What would you like to know?

Yes. Local Hotseat and Vs AI are available without signing in and run primarily in your browser. A permanent account is required for rated online games, persistent ratings, tournaments, clubs, friends, messages, achievements, and saved progress.

Matchmaking first searches for a compatible opponent. Depending on your settings and the active configuration, it can then offer a clearly identified fictional house player at a suitable clock and strength.

No. House players are system-controlled chess opponents with fictional profiles and distinct playing styles. Their profiles identify them as House Players, and they use only a small set of chess-specific messages.

After the required app and engine assets have loaded, Local is designed for offline play and Vs AI can work offline when its browser engine is available. Saving or sharing may wait until you reconnect.

Permanent accounts can use Google or email and password through Supabase Auth. Authentication emails are delivered through the project’s configured SMTP provider. Only basic Google identity scopes are requested.

The account-upgrade flow is designed to preserve eligible guest games and local progress. The interface will show exactly what can be moved before you confirm.

Bullet, blitz, rapid, and classical ratings are tracked separately. Only completed rated games change ratings, and both sides are updated atomically by trusted server logic.

Only when administrators enable fixed-strength rated house play for that time control. Casual bot games remain separate, and configured rankings can exclude house players.

Long engine analysis and direct AI play run in a browser Web Worker. Busted Minds Chess does not run long analysis jobs inside serverless functions, and large engine output is not saved by default.

Online games need compact moves, clocks, participants, result, and integrity metadata. Local and direct AI games do not use cloud storage unless you explicitly save eligible progress.

Permanent accounts can block, mute, and report. Reports are reviewed in a restricted moderation workflow. House players cannot create reports or behave as personal contacts.

The beta is designed around a useful free experience and efficient shared infrastructure. If paid options are ever introduced, their price and impact will be explained before any purchase; competitive integrity will not be sold.

The product is still being validated with early players. Features, limits, and presentation may change; maintenance windows and occasional defects are possible. We aim to label preview states honestly.

The interface is designed for keyboard navigation, screen-reader move announcements, reduced motion, high contrast, board coordinates, responsive layouts, and color-aware themes. Please report anything that blocks play.

Use the Contact page and choose Product feedback, bug report, safety concern, or another relevant topic. Do not include passwords, access tokens, or sensitive identity documents.