Membership Terms

These Membership Terms apply when you take out a paid membership of Minute Chess (the "App"), operated by Chelsea Chess ("we", "us"). They sit alongside our Privacy Policy.

By starting a free trial or a paid membership you agree to these terms. Please read them — they explain how billing, renewals, plan changes and cancellations work.

Membership comes in three plans. Prices are in pounds sterling and include VAT where it applies.

Club — £2.99 a month or £19.99 a year. Includes: Last 7 days of puzzles, Leaderboards & leagues, Your own personal icon.

Pro — £4.99 a month or £34.99 a year. Includes: Last 7 days of puzzles, Leaderboards & leagues, Your own personal icon, Puzzle themes, Coach's Corner articles, Create a puzzle.

Coach — £24.99 a month or £199.99 a year. Includes: Last 7 days of puzzles, Leaderboards & leagues, Your own personal icon, Puzzle themes, Coach's Corner articles, Create a puzzle, 1x game review a month.

Yearly plans are paid up front for the year. The daily puzzle stays free for everyone, with or without a membership.

New members can try any plan free for 14 days. A free trial is available once per person; if you have had a membership or trial before, your plan starts as a paid plan straight away.

You add a payment card when the trial starts. We send you a reminder 7 days before the trial ends, and another 3 days before. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, your plan becomes a paid plan and you are charged the plan price on the day the trial ends.

If you cancel during the trial, you will not be charged.

Your membership renews automatically at the end of each billing period — every month or every year, depending on your plan — and your card is charged the plan price at each renewal until you cancel.

Payments are processed securely by our payment provider, Stripe. We do not see or store your full card details.

You can see your plan, its price and your next renewal date in Profile › Membership at any time.

You can switch between Club, Pro and Coach, or between monthly and yearly billing, at any time in Profile › Membership options.

Upgrades (moving to a higher plan, or from monthly to yearly billing) start straight away. You are charged for the new plan at once, minus a credit for the unused part of your current billing period, and the new features unlock immediately.

Downgrades (moving to a lower plan, or from yearly to monthly billing) start at the end of your current billing period. You keep your current plan, and everything it includes, until then. You can undo a booked downgrade before it starts.

During a free trial, any plan change starts straight away and the trial end date stays the same.

You can cancel at any time in Profile › Manage subscription. There is no cancellation fee.

When you cancel, your membership stays active until the end of the billing period you have already paid for, and then ends. You will not be charged again. You can change your mind and keep your membership any time before that date.

We do not give partial refunds for the unused part of a billing period after you cancel, except where the law requires it or as described under "Your right to cancel" below.

If you are a consumer in the UK, you have a legal right to cancel a new paid membership within 14 days of the day you first pay for it, and to receive a refund. Because your membership starts immediately at your request, the refund may be reduced to reflect the part of the membership you used before cancelling.

To use this right, email us at hello@minutechess.com within those 14 days. A free trial does not count towards this period: the 14 days start from your first payment.

This does not affect your other statutory rights.

If a payment fails, we and Stripe will retry it over the following days. You keep access for at least 3 days after your billing date while this happens. Please update your card in Profile › Manage subscription.

If the payment still cannot be taken, your membership ends and member features are locked until you start a new membership.

The Coach plan includes one game review a month. Reviews are requested by contacting us at hello@minutechess.com with the game you would like reviewed. Unused reviews do not roll over to the next month and have no cash value.

Founding membership was offered at special founding prices on our original membership plan. It is no longer available to new members.

Existing founding members keep their founding price and status for as long as they stay on their founding plan. If a founding member switches to Club, Pro or Coach, or cancels and their membership ends, founding status and the founding price end permanently and cannot be restored.

We may give some people a complimentary membership. Complimentary memberships are free, can be withdrawn by us at any time, and are not transferable. These terms apply to them except for the parts about payment.

We may change our prices. If the price of your plan goes up, we will tell you by email at least 30 days before your next renewal at the new price, so you have time to switch plan or cancel.

We are always improving Minute Chess and may add, change or remove features. If we make a change that significantly reduces what your plan includes, we will tell you in advance and you can cancel and receive a pro-rata refund for the remainder of any period you have paid for.

A membership is for one person and is linked to the account you subscribed with. Please do not share your account. If you subscribed with a different sign-in method or email, your membership stays on that account.

We may suspend or end a membership if an account is used to break the law, abuse other members or misuse the App. If we end a membership for any other reason, we will refund the unused part of any period you have paid for.

We may update these terms from time to time. If a change affects you significantly we will tell you in the App or by email before it applies. The version that applies is the one shown here, with the date it was last updated.

Questions about your membership, billing or these terms? Email us at hello@minutechess.com.

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. If you live elsewhere in the UK, you can also bring proceedings in your local courts.