SchemingMind.com Terms and Conditions

By registering as a user on SchemingMind.com you are agreeing to the terms and conditions described below.

SchemingMind.com reserves the right to alter this information without notice.

SchemingMind.com reserves the right to cancel the account of any member of the site (without refund for paying members) who violates these conditions.

Provision of Service

SchemingMind.com provides an Internet service, it is the responsibility of each member to provide their own access to the Internet.

SchemingMind.com will attempt to provide a 24 hour service, however will not be held responsible for disruptions to the service. Refunds for paying members will be purely at the discretion of the site administrator in the event of an extended period of unavailability.

SchemingMind.com reserves the right to withdraw the service permanently and without notice or refund for paying members.

The Service

Members may not resell the services of SchemingMind.com without expressed permission.

The Web Service (Xfcc)

In addition to the browser based HTML interface, SchemingMind.com provides a 'webservice' (Xfcc) which allows members to access their games and make moves using third party software.

The webservice is provided for the personal use of members only - members are not permitted to develop or use third party public interfaces (for example web pages) to SchemingMind.com which allow moves to be entered.

Members may use or develop software which is installed on their local machine to access the webservice and update games.

Members may also use the webservice to develop web pages which display their own games, provided that these pages do not provide the facility to update games. These pages must include a link back to SchemingMind.com

Use of Xfcc is carefully monitored, and SchemingMind.com reserves the right to withdraw the webservice without notice at any time.

Accounts

Members of SchemingMind.com may not normally register more than one account each. Additional accounts may be requested for the use of children under the age of thirteen (see the section 'Minors' below).

Accounts are not transferable.

User Names

All members of SchemingMind are required to register with a user name, the following are prohibited as user names:

• Sexually or racially offensive names
• Names which may be offensive to others for cultural, religious or political reasons
• The name of a living person, if it is not your own name
• Trademarks or brand names
• Names used to advertise or promote other products or services

Any account contravening these requirements will be suspended immediately.

Free Service

The level of access to SchemingMind.com available to free members may be changed from time to time without notice. This may include (but not be limited to) altering the number of simultaneous games allowed, or the ability to enter or start tournaments.

SchemingMind.com reserves the right to cease or limit the availablilty of the free service without notice.

Minors

Accounts for the use of children under the age of thirteen must be registered on their behalf by a responsible adult. The email address used for the account must be one primarily used by the responsible adult.

No personally identifying information related to minors should be submitted to the server; this includes, but is not limited to, name, gender, date of birth, email address and postal address.

Minors must be supervised by a responsible adult at all times whilst using the site.

Special Offers

Special offers may be made available from time to time, offering free periods of membership. SchemingMind.com reserves the right to withdraw these offers at any time without notice.

Unacceptable Behaviour

Abusive and/or offensive behaviour is not permitted.

Advertising other services without the explicit consent of SchemingMind.com is not permitted.

Attempting to gain unathorised access to SchemingMind.com or interfere with the running of the site is not permitted.

Sportsmanship

All games played on SchemingMind.com should be played in the spirit of sportsmanship and fair play. Repeated draw offers, or not moving in a clearly lost situation whilst moving in other games are considered unsporting, and these games may be terminated at the discretion of the webmaster. Persistant offenders may be banned from the site.

Accusations of cheating following a defeat is considered bad sportsmanship and the sign of a 'bad loser'. Persistant accusations in game notes or private messages may result in your account being terminated. If you have undisputable evidence that one of your opponents is cheating then please report this directly and privately to the webmaster, otherwise please keep your suspicions to yourself.

The Rules of Chess

The FIDE Laws of Chess apply to all Standard Chess games played on the site (where appropriate to correspondence chess), with the following additions and exceptions:

1. Take-backs: There are no 'take backs', once a move has been commited to the server, you are obliged to accept this move.
2. Time controls: All games on SchemingMind.com are subject to time controls. Players normally have the right to use as much time as is available to make their moves (with the exceptions listed above, under 'sportsmanship'). For casual games play may continue after one players flag has fallen at the discretion of the other player, however for some tournament and team games the game may be terminated by the server.
3. Use of outside help: Using a computer program to generate chess moves, test candidate moves, or 'blunder check' is prohibited; asking a third person for help or advice is also prohibited. Using reference works, such as books, websites or electronic databases without a move generating function is allowed (with the exception of end game tablebases, which are not allowed). It is possible for third parties to 'kibitz', or enter comments in other players' games; offering direct advice, solicited or unsolicited, to players in these games is prohibited.

Chess variants can also be played on SchemingMind.com, which may differ from the above rules to varying degree. The general principals outlined above apply where appropriate and unless otherwise stated.

Scholarships

Donations to the site are always welcome; the prefered form of donation is by 'scholarship', where periods of full membership are awarded to members meeting certain conditions, these awards are monitored by a Scholarship Committee.  Conditions of awards may be set by the contributor, however the following rules apply in all cases:

1. Prizes with cash value (including membership tokens) may not be offered or awarded for individual games or tournaments in chess variants where there is known computer software which is able to play this variant, unless engine use is specifically allowed in the variant rules.  If an award donor wishes to provide an award for computer-aided play of standard chess, the SchemingMind variants Advanced Chess and Advanced Chess960 may be used.  The award conditions should explicitely state that the award is intended for computer-aided play.
2. Awards may be offered for non-game activities.  For example, an award might be offered for contests for creating a new variant, a piece of original writing, original artwork or original music, in some sort of judged contest.  There are many possibilities, and award donors are invited to be creative.
3. Members who wish to propose awards must state the judgement criteria clearly and allow them to be reviewed by the SchemingMind Scholarship Committee.  Full Members who would like to participate in the committee are encouraged to contact a committee member to find out more.
4. Members of the Scholarship Committee are excluded from participation in contests.

Liability

SchemingMind.com will not be held liable for any loss or damage caused as a result of using the site.

Although libellous and defamatory content will be removed as soon as possible, SchemingMind.com disclaims all responsibility for content posted by members.

Intellectual Property

All code, page layout and original images are the intellectual property of SchemingMind.com unless otherwise stated.

The menuing system and much of the drag drop code used by the site is copyright Mike Hall (www.brainjar.com); some of the drag drop code is also from www.quirksmode.org

Xfcc is the intellectual property of Martin Bennedik.

Individuals submitting original journal articles, puzzles, chess set images or other content retain copyright on these items, however it is implied that SchemingMind.com has permission to use such content on the site royalty free and in perpetuity.

All copyright restrictions apply where appropriate and will be enforced where possible.