Privacy Policy

Chess Nerds Bot · Last updated November 15, 2026

This policy explains what the Chess Nerds Discord bot ("the bot", "we") stores about you, why, and how you can have it deleted. It applies to every Discord server the bot is in.

1. What we store

Your Discord identity

• Your Discord user ID. Names and avatars are read from Discord when needed (for example to draw your profile card) and are not kept as records.
• The IDs of servers the bot is in, and those servers' bot settings (prefix, channels and roles picked in /setup, language, premium status).

Linked chess accounts (only if you link them)

• Your Lichess and/or Chess.com username and public ratings (bullet, blitz, rapid), refreshed from their public APIs.
• Lichess: you sign in on lichess.org. We ask for no extra permissions, use the sign-in once to read your username and ratings, and don't store the access token. We can't see your email or messages, and can't do anything on your account.
• Chess.com: you sign in on chess.com. We only ask for your basic identity (the "openid profile" permission) to read your username, then read your public ratings; the access token is not stored. We can't see your password or email, and can't do anything on your account.
• Whether you played in tournaments the bot runs (results come from Lichess' public tournament data).
• Whether your linked account has been closed by Lichess or Chess.com, and the reason they publicly show (for example "Closed for ToS violation" or "Closed: fair play violation"). We check this regularly from their public data.

Your progress in the bot

• Level and XP, coins, items you bought or won, daily rewards, daily checklist progress and streak.
• Puzzle results and puzzle rating, quiz wins, tournament wins.
• A log of coin transactions (who, how much, why, when), used to investigate bugs and abuse.
• When you voted for the bot on top.gg, and whether you want vote reminders.

Things you choose to give

• Your "about me" text, AFK status and note, birthday (day, month and time zone; no year), tournament DM reminder settings, and messages you choose to leave on tournament results.
• Stories (Chess Nerds server only): the photo, video or text you share as a story, who viewed and liked it and who reported it. Stories are deleted automatically after 24 hours (or earlier if you or a moderator delete them). Replies to a story are sent to its owner as a DM and are not stored.
• Video links you post in the Chess Nerds video channel (Instagram, TikTok, X) are reposted under your name with a link that lets Discord play the video; the video itself is not downloaded or stored.

Premium (only if you get it)

• Whether you have Chess Nerds Premium, until when, and which server you put a server premium on.
• If you support us on Patreon: your Patreon member ID and name, your membership status and tier, and the Discord ID you connected on Patreon (that's how we know who you are). We never see or store your card or payment details; Patreon handles payments.
• Your premium settings: profile card color, the Lichess players you follow, and whether you want the weekly report (with the numbers it compares week to week).

Messages and voice

• The bot reads messages in channels it can see to respond to commands, award XP (it checks length and repetition, it does not keep the text), and detect answers to puzzles and quizzes.
• We do not store the content of your messages, except what you deliberately give to a feature (like an AFK note).
• For voice, the bot only checks which voice channel you are in (for voice XP and the checklist voice task). It never listens to or records audio.

Moderation

• The Chess Nerds server's ban list (user ID and the reason written by moderators). Users banned from Chess Nerds can't use the bot in any server, and their profile card shows that they are banned and why.
• Puzzle bans set by Chess Nerds staff.
• Bot bans: if a user or a server is banned from the bot for breaking the rules, we keep a record (user or server ID, the reason, who banned and when). The bot then ignores that user everywhere, or does nothing in that server. Their data is kept unchanged so everything can continue if an appeal is accepted.
• Closed-account records: if a chess account you linked is closed by Lichess or Chess.com for a rules violation (such as cheating), we keep a record of it (platform, username, reason and date) on your Discord ID. While this record is active you don't get rating roles or the Verified role on any server, even if you link another account, and your profile card shows the closure. If the platform reopens the account, the record is removed automatically. Chess Nerds administrators can also lift or add a restriction after reviewing a case; who did it and why is logged.
• Recently unlinked accounts: after you unlink a chess account, we keep its username for 180 days and keep checking whether it gets closed for a rules violation, so unlinking can't be used to avoid the restriction above. After 180 days it is deleted automatically.

2. Why we use it

• To run the features you use: profiles, rating roles, levels, puzzles, quizzes, tournaments, leaderboards, birthdays and the economy.
• To keep the bot fair and safe: stopping abuse such as alt accounts, cheating and exploits.
• To fix bugs and keep the bot running.

We never sell or rent your data, never use it for advertising, and never share it except as described below.

3. Who else sees it

• Other users: things that are public by design: your profile card, leaderboards, level-up messages, tournament results, birthday celebrations.
• Server admins of servers you are in can see bot features in their server (for example who joined a class or who is in a leaderboard).
• Cheat alerts: if a chess account you linked is closed for cheating (Lichess "Closed for ToS violation" or Chess.com "fair play violation"), servers you are in that turned on cheat alerts get a message in a channel they chose, with your Discord name, the chess account and the platform's public reason. Those servers may also give you a role for it. If the restriction is lifted, the same servers are told and the role is taken back.
• Donations: if you support Chess Nerds through the Supporter tier on Patreon, we keep your Discord ID and the date to show the ☕ Donator badge. Like premium, this works through the Discord account you connected on Patreon.
• Services the bot uses: Discord (to run the bot), Lichess and Chess.com (to read public chess data), top.gg (votes), Patreon (premium memberships), Oracle Cloud (our server, in Frankfurt, Germany) and GitHub (backup copies of the bot's data in a private repository).
• If the law requires it, we may share data with authorities.

4. How long we keep it

• As long as the feature needs it, or until you ask us to delete it.
• When the bot is removed from a server, that server's settings and weekly tournament schedules are kept for 90 days, so everything works again if the bot is added back. After 90 days they are deleted (premium status is kept so it isn't lost). Server admins can also delete all settings anytime with /setup → General → Reset all settings.
• Backup copies are refreshed every few hours. Older copies can remain in the backup history, which only the bot's owner can access and which is never shared.

5. Your choices and deleting your data

• Unlink chess accounts yourself: /unlink removes your Lichess / Chess.com link and the roles that come with it, on every server.
• Remove other things yourself: .removeaboutme, /birthday remove, .notify off, .voteremind off.
• Delete everything (or only some of it): email chessnerdsx@gmail.com or message us on our Discord server from the Discord account in question. We delete it within 30 days, usually much sooner.
• We keep a few small records even after deletion, only to prevent abuse: that you already received the one-time welcome bonus, Chess Nerds or puzzle bans, closed-account records, and recently unlinked account names (deleted automatically after 180 days).
• You can also ask what we store about you, or ask us to correct it, the same way.

6. Children

Discord requires users to be at least 13 (or older where local law requires). The bot is meant for Discord users who meet that requirement and does not knowingly collect data from anyone younger.

7. Changes

If we change this policy, we update the date at the top. Big changes are announced on the Chess Nerds Discord server.