi, Kenya