No chat. No strangers. On purpose.
ChessIt was built by a dad for his own son and his son’s friends, so this is not a policy page written after the fact — it is the design constraint everything else bends around. The harm pattern that hurts children online is well known: strangers finding them, messaging them, and building trust over time. ChessIt removes each of those ingredients structurally rather than moderating them.
ChessIt is for every age — the ratings run past 2600 and plenty of the people using it are adults. Everything below applies to all of them equally: nobody can message you, nobody can look you up. Designing for the youngest player in the room simply turns out to be a good way to build a training app for everyone in it.
💬 There is no chat. At all.
No messages, no comments, no voice, no free-text channel of any kind between users — and there never will be without a redesign of this entire page. The only thing one player can “say” to another inside ChessIt is a chess move. This single decision removes the main vehicle of grooming on other platforms.
🙈 Children cannot be found
There is no player search, no member directory, no “people near you.” These are enforced in the database’s security rules, not just hidden in the interface: games are readable only by the two people playing them, and the username index cannot be listed — only looked up exactly, by someone who already knows the handle. The optional leaderboard shows a chosen nickname (letters and numbers only), never a real name, and only to signed-in players; skip claiming a username and your child appears nowhere.
🤝 All contact is consent-first, and “no” is free
A stranger cannot reach your child at all — not even to ask. The only way to start playing someone new is an invite link they deliberately share with you, in person or in a message you already trust. If somebody who knows your child’s username tries to challenge them, nothing happens: no game, no request, no notification, and your child is never even told. Playing once makes two players friends, so kids who meet at a club can then challenge each other freely — and either of them can remove the other permanently, after which no new link can reopen it. If a friend challenges your child, the app shows Play and Decline side by side — declining costs nothing and saves nothing. A coach or parent works the same way: they cannot ask to follow a child at all. The child generates a code in Settings and gives it to them in person; without it there is no connection. Coaches see everything read-only and can be removed in one tap, no reason needed — and because your child starts every connection, nothing here is a trap: an accidental removal is simply undone, or a new code made.
📉 We collect almost nothing
No date of birth, no phone number, no location, no photos stored, no advertising, no third-party trackers or analytics — ever. The app stores a sign-in email, a display name, and chess training data, because that is the coaching. The full honest list is in our terms & privacy, written short enough that your child can read it too.
👁 Every adult with access is named and read-only
One named administrator runs the app. Coaches see only children who accepted them, and can never change anything — that is enforced by database rules, not courtesy. While any coach is connected, the child’s home screen shows a permanent “can see your progress” line: no surveillance without awareness.
🚨 If something ever feels wrong
Tell us through the contact page — it reaches a real parent, not a ticket queue, and safety reports go to the top of the pile. Your child can also simply decline or remove anyone, any time, from their own Settings, without needing your help or our permission.