Terms & License — Chess Journal

This page is a plain-language summary provided for convenience and has not been reviewed by a lawyer. It is not a substitute for legal advice. Where this page and the full End-User License Agreement disagree, the License Agreement governs.

1. What Chess Journal is

Chess Journal is proprietary, closed-source desktop and Android software for recording, analyzing, and studying chess games.

2. The free tier

Chess Journal is free to download and use indefinitely for: playing and recording your own games, importing from Chess.com and Lichess, browsing your own game library, the board editor, themes and autoplay, live opening detection, and the "Eco" Stockfish preset. No account, payment, or time limit applies to these features.

3. The $5 unlock

A one-time, non-subscription payment of $5 unlocks the remaining features described on the Pricing page (deeper Stockfish presets, on-device AI commentary, the Classics/Puzzles/Theory libraries, the Assistive Coach, PDF export, and the stats dashboards) for the lifetime of the application, including future updates to those features.

On Windows and Linux, the unlock is activated with a license key tied to your purchase, verified entirely offline on your device.
On Android, the unlock is purchased and verified through Google Play Billing, subject to Google Play's own terms of sale in addition to these terms.

Not live yet: as of this writing, the $5 unlock cannot actually be purchased through either channel — see the note on the Pricing section. This section describes the intended terms once checkout opens on each platform.

4. License grant & restrictions

Subject to payment of the applicable fee (where required) and compliance with these terms, you are granted a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use compiled builds of Chess Journal for your own use. You may not:

redistribute, sell, rent, lease, sublicense, or otherwise make the software or your license available to any third party;
copy, modify, reverse engineer, decompile, or create derivative works of the software, in whole or in part;
remove or alter any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notice contained in the software;
circumvent or attempt to circumvent any license validation or purchase-verification mechanism.

5. Refunds

Once checkout is live: purchases made through Google Play are covered by Google Play's own refund policy and process. Purchases made through the desktop/Linux checkout provider are refundable within a reasonable window after purchase if the unlock genuinely does not work on your device after a good-faith troubleshooting attempt — email sazardev@gmail.com or contact the payment provider directly to request one.

6. No warranty

The software is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. In no event shall the copyright holder be liable for any claim, damages, or other liability arising from, out of, or in connection with the software or its use.

7. Third-party services

Some optional features call external services you explicitly trigger: importing games from the Chess.com and Lichess public APIs, checking for application updates, and — once live — processing payment through Google Play Billing or the desktop checkout provider. Each is subject to that service's own terms. See the Privacy Policy for what data those calls involve.

8. Termination

This license terminates automatically if you breach any of its terms. Upon termination, you must stop using the software and destroy all copies in your possession.

9. Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated as the project evolves, particularly once the $5 unlock's storefronts go live. Material changes will be reflected on this page with an updated "last updated" date.

10. Contact

Questions about these terms are best raised by emailing sazardev@gmail.com.