Last updated 15 November 2026. ChesStresS is for players aged 13 and over.
ChesStresS is for everyone aged 13 and over. We do not tolerate cheating, or insults, swearing and harassment of any kind. One clear case is enough for action.
| Not allowed | What counts |
|---|---|
| Cheating | Using a chess engine, an analysis board, a database (in live games) or another person's help during a game. Letting someone else play on your account. |
| Manipulating ratings or results | Boosting (arranged wins to raise a rating), sandbagging (losing on purpose to lower one), agreeing results in advance, quick arranged draws or forfeits in tournaments, using more than one account. |
| Insults and swearing | Offensive, vulgar, sexual or mocking words in a nickname, in any language or spelling. Using the preset phrases to taunt. |
| Hate | Slurs, symbols or numbers that attack people for who they are. |
| Harassment | Threats; targeting a player with repeated challenges, rematch or draw requests they do not want; following a player from game to game; reports made in bad faith. |
| Poor sportsmanship | Letting the clock run down in a lost position instead of resigning, or walking away from games, again and again. |
| Pretending and advertising | Nicknames that claim to be staff, a moderator, “official”, or a titled player (GM, IM, FM …); contact details, links or adverts in a nickname. |
Besides your reports, the server looks at simple, explainable statistics of rated games. No chess engine runs on our server. If an account passes one of the thresholds below, a flag is put in a queue for a person. A flag does nothing to the account: it does not restrict, slow down or label it, and other players never see it.
These signals are sometimes wrong. A strong player on a good day, a fast improver, friends or a family who often play each other, or a school club on one network can all trigger a flag. That is exactly why a flag is only a request for a person to look, and why you can appeal any decision.
| Step | What it means |
|---|---|
| No action | The reviewer found nothing, or not enough. Nothing is recorded against the player. |
| Warning | A notice in the app. Nothing is restricted. |
| Restriction (a set number of days, or until lifted) | One of: no rated play (casual games stay open); no tournaments and no rated Turbo Live events; chat switched off. |
| Forced rename | The nickname is reset to “Player-xxxx” and the player chooses a new, acceptable one. |
| Account closure: fair play | For cheating, boosting, collusion or multiple accounts. The account can no longer sign in, leaves the leaderboards and ladders and loses its badges. Opponents get back the CSR points they lost to it in rated games in the last 90 days; Turbo Live events of the last 90 days in which it was rated are worked out again without it, and players whose TSR would have been higher get the difference. Everyone corrected sees a notice. |
| Account closure: abuse | For harassment, hate, threats, or serious or repeated insults. |
| Account closure: under 13 | When the owner of an account tells us, or a report makes it clear, that they are under 13. This is not a punishment: ChesStresS is for players aged 13 and over. The account is closed at once, online play is switched off on that device, and the account and its data are deleted automatically 7 days later. If we got it wrong, email us within those 7 days. We do not ask for proof of age or any documents. Opponents' ratings are not changed. |
We choose the lightest step that fits. Serious cases (for example clear engine use over many games, threats or hate) can go straight to closure.
If you lose 3 live games on time while disconnected within 24 hours, rated pairing pauses for 10 minutes and the app tells you until when. Casual games stay open. The rule is the same for everyone and is applied by the game itself; it is not a decision about you and does not go on your record. See the Terms, section 7.
Accounts closed after a person's review (closures overturned on appeal are not counted):
| Last 30 days | All time | |
|---|---|---|
| Closed for fair-play violations | – | – |
| Closed for abuse | – | – |
| Closed because the owner is under 13 | – | – |
Loading the current numbers… No names are published.
After an online game: press Report on the game screen (or next to the game in your saved games). A player you see in “Players online”: tap their name, then Report. In a tournament or Turbo Live: tap the small flag next to a name in the players list or standings. At a Four Stressed or Wild Stressed online table: use Report or Block next to the player at the table.
Choose a category – harassment, offensive name, stalling or abandoning, cheating, boosting or sandbagging, seems to be under 13, or other – and add a short note if you like (up to 300 characters). You can tick Block this player too: the confirmation then tells you the player is reported and blocked. You can report each game once, each player once until the report is reviewed, and send up to 5 reports a day.
Anything else – a spectator problem, illegal content, or a bug that lets people misbehave – email [email protected] with "Report" in the subject. Tell us the nickname, where you saw it, and roughly when. A screenshot helps.
You can see whether your in-game reports have been received or reviewed in the Fair play card of the Online tab.
| Type of report | What we aim for |
|---|---|
| A threat to someone's safety, a child at risk, or illegal content | Looked at as soon as we see it, normally within 24 hours. We may restrict the account at once and, where the law requires or someone is at risk, tell the police or other authorities. |
| Abusive or offensive nickname | Reviewed within 3 days |
| Harassment | Reviewed within 3 days |
| Cheating, boosting, sandbagging, stalling (reports and automatic flags) | Reviewed within 14 days (fair-play checks take longer) |
| Emails | Receipt confirmed within 2 working days |
A person looks at the report or flag, the games, the move times and the account's history, and may check games with a chess engine on their own computer. Agreement with an engine is evidence, never proof on its own: it is weighed over many games together with everything else. The outcome is one of the steps of the ladder above. If we take action, the player sees the decision in the app (Account tab, "Notices"): what was decided, the reason in plain words, until when it lasts, the date and how to appeal. Every action the reviewer takes is written to a log that cannot be edited. To protect privacy we do not tell the person who reported what action was taken, but you will see that your report was reviewed. We are a very small team, so these are targets, not guarantees; urgent safety reports always come first.
If we took action against your account and you think we were wrong, email [email protected] with "Appeal" in the subject within 30 days. Give your nickname and explain why. A person reviews the whole case again, including anything new you send, and replies normally within 14 days. If your appeal succeeds, everything is put back: the restriction or closure is lifted, a reset nickname and removed badges are restored where possible, and rating corrections made because of the decision are reversed. You can also appeal if your content was wrongly removed or your report was wrongly rejected.
Block a player: tap their name in "Players online", the Block button on a challenge you receive, the opponent's card in an online game, Block next to a player at a four-player table, or Block in the Report dialog. A blocked player cannot challenge you, is never paired with you in quick games or seated with you at a quick four-player table, and you and they do not see each other in "Players online". They are not told. You can see and undo your blocks in Profile › Blocked players. With an account the list works on all your devices; as a guest it is kept on your device.
You can also:
ChesStresS has no open chat, no adverts and no location tracking, and nothing can be bought at the moment. If purchases are added they will go only through Apple or Google, so the parental controls on your child's device (Ask to Buy, Google Family Link) will apply. You can contact us about your child's account at the address below; we will need the nickname and will ask you to confirm the account is your child's. If your child is under 13, tell us the nickname: we close the account the same day and it is deleted with its data 7 days later. We will not ask for any document or proof of age.
Support, reports and appeals: [email protected]. Emails are answered with the help of an AI assistant; every decision is made by a person. Operator: [OPERATOR NAME], [POSTAL ADDRESS].
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