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Vibe Chess Fair Play Rules

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The core rule: everyone plays for themselves, from their own profile and without outside help, and enters the real result of the game. This applies to an over-the-board tournament, a meetup in a café and the training games in the app alike.

These rules add to the terms of use and spell out in detail what is said there in one line: what counts as unfair play, who checks it and how, and what happens if the rules are broken.

On this page

  1. 1General provisions
  2. 2Definitions
  3. 3Playing over the board
  4. 4Game results
  5. 5Training games and online standings
  6. 6Profile and rating
  7. 7Checks
  8. 8Decisions and consequences
  9. 9Complaints and disputes
  10. 10Changes to the rules and contact

1.General provisions

  • The rules apply to every event and every standings table in the Vibe Chess service: Swiss and round-robin tournaments, team tournaments, arenas, bughouse, free meetups, one-on-one games, and the app's training games, the club rating, the pair rating and league tables.
  • The rules apply whether or not an event has prizes or an entry fee. The service itself awards no prizes: if there are prizes, the event's Organiser sets and hands them out.
  • By accepting the terms of use (signing in to the service with Telegram or VK ID), the User also accepts these rules. By signing up for an event, a participant confirms they know them.
  • People of any age can take part. For a minor, the rules are accepted by a parent or legal guardian, and at a children's tournament the Organiser is responsible for them being followed on the spot.
  • An Organiser may set stricter requirements for their own event - for example, ban phones in the playing area. They apply if participants were told about them before the event.
  • These rules do not replace the laws of chess or the tournament regulations: how pieces move, time controls, draws and tie-breaks are governed by those.

2.Definitions

  • Administration - the Vibe Chess project, which runs the service.
  • Organiser - a User who created an event in the service and runs it. At their own event they act as the arbiter.
  • Participant - a User or Guest who plays in an event or does a training game.
  • Guest- a participant without a profile of their own, added by the Organiser; the Organiser enters a Guest's results.
  • Result - the outcome of a game or match recorded in the service, and the points, places, rating and training scores that follow from it.
  • Standings - any table in the service: a tournament table, meetup results, the club rating, the bughouse pair rating, a league table and training tables.
  • Outside help - any hint during play: a chess engine, an analysis app, a game database or an opening book, a hint from another person.

3.Playing over the board

During a game, a participant:

  • thinks and moves for themselves: uses no chess engines, analysis apps, game databases, books or notes and takes no hints from other people;
  • gives no hints either - not to a neighbouring board, not to a bughouse partner beyond what bughouse rules allow, not to spectators who will pass the hint on;
  • uses a phone only for what the game needs: the clock, entering the result and recording the game in the Vibe Chess app. Looking at anything else on the phone during your own game is not allowed;
  • does not agree a result with the opponent and does not lose on purpose - neither for someone else's place in the table nor for someone else's rating;
  • does not play instead of another person and does not let anyone play for them or under their profile.

A quick draw is not a breach in itself if it was offered and accepted under the rules. In an arena a draw within the first ten moves on the app's clock scores no points - that is how the format works, not a penalty.

4.Game results

  • The players enter the result themselves right after the game using the buttons in the app: one reports it, the other confirms or disputes it. If the second player does not respond within a short time, the reported result stands.
  • Only the result that happened on the board may be entered. You may not report a win that did not happen, a no-show by an opponent who came, or the result of a game that was not played.
  • If a result is disputed, the Organiser decides it. They may set the result of any game at their event, and from that moment the table is calculated from it.
  • The service keeps a history of actions with each result: who reported it, who confirmed, who disputed or cancelled it, what the Organiser set. This history is used to settle disputes.
  • The Organiser enters Guests' results and is responsible for their accuracy.

5.Training games and online standings

  • Training tasks - timed puzzles, endgame practice, position judgement, trivia questions and others - are done by the participant alone, without chess engines, databases, search engines or hints from other people.
  • You may not do a training game from someone else's profile or let someone else do it from yours.
  • You may not use scripts, automation tools or bugs in the service to gain points or change a table. A bug you find should be reported to the Administration, not used.

6.Profile and rating

  • One person - one profile. You may not create extra profiles, play under someone else's name or register another person as yourself.
  • You may not influence a rating artificially: play games between your own profiles, report games that were not played, or agree a run of wins or losses.
  • An Organiser adds as Guests only real people who came to play, under their real names.
  • You may not interfere with the service, get round its limits or tamper with the data from which results and ratings are calculated.

7.Checks

  • At an event, the Organiser makes sure the rules are followed: they may ask a participant to put their phone away, reseat players, hear both sides and decide on the spot.
  • The Administration may check any event and any standings - on its own initiative or following a complaint from a participant or an Organiser.
  • A check may use: results and the history of actions with them, the moves of recorded games and the time on the app's clock, how training games were played, a participant's game and rating history, links between profiles, and explanations from participants and the Organiser.
  • The Administration may ask a participant to explain particular games or decisions. Refusing a reasonable request or giving knowingly false explanations is taken into account in the decision.
  • A single sign - strong play, an unexpected win, a quick draw, a phone in someone's hand - does not in itself mean a breach. A decision is made on the totality of the circumstances, taking good-faith explanations into account.
  • Methods of checking that could be used to get round it are not disclosed.
  • Data used in a check is processed under the privacy policy; only those who carry out the check have access to its materials.

8.Decisions and consequences

At their own event, the Organiser may:

  • annul the result of a game or award a loss to the player at fault, after which points and the table are recalculated;
  • withdraw a participant from the tournament or meetup: a withdrawn player is not paired in later rounds, and games already played stay in the table.

The Administration may also:

  • annul a participant's games, points and final result in an event or a training table and recalculate the rating;
  • remove a participant from the club rating and training tables;
  • bar the participant from future Vibe Chess events for a fixed period or indefinitely and restrict access to the service;
  • apply the same measures to other profiles of the same person.

The measure is chosen taking into account what exactly happened, how it affected the outcome, whether there were earlier breaches and whether the participant tried to hide it. If a result is changed, the following places move up the table; what happens to a prize is decided by the Organiser under the rules of their event.

If there is not enough data to establish a breach on reasonable grounds, the result stands.

9.Complaints and disputes

  • If you notice a breach during a game, stop the clock and call the Organiser. Publicly accusing an opponent - in the club chat or on social media - is not allowed.
  • If the matter is not settled on the spot or you disagree with the Organiser's decision, message us on Telegram or use the /support command in the bot. Name the event, the round and the table or game, and briefly describe what happened. It is best to do it on the day of the event, while everyone remembers the details.
  • A complaint is a reason for a check, not proof of a breach. Its handling and conclusions about another participant are not shared with the person who complained.
  • The Administration's decision on a dispute is final for the result of the event, the place in the table and the rating.
  • Knowingly false, abusive or mass complaints filed to put pressure on an opponent are themselves a breach of these rules.
  • A participant who has had a measure applied may tell the Administration about a technical error or that they were mistaken for someone else. If the error is confirmed, the decision is corrected.

10.Changes to the rules and contact

  • The Administration may change these rules by publishing a new version on this page with the date of the update. A new version does not apply to an event that has already finished, unless it improves the participant's position.
  • The current version is always available at playvibechess.com/fair-play-rules.
  • For fair play questions, complaints and errors - a message on Telegram or the /support command in the @vibechessbot bot. How to behave at the board and what an arbiter should do when suspicions arise is covered in fair play over the board and fair play in online chess.