← Back to Wickmate

Terms & Conditions

Effective: August 24, 2026

The short version. Wickmate is a chess game that is free to play with an energy meter. An optional membership removes the limits; it starts with a 7-day free trial and renews automatically unless you cancel through your Apple subscription settings at least 24 hours before the period ends. You must be 13 or older. This website just tells you about the game and links to our email waitlist.

1. Agreement to these terms

By using this website or downloading or using the Wickmate app (“we”, “us”), published by StarChart, you agree to these Terms & Conditions. If you do not agree, please don't use them.

2. This website and the waitlist

This website exists to describe Wickmate and host these legal documents. The “Join the waitlist” links go to our newsletter on beehiiv, a third-party service with its own terms; signing up there is optional, free, and can be undone with one click. Joining the waitlist does not reserve anything, promise a launch date, or create any obligation on either side. It means only that we may email you about Wickmate until you unsubscribe.

3. What Wickmate is

Wickmate is a chess game: puzzles, a campaign, and boss matches against computer opponents, with progress, streaks, and cosmetic items. It teaches and uses the real rules of chess. It is a single-player game: there is no play against other people.

It is provided for entertainment. We make no claims about health, wellbeing, focus, memory, intelligence, or academic performance, and nothing in the app should be read as such a claim.

Some of what you read in Wickmate is written by AI. If you ask for a review of a game you played, the moves of that game are sent to an AI provider, which writes the commentary you see. The app tells you this before you use the feature for the first time, and the feature never runs unless you ask for it. AI commentary can be wrong. It is generated automatically, it is not chess coaching from a person, and it should not be treated as authoritative analysis. Section 8 of our Privacy Policy explains exactly what is sent, what is not, and that it is not used to train anyone's models. The commentary about your own games is yours to keep and use; we claim no ownership of it.

4. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use Wickmate. We ask for your birth year when you first open the app, and if you are under 13 you cannot create an account.

If you are under 18, you may only use Wickmate with the permission of a parent or guardian, and may only make purchases with their permission. Apple's Family Sharing and Ask to Buy features are the right way to manage this, and we recommend using them. A parent or guardian who permits a minor to use Wickmate accepts these terms on their behalf.

5. Free play, energy, and the membership

Wickmate is free to play. Free play is metered by energy: starting a level, keeper match, or daily puzzle set spends a charge, and charges refill on their own over time. Energy can also be refilled with Pawns, and anything you start, you can always finish, because energy is never taken mid-game.

The optional membership (an auto-renewing subscription) removes the energy limit entirely, along with any other member benefits shown on the purchase screen. Everything else in the game (every chapter, every keeper, every puzzle your level opens) is playable free.

If your membership ends or lapses, you go back to free play. You are never locked out, and we keep your progress.

We may change prices. If we do, the change applies to future periods only, never retroactively, and you will be told before it takes effect so you can cancel first. Energy amounts, refill rates, and which activities spend a charge may also be adjusted as the game is balanced; changes never take away progress you have made.

6. Pawns, energy, and other in-app items

Pawns are an in-game currency you earn by playing and can also buy. Pawns, energy, and cosmetic items are a limited, personal, non-transferable licence to use them inside Wickmate. They are not your property, have no monetary value, cannot be exchanged for cash, and cannot be transferred, sold, or moved to another account. They are non-refundable except where the law requires a refund. Unused Pawns and energy are lost when an account is deleted. We may adjust prices, earn rates, and the item catalogue as the game is balanced, and may modify or discontinue virtual items; where a paid item is discontinued we will provide a reasonable replacement or equivalent.

7. Refunds

All purchases are made through Apple, so Apple handles all refunds under its own policies. We cannot issue refunds directly. Request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. Where local consumer law gives you a statutory right to cancel or a refund, that right stands and nothing here limits it.

8. Acceptable use

You agree to use Wickmate lawfully, and not to:

We may reset progress obtained by cheating, remove leaderboard entries, or suspend accounts that break these rules.

9. Intellectual property

The Wickmate name, characters, artwork, text, sound, and code are owned by us and protected by law. You may freely screenshot, record, and share your own games, results, and weekly recaps, including on social media. You may not copy or reuse our artwork, characters, or code in another product.

Chess itself belongs to everyone. Our puzzle positions come from the Lichess open database, published under CC0. Every third-party asset and font we ship is credited in the app's licences screen.

10. Privacy

See our Privacy Policy for what we collect and why, on this website (almost nothing) and in the app.

11. Availability and changes

We aim to keep Wickmate running, but provide it on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We may add, change, or remove features, and we may pause or discontinue parts of the service. If we discontinue it entirely while you are subscribed, we will give notice and stop future billing.

12. Ending this agreement

You can stop using Wickmate at any time by cancelling any subscription (section 5) and deleting your account in Settings. We may suspend or end your access if you seriously or repeatedly break section 8, or if we are required to by law. If we end your access without cause while you are paid up, we will arrange a fair refund of the unused portion through Apple.

13. Disclaimer of warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Wickmate and this website are provided without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that they will be error-free, uninterrupted, or fit for any particular purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranties to be excluded, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

14. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, or for lost progress or data. Where liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the product changes. The date at the top is the version. If a change is material (pricing, billing, or your rights), we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, so you can cancel first if you disagree. Continuing to use Wickmate after a change takes effect means you accept it.

16. Apple

Because you obtained Wickmate through the App Store, the following apply:

17. General

18. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be handled by the courts located there, unless consumer law where you live gives you the right to bring a claim locally.

19. Contact us