Effective date: 12 November 2026
These terms apply, in addition to the Terms of Use, to anyone who uses the coach features ("coach") of the TheoryChess website and service (the "Service"), run by Hasan Süzen. You accept them by ticking the box on the coach application form. The Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy and the KVKK Privacy Notice still apply; where they conflict with these terms on the coach features, these terms apply.
A parent or guardian who works with their own child can apply through the same form. If approved, they are a coach for these terms: the same panel, the same rules and the same “Coach” mark on the leaderboards; there is no separate panel for parents. Where these terms say “your student”, that includes your own child.
1. The coach system
The coach system is in beta. An approved coach can make a separate, private, single-use invite link for each student. The link is shown only when it is made and works for 14 days. Whoever opens and accepts it is linked to the coach. Students without a Google account can use the link to make an account with a username and password; these accounts are not asked for an email address.
What a coach sees of a linked student in the coach panel: their display name and profile picture, whether it is an account made with a username, the label the coach gave them, the date they linked, when and on which day they were last on the site, their study of the catalogue openings and of that coach's own openings (including what they studied before they linked; the openings and variations they studied, their mistakes, their review schedule, their quiz results per opening, the positions they answered wrongly most often in quizzes over the last 90 days, the days they were on the site in the last 30 days, how many times they played a variation to the end in the last 7 days), and the assignments the coach gave them, their progress on them and how many of that coach's assignments they have open and done. A coach never sees a student's email address, game reports or opponent prep. If a student is linked to several coaches, each coach sees their study of the catalogue openings, their study of that coach's own openings and the assignments and notes that coach gave them, never another coach's openings, the student's study of them, or that coach's assignments or notes. Quizzes the student took for another coach's assignment of a catalogue opening appear, like their other quizzes and without saying which coach it was for, in the quiz results per opening and the positions answered wrongly.
A student can leave a coach at any time, and a coach can remove a student from their list. Once the link is gone, the coach can no longer see that student's data, and the assignments the coach gave that student are archived (see section 5).
2. Applying
a) Applying as a coach requires signing in with Google. In the application you give your club or school (optional), your city, how many students you work with, a short description of yourself and an optional website or profile link. If you work with your own child, say so in your description.
b) You are responsible for the information in your application being true and up to date. You may not apply on someone else's behalf or as someone else.
c) Applications are reviewed by TheoryChess. Because the number of coaches is limited during the beta, TheoryChess may not approve an application; the reason for a rejection is shown to you on the site. You can update your details and apply again. A rejected application is deleted 180 days after the decision.
d) The display name, profile picture and club of a coach are shown to their students and to anyone who opens their invite link.
e) While your coaching is approved, a “Coach” mark appears beside your short name (for example “Ayşe K.”) on your row on the leaderboards; you can choose not to appear there in your account settings. A “Works with a coach” mark appears on the rows of students linked to an approved coach; your name, your club and which coach they work with are never shown anywhere public. Student accounts made with a username start hidden on the leaderboards and appear only if the student turns it on in the settings; a student who appears there can turn it off again in their settings.
3. Parent or guardian agreement
a) Before you invite a student under 18, you must get the agreement of their parent or guardian. When you ask, tell the parent or guardian at least: that the child will have a TheoryChess account, that no email is asked for if it is made with a username, what you will see (section 1 above) and how the data is processed (the Privacy Policy and the KVKK Privacy Notice).
b) At sign-up with a username, the student is also asked to confirm that their parent or guardian has agreed. The time of that confirmation is recorded with the account (and is deleted with it and included in its data export). That confirmation does not replace your duty to get the parent's or guardian's agreement.
c) If TheoryChess asks, you must be able to show in a reasonable way that the agreement was given (for example, your messages with the parent or your club's registration form).
d) If a parent or guardian withdraws their agreement, remove the student from your list and point the parent to the account settings or to [email protected] to have the account deleted.
e) If you are inviting your own child, of whom you are a parent or guardian, the agreement in a) is your own, given knowing what a) lists. If another parent or guardian of the child withdraws their agreement or objects, d) applies. If TheoryChess asks, you must be able to show in a reasonable way, as in c), that you are the child's parent or guardian. If you also invite a child you are not a parent or guardian of, a) applies to that child in full.
4. Invite links
a) Send each invite link directly and only to the person you made it for (or their parent). Do not share links in groups, on social media or anywhere public.
b) If a link went to the wrong person, cancel it in your panel. If someone who is not your student linked to you, remove them from your list.
c) Put only as much in invite and student labels as you need to recognise your student (for example, a name and lesson day). Do not put phone numbers, addresses, school grades, health information or the like in labels. When a student deletes their account, your label on the invite link record they used is cleared too. The record of an invite, with its label, is deleted 90 days after the invite expired even if it was accepted; the link to your student is not affected.
5. Assignments and assignment notes
a) You can give a linked student an assignment: a catalogue opening or one of your own openings (all of it or the variations you choose), an optional due date, an optional quiz target (50–100%) and an optional note to the student (at most 500 characters). Whether an assignment is complete is worked out on its own from the student's study.
b) The student sees an assignment and its note with your display name and profile picture. The note is one-way; the student cannot reply. The other coaches the student is linked to never see your assignments or notes, and you never see theirs.
c) Write notes knowing that the child and the parent or guardian who uses the account with them or looks after it will read them. Put in a note only what working on chess with that assignment needs (for example, which variation to watch out for). Do not put in any personal information about the student that teaching does not need, such as a phone number, address, school, school grades, family situation, or remarks on their looks or personality. Never put in sensitive personal data such as health, religion or ethnic origin. Do not put in other people's personal information either (for example, other students' names or results).
d) Do not use notes to contact the student about anything other than working on chess, to move them to private messages or another platform outside TheoryChess, or for hurtful, belittling or pressuring words. Arrange things like lesson days or times with the parent through your own channels.
e) You are responsible for what your notes say. TheoryChess may see assignments and notes when looking into a complaint or carrying out a data request; a note that breaks this section is a reason to suspend or remove coach access (see section 10).
f) When you delete an assignment in your panel, that assignment, and when your link with a student ends, every assignment you gave that student, is archived with its note: it is no longer shown to the student or to you and is deleted 90 days after it was archived. Assignments are deleted at once when your account or the student's account is deleted, and are included in both sides' data exports (the student's copy includes your note).
6. Your own openings
a) You can make your own openings in your panel: a name, a side (white or black) and a PGN text, entered by playing the moves on the board or by pasting it, that can include your notes (PGN comments). Study lines are built from it. Your openings are kept until you delete them or your account is deleted.
b) Your openings are not public: they are not shown in the catalogue, in search or in sharing. Unless a complaint has to be reviewed, an opening is seen only by you and by the linked students you assign it to. For as long as the assignment is active, the student is still linked to you and your coaching is approved, the student sees the opening's name, its moves and the name of each line, and can study it. A note you write on the last move of a line becomes that line's name (at most 80 characters, anything longer is cut), which students see. Your notes on moves along the way are not shown to students; but if an edit makes such a move the last move of a line, its note becomes that line's name and students see that too. The PGN text is not sent to students; with your notes it stays in your panel and in your own data export. TheoryChess may see it only when looking into a complaint or carrying out a data request.
c) Do not put personal data in opening names, line names or notes: for example the name, surname, school, phone number, address or health of students or anyone else. Write the notes that become line names (those on the last move of a line) knowing that the child and their parent or guardian will read them, and keep them to what working on chess with that line needs. The same rule applies to your notes on moves along the way even though students are not shown them: such a move may one day become the last move of a line, and the PGN is in your own data export. Section 5 c) and d) apply to line names and notes too. You are responsible for the content; content that breaks this paragraph is a reason to suspend or remove coach access (see section 10).
d) When you delete an opening, its assignments are archived (as in section 5 f)): they are no longer shown to the student or to you and are deleted 90 days after they were archived. Students' study records on that opening stay in the database but are no longer shown, while the study points they earned stay. When your account is deleted, your openings are deleted. Your data export includes your openings (id, name, side, PGN, created and updated dates).
e) A student studying your opening counts towards the student's study points; the quizzes on that opening do not count towards quiz points on the leaderboard.
7. Using students' data
a) You may use what you see about a student in your panel only to work on chess with that student on TheoryChess.
b) You may not keep copies of it outside that purpose (screenshots, spreadsheets, exports and the like). Showing a student or their parent the student's own study is within that purpose.
c) You may not share it with third parties, sell it, or use it for advertising or marketing.
d) You may not use the Service to contact your students for anything other than working on chess.
e) You are responsible for any records you keep outside the Service (for example, your club's list of students).
8. Password resets
a) If the owner of an account made with a username forgets the password, they start the request themselves and see a 4-digit code on screen. The code is shown only on the student's own screen, not in your panel. The request (with the student's username, without the code) appears in the panel of every approved coach the student is linked to. To approve it, you get the code from the student (or their parent) and type it in yourself.
b) Approve a request only after you have got the code from the student themselves (or their parent) and typed it in. A wrong code does not approve the request; every wrong try is written to the admin record, and five wrong codes end the request, so the student has to make a new one. If in doubt, do not approve it, and write to us.
c) Never ask a student for their password and never sign in to a student's account. Approving shows you no password, but approving a request allows a new password to be set on the student's account through it. Since you know your student's username, that approval is a trust the student, their parent and TheoryChess place in you: approve only requests the student started themselves and whose code they told you, and never approve a request you started yourself. If you are your own child's parent or guardian, this paragraph does not forbid you from using the account together with them; the rule against approving a request you started yourself still applies to you.
d) When a password is changed through a reset request, the student sees on their profile and in their account settings on which date, and whether their coach or a site administrator approved the request, and is asked to tell their coach or us if it was not them. Breaking these rules is a reason to suspend or remove coach access.
e) Your approvals are written to TheoryChess's administrative records.
9. Security of your coach account
Only you may use your coach panel. You are responsible for the security of your Google account; do not let anyone else use your panel. If you think your account has been used without your permission, write to us at once.
10. Suspension and removal of access
a) TheoryChess may suspend or end your coaching if you break these terms, if a student or parent complains, if misuse is suspected, or in any other case where it considers this necessary to protect students.
b) A suspended coach's invite links stop working, the coach panel is closed, and the coach cannot see their students' data or give, change or delete assignments. Students' accounts and study are not affected and students stay linked to the coach. Assignments of catalogue openings stay in the student's list until the student leaves the coach or an account is deleted; the coach's notes, however, are not shown to the student while the suspension lasts. The coach's own openings and the assignments of them are not shown to students until the coach is restored. On the leaderboards the coach's “Coach” mark goes, and so does the “Works with a coach” mark of students with no other approved coach. If the coach is restored, the notes, the openings, their assignments and the marks are shown again.
c) When a user account is suspended, that person's coaching is suspended with it. When the account is restored the coaching does not come back by itself; it stays suspended until an admin approves it again.
d) For serious or repeated breaches, your account may be suspended or deleted under section 9 of the Terms of Use.
11. Beta, price and limits
a) The coach system is free during the beta. It may become paid later; if so, the price and terms will be set out in advance and clearly, and no obligation to pay arises without your acceptance.
b) Limits apply during the beta (for example, at most 100 linked students, 100 pending invites and 50 of your own openings per coach, 200 lines per opening, 40 half-moves per line, and at most 50 open assignments from you per student). Features, limits and these terms may change, and the coach system may be discontinued in whole or in part. Significant changes are announced on the site.
12. Your responsibility
You are responsible for the teaching you give and for your relationship with your students and their parents. TheoryChess is not a party to any agreement between you and your students or their parents (including lesson fees); lesson fees are not collected through TheoryChess. To the extent the law allows, you are responsible for claims by third parties arising from your breach of these terms.
13. Stopping coaching
To stop coaching, write to us or delete your account. When your account is deleted, your application, your invite links, your links to your students, the openings you made and the assignments you gave, with their notes, are deleted at once; your students keep their accounts and their study, including the results of quizzes they took for those assignments. Their study of your openings is no longer shown, while the points they earned stay.
14. Changes, governing law and contact
These terms may be updated; the current version is published on this page and significant changes are announced on the site. Section 13 of the Terms of Use applies to governing law and jurisdiction. Questions: [email protected]