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Terms & Conditions

Effective: August 30, 2026

1. Agreement to these terms; definitions

These Terms & Conditions (the “Terms”) form a binding agreement between you and StarChart, the publisher of Wickmate, governing your use of this website and of the Wickmate application. By accessing or using this website, or by downloading, installing, or using the Wickmate application, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and by the Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the website or the application.

In these Terms:

2. The website and the waitlist

The Site exists to describe Wickmate and to host these legal documents. The “Join the waitlist” links direct you to our newsletter operated by beehiiv, a third-party service governed by its own terms of use. Subscription to the waitlist is optional, free of charge, and may be withdrawn at any time. Joining the waitlist reserves nothing, promises no launch date, and creates no obligation on either party; it signifies only that we may email you about Wickmate until you unsubscribe.

3. Description of Wickmate

Wickmate is a single-player educational chess game comprising puzzles, a campaign, and matches against computer opponents, together with progress tracking, streaks, and cosmetic items. It teaches and applies the standard rules of chess. There is no play against other people.

Wickmate is provided for entertainment purposes only. We make no representation or claim regarding health, wellbeing, focus, memory, intelligence, or academic performance, and nothing within the Services should be construed as any such claim.

Certain material within Wickmate is generated by artificial intelligence. If you request a review of a game you have played, the moves of that game are transmitted to a third-party AI provider, which produces the commentary displayed to you. The App discloses this before the feature is first used, and the feature operates only at your request. AI-generated commentary may be inaccurate. It is produced automatically, does not constitute chess instruction from a person, and must not be relied upon as authoritative analysis. Section 8 of the Privacy Policy describes precisely what is transmitted, what is not, and that the material is not used to train any provider's models. You retain any rights you may have in the commentary generated about your own games, and we claim no ownership of it.

4. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years of age to use Wickmate. We request your birth year when you first open the App, and if you are under 13 you cannot create an account. By using Wickmate, you represent and warrant that you meet this age requirement.

If you are under 18, you may use Wickmate only with the consent of a parent or guardian, and may make purchases only with their consent. We recommend the use of Apple's Family Sharing and Ask to Buy features to manage minors' access and purchases. A parent or guardian who permits a minor to use Wickmate accepts these Terms on that minor's behalf and is responsible for that minor's use of the Services.

5. Free play, energy, and the membership

Wickmate is free to play. Free play is metered by energy, and only on campaign boards: each move you make on a campaign board consumes one charge, and charges replenish automatically over time. The daily puzzle set and every puzzle mode are available to all users without limit. Energy may also be replenished using Pawns. A move that has been initiated always completes, and if your energy is exhausted part-way through a game the board is saved, so that no game in progress is lost.

The optional membership (an auto-renewing subscription) removes the energy limit in its entirety, together with any other member benefits described on the purchase screen. All other content (every chapter, every keeper, and every puzzle unlocked by your level) is playable free of charge.

If your membership ends or lapses, you return to free play. You are never locked out of the Services, and we retain your progress.

We may change prices. Any change applies to future billing periods only and never retroactively, and you will be notified before it takes effect so that you may cancel beforehand. Energy amounts, replenishment rates, and the activities that consume a charge may also be adjusted as the game is balanced; no such change removes progress you have already made.

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

Pawns are an in-game currency that you earn by playing and may also purchase. Pawns, energy, and cosmetic items are made available to you under a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable, non-sublicensable licence to use them within Wickmate. They are not your property, have no monetary value, cannot be redeemed for cash, and cannot be transferred, sold, or moved to another account. They are non-refundable except where a refund is required by law. Unused Pawns and energy are forfeited upon deletion of an account. 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 processed by Apple, and Apple administers all refunds under its own policies. We are unable to issue refunds directly. Refund requests should be submitted at reportaproblem.apple.com. Where applicable consumer law grants you a statutory right to cancel or to a refund, that right applies and nothing in these Terms limits it.

8. Acceptable use

You agree to use the Services lawfully and in accordance with these Terms. You must not:

We reserve the right to investigate suspected violations, to reset progress obtained through cheating, to remove leaderboard entries, to restrict or block access, and to suspend or terminate accounts that breach these rules, and to take any action required or permitted by law.

9. Intellectual property

The Wickmate name, characters, artwork, text, sound, and code are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by intellectual property laws. You may screenshot, record, and share your own games, results, and weekly recaps, including on social media. You may not copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, or reuse our artwork, characters, text, or code in any other product or service without our prior written permission.

Chess itself belongs to everyone. Our puzzle positions are drawn from the Lichess open database, published under CC0. Every third-party asset and font shipped in the App is credited on the App's licences screen.

Copyright complaints (DMCA). We respect the intellectual property rights of others and respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe that material available through the Services infringes a copyright you own or control, please send a written notice to our copyright agent at the address in section 19, including: identification of the copyrighted work; identification of the material claimed to infringe and its location; your contact details; a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorised; a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act on the owner's behalf; and your physical or electronic signature. We may remove allegedly infringing material and, in appropriate circumstances, terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

10. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy describes what we collect and why, on this website (almost nothing) and within the App. It forms part of these Terms.

11. Availability and changes to the Services

We endeavour to keep Wickmate operational, but the Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We may add, change, or remove features, and may suspend or discontinue any part of the Services. If we discontinue the Services in their entirety while you hold an active subscription, we will provide notice and will cease future billing.

12. Term and termination

You may cease using Wickmate at any time by cancelling any subscription (section 5) and deleting your account in Settings. We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially or repeatedly breach section 8, or where we are required to do so by law. If we terminate your access without cause while you hold a paid subscription, we will arrange a fair refund of the unused portion through Apple. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination, including sections 6, 9, 13, 14, 18, and 19, survive.

13. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE, OR THAT ANY AI-GENERATED COMMENTARY WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO PARTS OF THIS SECTION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, AND YOU MAY HAVE RIGHTS THAT VARY BY JURISDICTION.

14. Limitation of liability and indemnification

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, STARCHART WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROGRESS OR DATA, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES. WHERE LIABILITY CANNOT LAWFULLY BE EXCLUDED, OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. NOTHING IN THESE TERMS EXCLUDES OR LIMITS LIABILITY THAT CANNOT LAWFULLY BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED, INCLUDING LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE, FOR FRAUD, OR UNDER NON-WAIVABLE CONSUMER-PROTECTION LAW.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless StarChart from and against any third-party claims, damages, liabilities, and reasonable expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your unlawful use of the Services, your breach of section 8, or your infringement of the rights of a third party. This indemnity is limited to conduct within your control, does not apply to matters caused by us, and does not limit or override any right you have under consumer law that cannot be waived. Where the User is a minor, this indemnity is accepted on the minor's behalf by the parent or guardian who permits the minor's use of the Services, and only to the extent permitted by law.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms as the product changes. The date at the top of this document identifies the current version. If a change is material (for example, to pricing, billing, or your rights), we will notify you within the App or by email before it takes effect, so that you may cancel beforehand if you disagree. Your continued use of Wickmate after a change takes effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

16. Apple

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

17. General

18. Informal resolution, arbitration, class-action waiver, and governing law

Who this section applies to. The arbitration agreement and the class-action waiver below apply only where an agreement to arbitrate a future dispute with a consumer is enforceable. If you live in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or anywhere else whose law does not let a consumer agree in advance to arbitration or give up the right to take part in a class or representative proceeding, those two parts of this section do not apply to you: your disputes are covered by the final paragraph of this section and by the mandatory law of the place you live. If you are under 18, the parent or guardian who accepted these Terms on your behalf is bound by this section together with you, and nothing in it waives any right of a minor that a parent or guardian cannot waive under applicable law.

Informal resolution first. Before starting arbitration or filing a lawsuit, the party raising a dispute must give the other party a written notice describing the dispute, the facts supporting it, and the relief requested. Notices to StarChart must be sent to the email and postal address in section 19 with the subject “Notice of Dispute.” We will use the email address associated with your account for notices to you. The parties will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute for 30 days after receipt of a complete notice. Either party may proceed after that period. Any deadline for bringing the claim is paused from the day a complete notice is received until that 30-day period ends, so taking this step cannot cost you the claim.

Binding individual arbitration. Except for a claim eligible for small-claims court and a claim seeking temporary or injunctive relief for misuse of intellectual property or unauthorised access to the Services, any dispute arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms that is not resolved informally will be resolved by binding arbitration on an individual basis. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this agreement to arbitrate. Arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect, including its consumer-fee protections, and may take place by telephone, video conference, written submissions, or in the county where you live. The arbitrator may award any individual remedy a court could award and will issue a reasoned written decision. If the AAA is unavailable or unwilling to administer the arbitration, a court of competent jurisdiction will select a substitute administrator with materially similar consumer procedures.

Class-action and jury-trial waiver. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU AND STARCHART AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF, CLASS MEMBER, PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL, OR REPRESENTATIVE IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT COMBINE THE CLAIMS OF MORE THAN ONE PERSON WITHOUT EVERY PARTY'S WRITTEN CONSENT. YOU AND STARCHART ALSO WAIVE A TRIAL BY JURY FOR ANY CLAIM PERMITTED TO PROCEED IN COURT. If applicable law makes a particular part of this waiver unenforceable, that part will be severed and heard by a court only after all arbitrable claims have concluded.

Thirty-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement and class-action waiver by sending an email to wickmate@outlook.com with the subject “Arbitration Opt-Out” within 30 days after you first accept these Terms (or, for an existing User when this section first takes effect, within 30 days after August 30, 2026). Include your full name, the email or Apple/Google account identifier used with Wickmate, and a clear statement that you opt out. Opting out will not affect any other provision of these Terms or your ability to use Wickmate.

Changes to this section, and survival. If we materially change this section we will tell you as described in section 15, and you will have 30 days from that notice to opt out under the paragraph above. A change to this section does not apply to a dispute either party had already given notice of. This section continues to apply after your account ends and after these Terms end.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute that is not subject to arbitration or small-claims jurisdiction will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Palm Beach County, Florida, and each party consents to their jurisdiction, except that, where the consumer law of the place you live grants you the right to bring a claim in your local courts or to rely on the mandatory law of that place, that right is not affected by this section. Nothing in this section limits any non-waivable right or remedy under applicable consumer law.

19. Contact us