Terms of Service

Hypercarry Chess is operated by Chia Meng Hioke (“Hypercarry Chess”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Hypercarry Chess, including its website, accounts, games, profiles, customisation features, user uploads, AI-powered features and related services (collectively, the “Service”).

Please read these Terms carefully.

1. Acceptance of These Terms

By creating or using a Hypercarry Chess account, accepting these Terms through an account or registration interface, or otherwise using a part of the Service to which these Terms expressly apply, you agree to comply with these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you should not create or continue using a Hypercarry Chess account or any feature requiring acceptance of these Terms.

Your use of Hypercarry Chess is also subject to the Hypercarry Chess Privacy Policy.

Certain features, including user-upload functionality, may display additional rules or terms specific to that feature. Those additional terms form part of your agreement when you use the relevant feature.

If feature-specific terms conflict with these Terms, these Terms will prevail unless the feature-specific terms expressly state that they modify a particular provision of these Terms.

2. Age Requirements

You must be at least 13 years old to use Hypercarry Chess.

If you are aged 13 to 17, you must have permission from a parent or legal guardian to use Hypercarry Chess and should use the Service with appropriate parental or guardian guidance or supervision.

You must provide truthful information when asked to confirm your age eligibility or parent or guardian permission.

You must not circumvent or misrepresent information requested for the purpose of enforcing these age requirements.

If we reasonably believe that a user is below 13 or otherwise does not satisfy these requirements, we may restrict or terminate access to the Service and take appropriate action concerning the account and associated information.

3. Accounts

Some Hypercarry Chess features require a user account.

You agree to:

• provide information that is reasonably accurate and not deliberately misleading;
• maintain the security of your account credentials;
• use reasonable care to prevent unauthorised access to your account; and
• notify us if you reasonably believe that your account has been compromised.

You must not:

• sell, transfer or commercially trade an account without permission;
• knowingly allow another person to use your account to violate these Terms;
• obtain or use another person's account without authorisation;
• impersonate another person;
• create accounts using information that you are not authorised to use;
• create or use additional accounts to evade a suspension, ban or other restriction; or
• use multiple accounts to manipulate games, rankings, rewards, achievements, testing systems or other features.

You are generally responsible for activity carried out through your account where that activity results from your own actions or your failure to take reasonable care of your account credentials.

4. Google and Discord Authentication

Hypercarry Chess may allow you to authenticate or connect your account using third-party services such as Google or Discord.

Using a third-party authentication method does not exempt you from these Terms, including the minimum-age requirements.

Your relationship with Google, Discord or another authentication provider is also governed by that provider's own terms and policies.

Hypercarry Chess may modify, restrict or discontinue support for a particular third-party authentication method.

You should maintain at least one valid means of accessing your account where the Service allows you to do so.

5. Hypercarry Chess and Game Rules

Hypercarry Chess is an independently developed chess-variant game and online service.

The Service may contain:

• alternative chess rules;
• custom pieces;
• special abilities;
• custom rulesets;
• points or balancing systems;
• bots;
• AI-assisted features;
• evaluations;
• candidate moves or analysis;
• achievements;
• titles;
• progression;
• customisation systems; and
• experimental or playtest functionality.

Rules, mechanics, balance, pieces, points, AI behaviour, bots, rankings, achievements, titles and other features may be changed as Hypercarry Chess develops.

Unless we expressly state otherwise, no particular game mechanic, balance state, title, achievement, statistic, ranking, reward, cosmetic item or feature is guaranteed to remain permanently available or unchanged.

6. Fair Play

You must play Hypercarry Chess fairly.

Unless a particular game mode or feature expressly permits it, you must not use:

• external chess engines;
• external AI assistance;
• computer analysis;
• automated move selection;
• another person playing on your behalf; or
• other external assistance

to obtain an unfair advantage during a live competitive game against another human player.

Using analysis tools outside a live competitive game, or in a mode that expressly allows them, does not violate this rule.

You must not:

• collude to manipulate game results;
• intentionally manipulate rankings or statistics;
• arrange fraudulent wins or losses;
• exploit multiple accounts to obtain an unfair advantage;
• intentionally abuse bugs to alter game outcomes or progression;
• falsify gameplay results; or
• otherwise interfere with the integrity of competitive play.

7. Acceptable Use

You must use Hypercarry Chess lawfully and responsibly.

You must not:

• attempt to obtain unauthorised access to another user's account;
• attempt to obtain unauthorised access to Hypercarry Chess systems, databases, administrative tools or infrastructure;
• probe, scan or test vulnerabilities without prior permission;
• attack, overload, disrupt or impair the Service;
• bypass security, access-control, rate-limit or moderation systems;
• introduce malware, malicious scripts or other harmful code;
• exploit bugs or vulnerabilities for harmful or unauthorised purposes;
• knowingly conceal a serious vulnerability in order to exploit it;
• use automated tools to scrape, crawl or systematically extract information from Hypercarry Chess without permission, except for ordinary search-engine indexing or automated access expressly authorised by us;
• operate unauthorised bots or automated players;
• use Hypercarry Chess infrastructure for unrelated storage, distribution or computational abuse;
• harass, threaten, stalk, intimidate or abuse another person;
• dox or publish another person's private information without appropriate permission;
• impersonate another person or falsely imply affiliation with another person or organisation;
• use deceptive or abusive usernames, profiles or content;
• use Hypercarry Chess to facilitate unlawful activity;
• interfere with another user's reasonable enjoyment of the Service; or
• encourage, assist or knowingly facilitate another person in doing any of the above.

You must not reverse engineer, decompile, circumvent technological protections or otherwise attempt to derive protected portions of the Service except where we give permission or applicable law does not permit that restriction.

Responsible reports of security vulnerabilities made in good faith are not intended to be treated as prohibited conduct merely because they identify a flaw.

8. Profiles and Public Information

Hypercarry Chess includes user profiles and other features through which information may be visible to other users or to the public.

Depending on the feature and available privacy controls, publicly visible information may include:

• username;
• public UID;
• profile picture;
• biography;
• selected profile information;
• social links;
• titles or achievements; and
• user-uploaded assets.

You are responsible for considering what information you choose to place in publicly visible fields.

You must not use publicly available Hypercarry Chess information to harass, stalk, profile, impersonate or otherwise harm another user.

If another user has made information public, that does not give you ownership of that information or permission to use it in ways that violate these Terms or applicable law.

Hypercarry Chess may introduce or modify privacy controls over time.

9. User Content and Uploads

Hypercarry Chess may allow you to upload, submit, publish or share content such as:

• profile pictures;
• chess-piece artwork;
• board designs;
• backgrounds;
• cursors;
• music;
• images;
• videos;
• feedback attachments; and
• other supported material.

Collectively, this material is referred to as “User Content”.

Your ownership

You retain whatever ownership rights you lawfully hold in your User Content.

Hypercarry Chess does not acquire ownership of your User Content merely because you upload it.

Licence to Hypercarry Chess

By uploading User Content, you grant Hypercarry Chess a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, process, convert, resize, transcode, create technical derivatives of, display, transmit and distribute that User Content to the extent reasonably necessary to:

• provide the feature through which it was uploaded;
• make content available to other users where you choose or the feature is designed for public sharing;
• generate technical versions such as thumbnails or converted formats;
• moderate and review content;
• investigate reports or infringements;
• maintain backups;
• secure and operate Hypercarry Chess; and
• otherwise provide the Service in accordance with these Terms and the Privacy Policy.

This licence does not give Hypercarry Chess the right to sell your User Content as our own independent product merely because you uploaded it.

The licence ordinarily ends when the User Content is deleted from the Service and is no longer reasonably required for its original purpose, subject to reasonable technical backup periods and retention reasonably necessary for moderation, security, dispute resolution or legal obligations.

Your responsibility for uploads

You represent that:

• you created the User Content or otherwise have sufficient rights and permission to upload and use it;
• granting Hypercarry Chess the licence above does not violate another person's rights;
• the content does not unlawfully infringe copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other rights; and
• you have obtained any permissions reasonably required for persons, material or information contained in the upload.

You should not upload material merely because it is readily available online.

10. Prohibited User Content

You must not upload, submit or distribute User Content that:

• is unlawful;
• infringes copyright, trademark or other intellectual-property rights;
• unlawfully violates another person's privacy or publicity rights;
• contains another person's confidential or personal information without appropriate permission;
• contains child sexual abuse material or sexually exploits or endangers minors;
• contains unlawful sexual content;
• consists primarily of pornography or sexually explicit material unsuitable for a Service available to users aged 13 and above;
• promotes or facilitates terrorism or unlawful extremist activity;
• contains unlawful hateful material;
• credibly threatens or encourages violence against another person;
• is intended to harass, stalk or dox another person;
• contains malware, malicious scripts, executable attacks or harmful payloads;
• is designed to exploit or compromise another user's device;
• impersonates another person in a deceptive or harmful manner;
• falsely suggests sponsorship, endorsement or association;
• is submitted primarily to abuse storage, bandwidth or infrastructure;
• is deliberately corrupted or disguised to bypass upload restrictions; or
• otherwise violates these Terms or applicable feature-specific rules.

The fact that content passes an automated upload check does not mean that it is permitted under these Terms.

11. Moderation, Reports and Removal

Hypercarry Chess may review, restrict, quarantine, hide or remove User Content where we reasonably believe that it:

• violates these Terms;
• may infringe another person's rights;
• creates a security risk;
• is unlawful;
• has been reported and requires investigation;
• abuses Service infrastructure; or
• is otherwise unsuitable for continued hosting.

We are not required to pre-screen every upload before it becomes available.

Where appropriate, content may temporarily be placed under review while a report is investigated.

If you believe that User Content infringes your rights or violates these Terms, you may contact:

support@hypercarrychess.com

Please provide enough information for us to identify and reasonably assess the material concerned.

We may request additional information before taking action.

Repeated or serious misuse of upload functionality may result in restrictions, suspension or termination of the associated account.

12. Hypercarry Chess Intellectual Property

Except for User Content and material owned by third parties, the software, branding, interface, written material, game material, lore, graphics and other original content comprising Hypercarry Chess are owned by or licensed to the operator to the extent applicable rights subsist.

Original drawn or generated assets created for Hypercarry Chess and not identified as third-party material in applicable licence or credits information are claimed by the operator to the extent that applicable intellectual-property rights subsist in those assets.

Third-party material remains subject to the rights and licences of its respective owners or licensors.

Applicable licence and attribution information may be identified through Hypercarry Chess's licence or credits materials.

Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of Hypercarry Chess intellectual property to you.

You may use Hypercarry Chess and its content for ordinary personal use of the Service.

Unless a licence or applicable law permits otherwise, you must not reproduce, redistribute, sell or commercially exploit protected Hypercarry Chess content without permission.

13. AI-Powered Features

Hypercarry Chess may use artificial intelligence to provide features including:

• game commentary;
• chess-related chatbot interactions;
• move or position assistance;
• generated suggestions; and
• internal processing of feedback or work items.

AI-generated content may be:

• inaccurate;
• incomplete;
• inconsistent;
• outdated;
• inappropriate; or
• different between otherwise similar requests.

AI-generated material is provided for gameplay, entertainment and assistance and should not be treated as guaranteed factual or professional advice.

You remain responsible for decisions you make based on AI-generated content.

You should not submit unnecessary sensitive personal information through AI-powered features.

You must not misuse AI functionality to generate, facilitate or distribute material that violates these Terms or applicable law.

Information submitted to AI-powered features may be processed by third-party AI service providers as described in the Privacy Policy.

14. Privacy

Our collection, use, disclosure, retention and other handling of personal data is described in the Hypercarry Chess Privacy Policy.

The Privacy Policy forms an important notice concerning your use of the Service but does not replace these Terms.

Where Hypercarry Chess provides privacy controls, you are responsible for choosing settings appropriate for information that you submit or make public.

No privacy setting can guarantee removal of independent copies created by another person after information has legitimately been made public.

15. Third-Party Services

Hypercarry Chess relies on or interacts with third-party services that may include providers of:

• hosting;
• infrastructure;
• networking;
• content delivery;
• email;
• OAuth authentication; and
• artificial intelligence.

Your use of a third-party service may also be governed by that provider's own terms and policies.

Hypercarry Chess may also contain links to third-party websites or services.

A link or integration does not necessarily mean that Hypercarry Chess endorses all content, products or activities of that third party.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, Hypercarry Chess is not responsible for the independent acts, omissions, availability or content of third-party services that are outside our reasonable control.

16. Enforcement, Suspension and Bans

We may investigate suspected violations of these Terms.

Depending on the circumstances, we may:

• issue a warning;
• remove or restrict User Content;
• restrict particular features;
• invalidate improperly obtained progress, statistics, rankings, titles, achievements or rewards;
• temporarily suspend an account;
• permanently terminate an account;
• restrict the creation or use of replacement accounts;
• preserve limited information reasonably necessary to enforce an account restriction; or
• take other proportionate steps to protect Hypercarry Chess, its users or third parties.

Relevant factors may include:

• seriousness of the conduct;
• intent;
• repetition;
• effect on other users;
• security consequences;
• whether the user attempted to conceal the conduct; and
• previous violations.

Severe misconduct may result in immediate permanent termination without a prior warning.

Where reasonably appropriate, you may contact us to ask that an enforcement decision be reconsidered. We do not guarantee a formal appeal process for every action.

17. Account Deletion

You may request deletion of your Hypercarry Chess account by contacting us using the details provided in these Terms or the Privacy Policy.

Self-service account-deletion functionality may also be introduced.

Account deletion may require reasonable identity verification or reauthentication before it is processed.

Because an account may be connected to games, uploads, security information, feedback and other records, deletion may occur in stages rather than instantaneously across every system.

The applicable handling of personal data following an account-deletion request is described in the Privacy Policy.

In general, Hypercarry Chess intends to remove or irreversibly anonymise identifying account information within the retention period stated in the Privacy Policy, while allowing genuinely anonymised gameplay or analytical information to remain.

Limited information may be retained where reasonably necessary for purposes including:

• security;
• fraud or abuse prevention;
• enforcement of bans or restrictions;
• dispute resolution;
• legal compliance; or
• establishing, exercising or defending legal rights.

Account deletion cannot require third parties to delete independent copies of content that another person lawfully obtained while it was public.

18. Availability of the Service

Hypercarry Chess is an independently operated software project and is under continuing development.

The Service may experience:

• downtime;
• bugs;
• performance problems;
• data errors;
• compatibility problems;
• unavailable features;
• incorrect game state;
• AI errors;
• temporary maintenance; or
• other technical issues.

We may temporarily restrict access to all or part of the Service where reasonably necessary for maintenance, security, legal compliance or operation.

We do not guarantee that Hypercarry Chess will always be available, uninterrupted or error-free.

19. Changes to Hypercarry Chess

We may add, modify, rebalance, restrict or remove aspects of the Service, including:

• rules;
• pieces;
• abilities;
• points;
• balance;
• game modes;
• bots;
• AI features;
• account functionality;
• profiles;
• titles;
• achievements;
• progression;
• customisation options;
• uploaded-content functionality;
• interfaces; and
• technical systems.

We may also discontinue some or all of Hypercarry Chess.

Where reasonably practical, we may provide notice of major planned changes.

Immediate notice may not be possible where a change is required urgently for security, legal, abuse-prevention or technical reasons.

20. Free Service and Future Monetisation

Hypercarry Chess does not currently offer paid account features under these Terms.

Hypercarry Chess may introduce monetisation in the future, including features such as:

• advertising;
• premium features;
• subscriptions;
• purchases; or
• other paid services.

If paid functionality is introduced, additional or revised terms may be presented concerning matters such as:

• pricing;
• payment;
• recurring billing;
• renewals;
• cancellation;
• refunds;
• taxes;
• paid entitlements; and
• consequences of account suspension or termination.

You will not be considered to have purchased or agreed to a future paid feature merely because these Terms contemplate the possibility of monetisation.

Where paid entitlements are eventually introduced, those entitlements may be suspended or forfeited following serious rule violations or a permanent account ban where the applicable paid-service terms and applicable law permit this.

21. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Hypercarry Chess is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

We do not warrant that:

• the Service will always be available or uninterrupted;
• every game will be successfully completed or stored;
• game states or histories will never be lost or corrupted;
• bots or AI systems will behave optimally;
• evaluations or candidate moves will be correct;
• AI-generated content will be accurate;
• rankings, achievements or statistics will always be error-free;
• every security threat can be prevented;
• every uploaded asset will remain permanently available;
• the Service will work with every browser, device or network;
• every bug will be corrected; or
• any current feature, rule or system will remain permanently available.

Nothing in these Terms excludes any guarantee, warranty, right or liability that applicable law does not permit us to exclude.

22. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, neither Hypercarry Chess nor its operator will be liable for indirect, incidental, special, exemplary or consequential loss arising from or relating to your use of or inability to use the Service.

This may include, where legally permitted, loss relating to:

• gameplay progress;
• game records;
• statistics;
• rankings;
• titles;
• achievements;
• customisation settings;
• User Content;
• expected benefits;
• temporary inability to use the Service; or
• reliance on AI-generated information.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the total aggregate liability of Hypercarry Chess and its operator to you arising from or relating to the Service, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, will not exceed the greater of:

(a) S$100; or (b) the amount you paid directly to Hypercarry Chess for the Service during the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or restricts:

• liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence;
• liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
• any other liability or right that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted.

Any exclusion or limitation in these Terms applies only to the extent that it is permitted and enforceable under applicable law.

23. Responsibility for Certain Third-Party Claims

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you are responsible for reasonable losses, liabilities and expenses arising from third-party claims caused directly by:

• User Content that you uploaded without the rights necessary to do so;
• your intentional unlawful use of Hypercarry Chess;
• your malicious interference with Hypercarry Chess systems or another user's account; or
• another serious intentional violation of these Terms that causes a third party to make a claim against Hypercarry Chess or its operator.

This provision does not require you to compensate Hypercarry Chess for losses caused by Hypercarry Chess's own conduct where imposing that responsibility on you would be unlawful or unreasonable.

24. Termination of the Service or Your Account

You may stop using Hypercarry Chess at any time.

You may request deletion of your account as described above.

We may suspend or terminate your access where:

• you materially or repeatedly violate these Terms;
• you create a security or abuse risk;
• continuing to provide the account would violate applicable law;
• we are required to do so by a lawful authority;
• an account was created or used in violation of the minimum-age requirements; or
• termination is otherwise reasonably necessary to protect Hypercarry Chess, its users or third parties.

We may also discontinue Hypercarry Chess itself.

Provisions that by their nature should continue after termination may continue to apply, including provisions relating to:

• intellectual property;
• User Content already lawfully processed;
• moderation and enforcement records;
• liability;
• legal disputes; and
• legitimately retained information.

25. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect:

• changes to Hypercarry Chess;
• new features;
• security requirements;
• legal or regulatory changes;
• moderation or abuse-prevention needs;
• third-party-service changes;
• monetisation; or
• other legitimate operational reasons.

The current version, effective date and last-updated date will be displayed on the Terms of Service page.

Where changes are material, registered users may be required to review and accept the updated version before continuing to use relevant account features.

Historical versions may be retained so that Hypercarry Chess can identify which version applied at a particular time.

26. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Singapore.

Nothing in these Terms deprives you of mandatory legal rights that cannot lawfully be waived.

Subject to any such mandatory rights, disputes arising out of or relating to Hypercarry Chess or these Terms will be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Singapore.

Before commencing formal proceedings, you are encouraged to contact us so that we can attempt to resolve the matter informally where appropriate.

27. Transfer of Hypercarry Chess

You may not sell or transfer your Hypercarry Chess account or assign your rights under these Terms without permission.

The operator may transfer or assign the operation of Hypercarry Chess and these Terms to a company, successor or other legal entity that legitimately assumes responsibility for the Service, subject to applicable law and any notice that may be required.

This includes a future transition of Hypercarry Chess from personal operation to a separately incorporated business or other legal structure.

28. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.

Where appropriate, an invalid or unenforceable provision will be treated as modified only to the minimum extent reasonably necessary to make it enforceable.

29. No Waiver

If Hypercarry Chess does not immediately enforce a provision of these Terms, that does not mean the right to enforce that provision has permanently been waived.

A waiver concerning one particular situation does not automatically constitute a waiver concerning a different situation.

30. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with any feature-specific terms expressly incorporated into them, constitute the agreement governing your use of Hypercarry Chess with respect to the matters addressed by them.

The Privacy Policy explains how personal data is handled and should be read alongside these Terms.

Nothing in this section excludes representations or obligations that applicable law does not permit to be excluded.

31. Contact

Questions concerning these Terms, reports of prohibited content, or requests relating to your Hypercarry Chess account may be sent to:

Chia Meng Hioke
Operator, Hypercarry Chess
Email: support@hypercarrychess.com

Hypercarry Chess is currently operated personally by Chia Meng Hioke and is not presently operated through a separate incorporated legal entity.