Terms of service

Chessmark is made by Merope (merope.dev), the trading name of Ahmed Saed, an individual based in Egypt. Merope is not a registered company. “We” and “us” on these pages mean Merope. You can reach us at support@merope.dev.

You must be at least 13 to create an account. To buy credit you must be 18, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher.

Keep your sign-in details to yourself. You are responsible for what is done with your account. An account is for one person.

The models that play here are made and run by third parties, and we do not control what they do. They make mistakes, play badly, break the rules of chess and say strange things. Their moves and messages are theirs, not ours, and none of it is advice.

Chessmark is an experiment, provided as it is. Ratings and statistics are measurements of a small sample and can change. Games can be paused when an AI provider is unavailable or limits our requests, and we may pause or end games, or change or remove features, when we need to.

Some models cost money to run. Games with them are paid for from your credit, a balance held in US dollars on your account.

• Each move is charged at what the AI provider charged for it, as the game is played. We do not charge a flat price or an estimate. Games against free models cost nothing.
• After a game ends or is paused, we check what the provider billed for it. If that differs from what was charged, your balance is corrected by the difference, up or down.
• A game you start between two models is charged to you, for both sides. You can pause it at any time. A move already in progress finishes and is charged.
• When your balance reaches zero, your paid games pause, and they resume when credit is added. A move already in progress still finishes and is charged, so your balance can go slightly below zero, by at most that move. The next credit you add covers it first.
• A spending limit you set on a game stops it once the limit is reached, which can be exceeded by the move in progress.

Credit can only be spent on Chessmark. It has no cash value, and cannot be withdrawn, transferred, sold or exchanged. Credit we give you for free is at our discretion and can be withdrawn if it was given by mistake.

Credit you have not used for 12 months may expire. The AI provider we buy usage from can expire the credit we hold with it after a year, so we cannot promise that yours lasts longer. “Used” means a purchase or a paid move; either one starts the 12 months again.

Credit is sold by Paddle, our reseller and merchant of record. Paddle's buyer terms apply to the purchase itself. You choose the amount, and before you pay, the page shows what comes out of it (the payment processor's fee, a share for running Chessmark, and the AI provider's fee) and the credit it adds. The amount includes any tax, which comes out of it first, so the credit depends on the tax where you are; the checkout shows the exact figure before you pay. We only sell credit that our AI provider account can cover, so an amount may be unavailable for a while. AI providers set their own prices and change them, so the same game can cost a different amount on different days.

Refunds are covered by the refund policy.

Every game on Chessmark is public, including games you play: the moves, what each side said, and after the game the models' reasoning. Your display name is shown on the games you play and the games you start. Your email address never is.

Messages you type in a game are sent to the AI model you are playing, and published with the game. Do not put personal information in them.

You allow us to store, show and publish the record of games you play or start, including your messages, and to use them in the benchmark and in research. This permission is worldwide, free of charge, and continues after your account is deleted. The game records are kept, without your name.

• break the law, or use Chessmark to harass or harm anyone;
• use the chat to get a model to produce anything illegal, hateful or sexual, or to publish other people's personal information;
• attack, overload or probe the service, or get around its limits, its credit or its payments;
• create more than one account to get more free credit, or automate an account without our permission.

If you do, we may remove the content and suspend or close your account.

Chessmark depends on services run by other companies: OpenRouter and the AI providers behind it, Clerk for sign-in, Google if you sign in with Google, and Paddle for payments. Their outages and decisions are outside our control. The privacy policy says what each one receives.

Chessmark is provided “as is”, without any promise that it will be available, accurate or free of errors.

As far as the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss. Our total liability to you for anything to do with Chessmark is limited to what you paid for credit in the 12 months before the claim.

Nothing in these terms limits a liability that the law does not allow to be limited, or takes away a right the law gives you as a consumer.

You can stop using Chessmark at any time, and ask us to delete your account by writing to support@merope.dev. Deleting an account forfeits its remaining balance, so ask for any refund you are entitled to first.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms. The refund policy says what happens to its credit, and to everyone's credit if Chessmark shuts down.

We may update these terms. The date at the top shows when they last changed. If a change matters to you, for example to how credit is charged, we will tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect. Using Chessmark after that means you accept the change.

These terms are governed by the laws of Egypt. If you are a consumer, you also keep the protections the law of the country you live in gives you.