Terms of Service

1.1 These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you ("you", "the User") and Checkmate Live Pty Ltd (ACN 694 727 743) ("Checkmate Live", "CML", "we", "us", "our"), the operator of the Checkmate Live competitive chess and mindsports platform (the "Platform"). Unless another CML Group Company is expressly identified to you as the Designated Operator for a particular country or service, Checkmate Live Pty Ltd is the sole contracting entity for the Platform services governed by these Terms.

1.2 The Designated Operator is responsible for Accounts, tournaments, competition rules, prizes, sanctions, appeals, player communications and the other player-facing services supplied under these Terms. Organiser responsibility for a particular event is determined event by event by reference to the event page and the applicable Tournament Rules. A federation affiliation, sanctioning arrangement or partner label does not, by itself, change the contracting organiser: unless the event page and the applicable Tournament Rules expressly identify the event as third-party operated, Checkmate Live (or the identified Designated Operator) is the contracting organiser for that event.

1.3 The Platform uses underlying software, infrastructure and integrity technology licensed or supplied by VADR Media and other authorised service providers. Those providers are not parties to your player or tournament contract and do not become tournament operators merely by providing technology or support.

1.3A Nothing in these Terms discloses, varies or grants you rights under any private commercial, licensing, hosting, development or services arrangement between the Designated Operator and a technology or service provider.

1.4 Accessing or using the Platform means you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not access or use the Platform.

2.1 The following documents are incorporated into these Terms by reference and form part of the agreement between you and Checkmate Live. By accepting these Terms you also accept each of them:

(a) the FairPlay Policy;

(b) the Community Code of Conduct;

(c) the Tournament and Prize Terms, together with the event-specific Tournament Regulations published for each tournament;

(d) the Privacy and Compliance Policy;

(e) the Cookie Policy and Consent Preferences;

(f) the Data Recipients and Service Providers statement;

(g) the Account Policy;

(h) the Account Deletion Policy;

(i) the Age Policy;

(j) the Broadcast and Streaming Policy;

(k) the Security and Acceptable Use Policy;

(l) the Automated Decision-Making and Integrity Systems Disclosure ("the ADM Disclosure"); and

(m) Appendix A — Contractual and Enforcement Allocation Framework; and

(n) any Voucher or Ticket terms, campaign terms, reward terms, issuer terms, Payment Method terms, External Service terms or promotional terms published or presented in connection with a Voucher or Ticket, claimed reward, Platform Benefit, promotional campaign, partner reward, sponsored reward, Payment Method or prize-delivery method.

2.2 Web3 features, where and when offered, are governed by the separate Web3 and Digital Asset Terms, which are a distinct agreement with a different contracting entity, accepted separately at the point those features are accessed. They are not part of these Terms (see section 28).

2.3 These Terms are the controlling instrument. Incorporated documents are subordinate to these Terms: if there is an inconsistency between these Terms and an incorporated document, these Terms prevail, and an incorporated document may not, by publication alone, purport to override these Terms. Where a change to an incorporated document is material and would in substance amend these Terms, the change is made under section 46 with appropriate notice and, where required, fresh acceptance, rather than through publication of the incorporated document alone. Nothing in these Terms or any incorporated document excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee or other right that cannot lawfully be excluded (see section 54).

2.4 Schedules. These Terms include each schedule appended to them, including Schedule A — External Adversarial Enforcement and Cost Recovery. A reference in these Terms to "these Terms" includes the schedules.

2.5 Updates to incorporated policies. Each incorporated policy listed in section 2.1 — including the FairPlay Policy, Community Code of Conduct, Account Policy, Account Deletion Policy, Tournament and Prize Terms, Security and Acceptable Use Policy, Cookie Policy and Consent Preferences, Privacy and Compliance Policy, Age Policy, Broadcast and Streaming Policy, Data Recipients and Service Providers statement, Automated Decision-Making and Integrity Systems Disclosure, Appendix A, and any applicable country- or jurisdiction-specific policy, addendum or supplement published by Checkmate Live for a particular market, operator or event — may be amended, updated, restated, replaced or supplemented by Checkmate Live from time to time without amendment to these Terms, provided that an incorporated policy update must not materially reduce a User's accrued rights, materially increase a User's payment obligations, materially expand monitoring or personal-information processing, or materially change dispute, refund, termination or enforcement rights without notice reasonably appropriate to the nature of the change and any consent required by Applicable Law.

2.5A Country and jurisdiction policies — express authorisation and carve-out. These Terms expressly authorise incorporated policies (including country-, jurisdiction-, operator- and event-specific policies, addenda and supplements published under section 2.1 or 2.5) to specify country availability, eligibility, age and identity verification, KYC, payment, prize, payout, access and feature restrictions applicable to a particular market, operator or event. To the extent a policy operates within the scope expressly authorised by these Terms, it is not treated as an attempt to override these Terms by publication alone for the purposes of section 2.3. However, an incorporated policy may not vary, waive or override, and no country- or jurisdiction-specific policy purports to vary, waive or override, the dispute-resolution process (section 44), governing law (section 42), jurisdiction (section 43) or the class-action waiver (section 45); any change to those matters requires amendment to these Terms under section 46. Checkmate Live may impose urgent legal, sanctions, safety or security restrictions through an incorporated policy or operational notice with such shorter or no prior notice as is reasonably necessary, subject to Applicable Law. The delegated-scope, notice, consent and accrued-rights protections in section 2.5 continue to apply, and no policy is given an unrestricted right to override these Terms.

The most recent version of each incorporated policy as published on the Platform applies. Material changes are notified in accordance with section 46. Except where Applicable Law requires individual notification, an update to an incorporated policy is taken to have been notified when published on the Platform with its revision date.

Where an incorporated policy update is required urgently for security, integrity, fraud prevention, legal compliance, child safety or sanctions compliance, Checkmate Live may apply it immediately, with notice as soon as reasonably practicable. Where there is any inconsistency between an updated incorporated policy and these Terms, section 2.3 governs (these Terms prevail unless the policy expressly states otherwise), and section 54 (Australian Consumer Law) is preserved.

3.1 In these Terms, unless the context requires otherwise:

Account means a User's registered account on the Platform.

ACF (Asian Chess Federation) means the governing body for chess in Asia, the Middle East and Oceania.

Affiliate means any entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with a party.

CML Group Company means Checkmate Live Pty Ltd and any entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with Checkmate Live Pty Ltd from time to time.

Designated Operator means the CML Group Company expressly identified as the contracting operator for a User's country, Account, tournament or particular Platform service.

Alpha Stage means the Platform's early development phase, in which features are tested and refined and instability or data loss may occur (see section 4). References to Alpha Stage in these Terms include any subsequent Beta Stage, Early Access, public-beta, closed-beta, preview, pilot or other pre-general-availability stage of the Platform or of any feature, and the Test Software framework in section 4 applies to all such stages. A feature may progress through, regress through, or be moved between Alpha, Beta and Early Access stages at Checkmate Live's discretion under section 4.1B.

Age Assurance means any measure Checkmate Live uses to establish, estimate or confirm to a reasonable level of confidence that a User meets the applicable minimum age for a Platform service, event or feature. Age Assurance may include self-declaration of date of birth, age estimation, age inference from a Passkey-linked or verified credential, a third-party age-signal provider, or a combination of methods. The specific method and level of confidence required vary by service, event, feature and jurisdiction, and are determined by Checkmate Live having regard to Applicable Law (including any published age-assurance framework, guidance or roadmap in the relevant jurisdiction) and to the applicable event, provider or federation requirement. Age Assurance is not, of itself, Age Verification.

Age Verification means a formal check that establishes a User's age by reference to independently verifiable evidence, including one or more of: a government-issued identity document; a verified credential from an accredited identity provider; a documentary check performed by an accredited third-party verification service; or an equivalent method Checkmate Live reasonably accepts. Age Verification requirements are determined by Checkmate Live having regard to Applicable Law in the relevant jurisdiction and to the applicable service, event, provider or federation requirement, and may differ by jurisdiction, service and time. Age Verification may be required for a specific service, feature, entry, participation, payout or benefit. Completion of Age Assurance does not, of itself, satisfy an Age Verification requirement.

Applicable Law means all laws, regulations, codes and mandatory guidelines applicable to the Platform or its use, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (including the Australian Consumer Law), the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), and the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth).

Arbiter Mode means the Platform's cloud-based monitoring and supervision system, including for online supervised chess, using automated monitoring, human oversight or a combination of both. Human oversight may be provided by CML-appointed arbiters or authorised officials, or FIDE-licensed arbiters where applicable to the event. Supervision levels and requirements are appropriate to the relevant game, match, ladder, tournament, event or other Platform activity and may be imposed or escalated under these Terms and the applicable policies. Depending on the required supervision level or check, Arbiter Mode may enable authorised officials to access video, audio, screen-sharing and other permitted monitoring feeds; use of Arbiter Mode does not, by itself, require every such feed at every level. Arbiter Mode supports fair play, event administration and broadcasting as described in sections 20 to 22 and the Tournament and Prize Terms. Its use does not, by itself, make an event FIDE-rated or conducted under FIDE authority, and does not displace any applicable requirement for human review or arbiter supervision.

General Games means the casual browser games, puzzles, training and other games separately identified as such on the Platform. Each Game may have its own age, content, feature and jurisdiction requirements. General Games do not include paid or prize-pool competition or payout unless separately identified and authorised for the relevant event.

Arcade Mode means the casual and entertainment-focused mode of the Platform in which chess, chess knowledge or player skill is a core element. Arcade Mode may include casual games, quests, challenges, mini-games, alternative formats, objectives, progression, achievements, rewards and other gameplay features made available from time to time.

Arcade Chess means casual chess-only play within Arcade Mode. Arcade Chess sits within Arcade Mode alongside other Arcade Mode features (including, where introduced, Arcade Cards). Arcade Chess itself does not include collectible-card, pack, fusion, trading or external-value mechanics.

Arcade Games means the individual games, mini-games, challenges, quests and other gameplay experiences offered within Arcade Mode. Arcade Games may include Arcade Chess, Arcade Cards (where introduced) and other casual and social gameplay made available from time to time. Arcade Games may feature progression, achievements, seasonal missions and in-game rewards, the categories, content and availability of which vary from time to time and are set out in the applicable in-game descriptions, pricing page, Battle Pass rules and product disclosures in force at the time. Arcade Games rewards are Web2-only unless expressly stated otherwise for a specific Arcade Game, and do not, of themselves, constitute money, stored value, a cash balance, a financial asset or a right to payment or payout.

Modes. The Platform provides three primary competition Modes: Arcade Mode (casual and social), Pro Mode (competitive) and Echess Mode (federation esports). Modes are the legal and product taxonomy for tournaments, passes, eligibility, supervision, rewards and competition rules on the Platform. A tournament is expressly designated by Checkmate Live as an Arcade Tournament, a Pro Tournament or an Echess Tournament, and is governed by the applicable Tournament Rules for that Mode.

For clarity, the Platform may also offer gameplay options, opponent-selection options, queues, formats, session types, ladders, leagues, casual games, puzzles, training, mini-games, quests, Arcade Games, or other Platform features — including options such as playing online, playing against a computer, or playing a friend. Those gameplay options, queues, formats, session types, ladders, leagues and features are not separate Modes unless expressly designated by Checkmate Live as a Mode.

Feature names that include the word “Mode” — including Arbiter Mode, Squad Mode and Trade Mode — are feature labels only and are not separate competition Modes unless expressly designated as a Mode by Checkmate Live.

Arcade Cards means a collectible-card mini-game that may be made available within Arcade Mode. If introduced, Arcade Cards may include cards, packs, decks, collections, rarity, upgrades, fusion, burning, drops, progression, rewards and related card-game mechanics. A reference to Arcade Cards in these Terms does not mean that Arcade Cards has been launched or is available.

Arcade Cards forms part of Arcade Mode and is not a separate Platform mode. An Arcade Tournament includes Arcade Cards only where the relevant tournament is expressly identified or tagged as including Arcade Cards.

Arcade Cards is Web2-only and does not include blockchain functionality, NFTs, crypto wallets, cryptocurrency or token rewards, on-chain ownership or trading, or external redemption. Cards, packs, rewards, progression and other Arcade Cards items do not constitute money, stored value, a cash balance, a financial asset or a right to payment or payout. Any purchases or randomised mechanics introduced for Arcade Cards may be subject to additional product terms and disclosures.

Arcade Tournament means a tournament expressly designated by Checkmate Live as an Arcade Tournament. An Arcade Tournament may consist of casual or competitive chess or may incorporate quests, challenges, mini-games, alternative formats, objectives, scoring systems or other Arcade Mode mechanics. The applicable Tournament Rules identify the format, rules, eligibility requirements, scoring and rewards for each Arcade Tournament.

Arcade Battle Pass means the seasonal, tiered reward system within Arcade Mode through which a User unlocks rewards across a sequence of tiers over the course of a season. The Arcade Battle Pass is offered in two versions: (i) a free version with a limited set of rewards; and (ii) Arcade+, the paid version, which unlocks up to 100 tiers of enhanced rewards each season. The Arcade Battle Pass is a feature of the Platform, not a separate financial product, and is subject to sections 9.4, 4.1B, 4.1C and 26.7.

Arcade+ means the paid, premium version of the Arcade Battle Pass, providing the User with up to 100 tiers of enhanced seasonal rewards in Arcade Mode. Arcade+ is a bonus entitlement within section 4.1C and is non-transferable; redemption applies to one season only.

Authorised Agent means a third-party service provider authorised by Checkmate Live to facilitate trades on behalf of players under explicit player delegation and subject to our agent requirements (see section 26B.7).

Authorised Signatory has the meaning given in section 46A.

Battle Pass means a seasonal pass granting access to features, benefits and rewards on the Platform. Battle Passes are offered in tiers, including without limitation Rookie (free), Arcade Pass (paid) and Pro Pass (paid, offered as a monthly or annual subscription). Battle Pass benefits, rewards and features vary by tier and are set out in the applicable pricing page, product disclosures and Battle Pass rules in force at the time of purchase or subscription. Both the Arcade Pass and the Pro Pass may provide Arcade Games rewards; the Pro Pass additionally provides Pro Mode access, official rating eligibility, KYC-verified features and Pro-tier rewards specified for the relevant season. Battle Pass entitlements are personal and non-transferable. Save for any right arising under the Australian Consumer Law for a Major Failure (see section 26.6E) or as otherwise expressly provided in these Terms or in the applicable Battle Pass disclosures at the time of purchase, a Battle Pass subscription is non-refundable once the relevant subscription period has commenced.

Boosting means arranging for a stronger player to play on, coach in real time, or otherwise improve the rating, ranking or competitive standing associated with another User's Account.

Collusion means any agreement, cooperation, coordination, communication, arrangement or understanding between two or more persons intended to obtain an improper competitive advantage or to influence, manipulate or distort a game, match, pairing, round, bracket, qualification pathway, rating, standing, prize entitlement or tournament outcome. Collusion includes pre-arranged outcomes, coordinated wins, losses, resignations or draws, soft play, win trading, coordinated queueing or withdrawals, sharing non-public competitive information, prize splitting that is conditional on a result, and assisting another person to evade Platform rules or enforcement. It does not include legitimate team communication or cooperation expressly permitted by the applicable Game-Specific Terms or Tournament Rules.

Comms Features means the in-Platform communication features made available from time to time, including text chat, direct messaging, support tickets, in-game video and event-gated supervision audio within a game session or supervised event (section 21.11), and any other communication channel that operates on or through the Platform. Comms Features do not include, and Checkmate Live does not offer, a voice-calling, VOIP, telephony or video-conferencing service.

Credits means an in-Platform reward medium earned through gameplay, daily logins and participation, usable within the Platform (including for card packs, upgrades and tournament entry); Credits are not directly purchasable (see section 26.0B).

Crowns means the closed-loop digital entertainment currency described in section 26.1.

Delivery Costs means any third-party fee, deduction, charge, conversion cost, foreign-exchange spread, intermediary charge, receiving-institution charge, operator fee, issuer fee, payment-provider fee, External Service fee, jurisdictional charge, tax withholding, compliance charge or other cost associated with paying, delivering, crediting, redeeming, transferring, converting or otherwise making available a prize, reward, refund, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket.

Derivative Item means a Pass, tournament entry, Trade Mode commitment, Store item, Platform Benefit or other in-Platform benefit acquired by spending Crowns, as further described in section 26.6B.

Cyberattack means any intentional, unauthorised or malicious activity, interference, disruption or degradation directed against the Platform, its underlying infrastructure, cloud architecture, microservices, API endpoints, network communication layers, or client-side interfaces (including browser runtimes, mobile applications and desktop executables), whether executed directly or orchestrated via proxy networks, automated agents, or commissioned, instructed, funded or otherwise facilitating third parties. Without limitation, a Cyberattack includes:

(a) Infrastructure and traffic disruption — Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) or Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, XML/JSON payload flooding, API rate-limit exhaustion, and any high-volume or synthetic traffic generation intended to impair availability of the Platform or its underlying services;

(b) Intrusion and authentication exploits — unauthorised network intrusion, server-side hacking, credential stuffing, brute-force exploitation, session hijacking, or the deployment of malware, ransomware, spyware, keyloggers or comparable malicious code;

(c) API and protocol abuse — automated endpoint fuzzing, token exploitation, network packet sniffing, and the execution of protocol or data replay attacks designed to deceive or manipulate server-side state;

(d) Client-side and web-environment tampering — Document Object Model (DOM) injection, browser-runtime manipulation, unauthorised graphical overlays or heads-up displays (HUDs), and any unauthorised local memory or storage modification executed via malicious extensions, userscript engines, developer tools, browser-instrumentation or browser-automation frameworks; and

(e) Exploit automation and ingestion — the deployment of automated scraping agents, vulnerability scanners, attack-surface or infrastructure-enumeration tools, port scanners, fuzzers, custom scripts and AI ingestion or training agents designed to map vulnerabilities, harvest proprietary datasets, or automate gameplay calculations via external artificial-intelligence engines.

Cyberattacks are also Unauthorised Access within sections 3.1 and 14A, and are subject to the strict liability, third-party attribution, silent-countermeasure, retrospective-reporting and cross-border-cooperation provisions of section 14A.

Drops means in-game rewards or items earned through gameplay or event participation.

Echess Mode means the Asian Chess Federation's esports initiative operated on the Platform, including online chess competition conducted under the applicable Echess rules and federation requirements. Echess Mode may include blitz, bullet, rapid and other approved chess formats and may include officially rated and online-supervised competition.

Echess entry requirements. Entry to an Echess Tournament is gated. For any player competing in a FIDE-rated capacity in an Echess Tournament, FIDE ID sync, KYC and real-name disclosure to the extent required by FIDE, the Asian Chess Federation or the applicable event rules are mandatory. Where the applicable Echess Tournament Rules expressly permit unrated players to participate, an unrated player may compete on the entry terms set out in those Tournament Rules, which may include reduced identification requirements; unrated participation does not confer a FIDE rating and does not create a FIDE-rated result. Checkmate Live may refuse, revoke or restrict entry where the entry requirements for the relevant Echess Tournament are not met.

Echess Tournament means a tournament expressly designated by Checkmate Live as an Echess Tournament and conducted under the applicable Echess Tournament Rules. An Echess Tournament may be rated or unrated and may be supervised or unsupervised, as specified for the relevant event. An Echess designation does not, by itself, mean that an event is FIDE-rated.

ESIC means the Esports Integrity Commission — an independent, global body focused on maintaining integrity in esports competitions.

External Service means any external, affiliated, third-party, partner, operator, infrastructure, payment, identity, verification, compliance, reward, redemption, data, audit, security, reporting or other service that Checkmate Live may use, integrate with, rely on, make available or require for Platform operations, integrity functions, rewards, eligibility checks, redemptions, payments, audit, governance, reporting or compliance.

Fair Play means the standards of honest, transparent, rule-compliant and sportsmanlike competitive conduct expected of all Users on the Platform, as set out in these Terms, the Fair Play Policy and the Community Code of Conduct, including playing one's own moves, refraining from external assistance, Match-Fixing, Collusion, Matchmaking Manipulation, Tournament Interference, other outcome manipulation or rating distortion, refraining from circumventing the Platform's integrity, location, eligibility, sanctions, security or technical-protection controls, and otherwise complying with Checkmate Live's published integrity rules.

Fair Play Score means a metric reflecting a User's adherence to the Fair Play Policy, which may influence eligibility for rewards, competitive events and access to services.

Farming means repetitive, low-effort or automated gameplay patterns designed primarily to accumulate items, rewards, currency or experience rather than genuine competitive play, including through multiple Accounts, coordinated loss sequences, or exploitation of matchmaking.

FIDE means the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (the International Chess Federation).

Force Majeure Event has the meaning given in section 50.

Game means a game, sport, competitive product, format or title hosted on the Platform from time to time, including chess (the current Platform game) and any further game, format, sport, Gameplay Option or title that Checkmate Live introduces on the Platform under section 4.1D.

Game-Specific Term means a Tournament Rule, addendum, supplemental term, Fair Play Policy module or other operational document that sets out variations specific to a Game, as further described in section 4.1D and incorporated under section 2.

Integrity Anchor means an external service, system or mechanism to which Checkmate Live may commit tamper-evident and audit-ready records for integrity, security, audit and governance purposes under section 17.7 — whether operated by Checkmate Live, by a Checkmate Live affiliate, or by a third-party service operator. The design and architecture of an Integrity Anchor may be advised at a later date at Checkmate Live's election.

Integrity Telemetry means the data, signals, observations, derived metrics and inferences collected, generated or processed by the Platform Integrity Systems for the purposes described in section 14.2A, including (without limitation) data described in sections 14.2A(a) and (b), and any other signal derived from gameplay, account activity, session activity, device state, runtime environment, Platform interaction or related sources, that Checkmate Live uses to detect, deter, investigate and respond to integrity threats. The specific categories, signals, weights, thresholds, classifiers, calibrations, mechanics and analytical methods comprising Integrity Telemetry are confidential (see section 15.1).

Integrity Tier means the trust classification assigned to an Account based on factors such as Fair Play Score, verification status, account history and behavioural signals, which may affect feature access, supervision level and event eligibility.

KYC means know-your-customer identity verification.

Location Masking means the use of a VPN, proxy, Tor, relay or residential proxy network, anti-fingerprint browser, remote desktop, split-tunnel configuration, or any other tool or technique that conceals, alters or misrepresents a User's location or network origin.

Match-Fixing means any intentional act, omission, agreement or arrangement intended improperly to predetermine, alter or influence the course, result or any material aspect of a game, match, round, bracket, qualification pathway or tournament. It includes a result or draw agreed before play; a draw agreed during play pursuant to an earlier understanding; throwing or intentionally losing a game or match; intentional resignation; soft play; spot-fixing; score manipulation; rating, standing or qualification manipulation; and manipulating a result or performance to affect a prize, reward, opponent or third party. A draw offer made during genuine play, without any prior agreement and in accordance with the applicable rules, is not Match-Fixing merely because it is offered or accepted. For the purposes of these Terms, Match-Fixing is Tournament Interference whether or not a related wager is ultimately placed or accepted, or an intended financial or competitive benefit is obtained.

Matchmaking Manipulation means conduct intended improperly to influence the Platform's pairing or opponent-selection process or to manufacture a desired match, opponent or result. It includes coordinated queue entry, queue dodging, repeated withdrawals, intentional disconnects, use of multiple or proxy Accounts, Location Masking, account or rating manipulation, win trading, or coordination with another person to cause, avoid or exploit a pairing. It does not include choosing an ordinary queue, time control or event option made publicly available by the Platform, or a withdrawal expressly permitted by the applicable rules for a legitimate reason.

Participation Record means a record, confirmation, acknowledgement, entry, marker, entitlement record, eligibility record, reward record, activity record or other Platform record generated by or for Checkmate Live in connection with a User's participation, activity, result, eligibility, integrity status, compliance status, event entry, reward, redemption, creator activity, organiser activity, promotional campaign, partner programme or other Platform interaction. A Participation Record may be used for audit, verification, dispute resolution, reward administration, eligibility assessment, fraud prevention, integrity review, compliance, governance and operational purposes. A Participation Record does not, by itself, guarantee payment, redemption, withdrawal, transferability, exchangeability or continued eligibility.

Platform means the Checkmate Live platform and all related services, content and features.

Payment Method means any payment, payout, delivery, crediting, redemption, claim, transfer, voucher, ticket, Platform Benefit, bank, payment-provider, partner, sponsor, issuer, External Service, domestic, international, alternative or other method made available by Checkmate Live from time to time for paying, delivering, crediting, making available or otherwise administering a prize, reward, refund, credit, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket.

Platform Benefit means any non-cash benefit, access right, reward, entitlement, participation benefit, promotional benefit, creator benefit, organiser benefit, integrity-related benefit, event-related benefit, Voucher or Ticket, redemption opportunity or other benefit that Checkmate Live may make available from time to time in connection with the Platform, an event, a campaign, a partner programme or a Platform service. Unless expressly stated otherwise by Checkmate Live in writing, a Platform Benefit is not money, is not a deposit, is not stored value, is not legal tender, does not represent equity, debt or ownership in Checkmate Live or any affiliate, and does not give the User any governance, voting, profit-sharing or distribution rights.

Pro Mode means the Platform's competitive mode for Pro Tournaments and other Pro competition, with the eligibility, prize, supervision, integrity and other requirements specified for the relevant competition. Pro Mode is restricted to Users aged 18 and over.

Pro Tournament means a tournament expressly designated by Checkmate Live as a Pro Tournament and conducted under the eligibility requirements, competition rules, prize conditions, supervision requirements and integrity controls specified for that tournament.

Pro Pass means the premium, subscription-based account tier offering advanced features, tournament eligibility and other exclusive benefits, described in section 9.

RAMP means a Risk Assessment and Management Plan — an internal Checkmate Live risk-management instrument (see section 50A).

Rookie means the basic, free account tier offering access to core Platform features.

Platform Integrity Systems (industry term: anti-cheat / integrity / fair-play system) means the integrity, anti-cheat, anti-tamper, security operations (SecOps), platform security, client and browser integrity, server-side, network, telemetry and behavioural-analytics mechanisms used in connection with the Platform, whether operated by the Designated Operator or provided, operated or supported by VADR Media or another authorised service provider. A reference to a Platform Integrity System in these Terms is not exhaustive: a violation that involves any integrity, anti-cheat, security, client, browser, server, network, telemetry or behavioural-analytics mechanism of the Platform (including, without limitation, interference with platform security, browser integrity, client integrity, telemetry, anti-tamper or network controls) is a violation for the purposes of these Terms.

Smurfing means a skilled player creating or using an additional or lower-rated Account to compete against less-skilled opponents.

Sportsmanship means conducting oneself, on and off the Platform, in a manner that respects opponents, teammates, officials, arbiters, Checkmate Live staff, spectators, sponsors, federations and the wider chess and esports community — including before, during and after Platform events, in chat and voice communications, in broadcast and post-event content, and on third-party channels — as further described in the Community Code of Conduct. Sportsmanship is a component of Fair Play.

Squad Mode means the feature that allows players to create and manage teams for tournament participation.

Store means the in-Platform store for digital goods and merchandise described in section 26A.

Stream Sniping means viewing, accessing or monitoring an opponent's stream, broadcast, screen share or any other source of in-game information about an active match for the purpose of obtaining competitive advantage in that match, as further described in section 11.2. Information obtained from an opponent's broadcast during live play constitutes Unauthorised Assistance.

Test Software has the meaning given in section 4.

Token Gating means, where expressly offered under separate Web3 and Digital Asset Terms, a mechanism that restricts access to certain content, events or features based on ownership of specified tokens, passes or tickets. Token Gating is not offered under these Terms unless expressly stated.

Tournament Interference means intentional conduct directed at, or affecting, a tournament, qualifier, ladder or event that improperly disrupts, manipulates, compromises or seeks to influence its operation, integrity, participants, administration, pairings, progression, results, standings, qualifications, prizes or related systems. It may be undertaken by a User acting alone or in coordination with a participant, team, official, organiser, broadcaster, sponsor, betting operator or other third party, and includes Match-Fixing, Collusion and Matchmaking Manipulation. The categories of conduct constituting Tournament Interference, and the operative consequences, are set out in section 19.8 (which is incorporated into this definition by reference); related conduct is addressed in sections 11.3A, 19.2B, 19.4A, 19.7 and 23.2. Genuine competitive participation and conduct expressly permitted by the applicable Tournament Rules are not Tournament Interference.

Tournament Lifecycle means the period from registration opening through check-in, active play, results confirmation, fair-play review, the appeals window and payout processing.

Tournament Organiser means the entity responsible for organising a specific tournament, which may be Checkmate Live, a partner organisation or a third-party event host.

Trade Mode means the in-Platform feature for trading items described in section 26B.

Unauthorised Access means accessing, attempting to access, or causing, commissioning, instructing, funding, ratifying or facilitating the access of the Platform or any Platform system or component (including any infrastructure, Account, session, API, microservice, network communication layer, client-side application, runtime environment or data) otherwise than under and in accordance with these Terms and a current, valid licence to use the Platform. The scope, enumerated categories, strict liability, third-party attribution, silent and deferred countermeasures, retrospective reporting and multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil consequences of Unauthorised Access are set out in section 14A, which is incorporated into this definition by reference.

Unauthorised Assistance means any method — human, software, device, automation or service — that provides or materially improves move selection, evaluation, calculation or decision-making during live play, including agentic play.

User means any person or entity who accesses or uses the Platform.

User-Generated Content means any content — including text, images, videos, gameplay or other materials — that Users create, capture or submit on or through the Platform.

VADR Media means TL Esports Pty Ltd trading as VADR Media, an authorised provider or licensor of underlying Platform, infrastructure and integrity technology.

Virtual Content means any virtual currency (including Crowns and Credits), Battle Pass or other Pass, Derivative Item, in-game reward, avatar, avatar trait, chess set, card pack, single card, access item, DLC, downloadable content, cosmetic, and other virtual content made available on the Platform from time to time. Section 26 governs Virtual Content, including its licence, non-ownership, non-transferability and consumer-guarantee treatment.

Voucher or Ticket means a code, credential, digital item, digital record, entitlement record, promotional item, claim right, reward marker, access marker, entry marker, ticket, voucher, pass, invite, drop, claim, coupon, allocation, allowance or other promotional or reward entitlement made available by Checkmate Live, an affiliate, a sponsor, a partner, an issuer or an External Service from time to time. A Voucher or Ticket may be issued, displayed, tracked, claimed, used, expired, cancelled, replaced, restricted, converted, redeemed or otherwise administered in the manner described in the applicable campaign terms, event rules, reward terms, issuer terms, External Service terms, product terms or other terms presented at the time of issue, claim, use or redemption. A Voucher or Ticket may be described in promotional copy using a descriptive name such as "voucher," "ticket," "pass," "claim," "drop," "reward," "invite," "coupon," "allocation," "access pass," "entry ticket," "digital ticket," "reward ticket" or similar wording; the promotional name does not change the legal classification, limitations, eligibility conditions, expiry, redemption conditions or restrictions that apply under these Terms and the applicable campaign terms. Unless Checkmate Live expressly states otherwise in writing, a Voucher or Ticket is not money, is not legal tender, is not a deposit, is not stored value, is not a financial product, does not represent equity, debt, ownership, governance, voting, profit-share or distribution rights, and does not guarantee payment, cash-out, transferability, exchangeability, market value, redemption, token issuance, digital-asset issuance or continued availability.

3.2 In interpretation: headings are for convenience only; the singular includes the plural and vice versa; "including" and "such as" are not words of limitation; a reference to a monetary amount is to Australian dollars unless stated otherwise; and a reference to a document or policy is to that document as amended from time to time.

3A.1 Not gambling or commercial gaming. The Platform is designed and operated as a skill-based competitive platform, not as a gambling, wagering, lottery, betting or commercial gaming service. Competitive outcomes are determined solely by player skill, and no activity on the Platform involves chance, randomness or luck as a factor in determining competitive outcomes. The Platform does not currently hold or operate under any gambling, commercial gaming or internet gaming licence. Checkmate Live may restrict, modify or withdraw features in any jurisdiction where regulatory classification is uncertain or where local law requires.

3A.2 Sport and esport classification. Checkmate Live organises and operates competitive chess and, where offered on the Platform, other mindsports — games of skill played under published rules with human officiating. Chess is a sport governed by FIDE, which is recognised by the International Olympic Committee and is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency Code; Checkmate Live is the official Echess platform of the Asian Chess Federation and conducts sanctioned events under federation rules, and delivers that competition as an electronic sport. The Platform's competitive activities — including rated games, tournaments, leagues and federation-affiliated events, in chess and in any other mindsport offered — are sporting and esporting competitions of skill, not commercial gaming. Where a jurisdiction distinguishes between "sport", "esport" and "online gaming", Checkmate Live's position is that the Platform's activities constitute sport and/or esport (as applicable under local law) and not online money gaming, commercial gaming, internet gaming or gambling. Checkmate Live's classification of the Platform is a factual and reasoned position that Checkmate Live puts forward; it is not, and is not to be construed as, a representation that the classification is conclusive against a regulator or that an activity cannot be regulated merely because it is described as sport, esport or entertainment. Jurisdiction-specific restrictions set out in the applicable country- or jurisdiction-specific policies incorporated under section 2.5A, and other jurisdictional restrictions in these Terms, continue to apply on their own terms. Tournament outcomes are determined solely by player skill, under pre-defined rules, and prize pools are funded by Checkmate Live operating funds, sponsors and/or federation budgets — not by pooled player entry fees functioning as wagering stakes.

3A.2A Governed competition. Competition on the Platform is governed: it is played under published, versioned Tournament Rules, supervised by certified arbiters with authority to rule, subject to a stated evidentiary standard, a right of appeal (section 16), sanctions for breach (section 15), and an integrity system that detects, evidences and adjudicates unfair play (sections 11 to 17A). Checkmate Live cooperates with sports-integrity authorities, federations and the Esports Integrity Commission and reports suspected manipulation of its competitions (sections 32 and 38). No element of chance affects any result, any pairing that decides a prize, or prize eligibility; any chance-based mechanic on the Platform is cosmetic only and is separated from every competitive and prize path (section 26B).

3A.3 Skill-based contests; entry fees are not stakes. Each competitive format on the Platform is a skill-based contest. Prize money is performance-based and is funded by Checkmate Live or an event sponsor or federation (section 24). The commitment of an entry fee, Crowns or Credits to a contest is consideration for participation in a governed competition — for officiating, platform, integrity and broadcast services — and is not a stake or wager, and is not gambling, betting or a game of chance. Checkmate Live does not operate, offer or facilitate betting or wagering and takes no wager on any result. Where a licensed third-party operator offers betting on Checkmate Live events, it does so under its own licence and under delayed-data and integrity arrangements with Checkmate Live (section 22.4A). A pooled or entry-funded prize structure is offered only in jurisdictions where it is lawful as a skill contest, and is otherwise converted to an organiser-funded prize or withheld (sections 13.4B and 24).

3A.4 Age and jurisdictional availability. Competitive prize formats, and all paid, video, voice and value-movement features, are for persons aged 18 and over (section 7.1); Federation Junior Accounts under section 7.1A are limited to federation-governed, non-prize competition. Checkmate Live may restrict, modify or withdraw any feature, event format or prize structure in any jurisdiction where regulatory classification is uncertain or where local law requires.

4.1 Acknowledgement of Test Software status (Alpha, Beta and Early Access). You acknowledge and agree that the Platform, its features, virtual goods and associated network services may be provided in an Alpha, Beta, Early Access, public-beta, closed-beta, preview, pilot or other pre-general-availability state (together, "Test Software"). Test Software is inherently experimental and unfinished: features may be incomplete, unstable, modified, replaced, removed, advanced to a later stage, regressed to an earlier stage, withdrawn or re-released without notice; service interruptions, server outages, performance degradation, data loss, resets and recomputation of ratings or leaderboards may occur; and the Platform is provided "as is" and "as available". You use Test Software for testing purposes and at your own risk. A feature's stage designation (Alpha, Beta, Early Access or other) is operational and may be changed by Checkmate Live at any time without amendment of these Terms.

4.1A Core function — tournaments and competitive play. The core function of the Platform is the operation of competitive tournaments, qualifiers, federation events, rated and ranked play, and the supervised competitive-integrity environment supporting that play. Ancillary features — including the Store, Battle Pass, Squad Mode, Trade Mode, Drops, in-Platform cosmetics, social and community features, leaderboard and profile features beyond what is required for tournament participation, and other features not essential to tournament participation — are offered as part of the evolving Platform during Alpha Stage and may be introduced, trialled, modified, expanded, contracted, suspended, deprecated, replaced, removed or withdrawn at any time, with reasonable notice where practicable. The introduction, modification or withdrawal of an ancillary feature does not, of itself, affect the core tournament function or the User's access to tournament play on the terms then offered.

Live-operations cancellation, rescheduling and postponement are a normal feature of the core function. The cancellation, rescheduling, postponement, consolidation, restart, pause, re-staging, suspension or other operational adjustment of a tournament, qualifier, event, round, match or pairing as part of live competitive operations — including under sections 19.4, 19.6, 23.1, 23.3, 23.3A, 50 (Force Majeure) and 50A (RAMP) — is a reasonable operational feature of operating online competitive events, and whether any particular adjustment amounts to non-supply, a failure to supply, a denial of a consumer guarantee or a major failure under the Australian Consumer Law is determined under Applicable Law on the facts. Where a material paid benefit is withdrawn or an event cannot be supplied on the agreed basis, the applicable remedy under sections 23.1, 23.3, 23.6, 24, 25 and 54 (including the Australian Consumer Law) applies on its own terms; operational changes are not broadly declared to be non-remedial.

4.1B Trial and withdrawal of features. Without limiting section 4.1A, a feature may be released on a trial basis — including as a limited release, by region, by tier, by event, by Account cohort or for a limited time — and may be modified or withdrawn at the end of, or at any time during, the trial. Access to a feature during a trial does not entitle the User to continued access to that feature, to a substitute feature, to monetary compensation on withdrawal, or to any vested or accrued right in the feature. Where a withdrawn feature is one for which the User paid a separate fee (other than a subscription pass already enjoyed), Checkmate Live may, at its election, offer a pro-rata credit, a replacement entitlement or a refund; non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54) are preserved.

4.1C Non-tournament features are bonus entitlements aligned to your pass. Any feature, benefit or content on the Platform that is not part of the core tournament function (section 4.1A) is provided as a bonus entitlement aligned with your current Account tier and pass — Rookie, Arcade Pass, Pro Pass, Echess Pass, Battle Pass and any other pass or tier offered from time to time — and as part of the Alpha-stage Platform offered to that tier from time to time. A bonus entitlement:

(a) is provided as an enhancement aligned with your pass at the time of access, and (unless separately purchased) is not itself a separately-purchased item;

(b) supplements the core tournament function that is the substance of your consideration for the pass at your tier (section 4.1A), rather than being an independently priced item, but a bonus entitlement that a User has in fact paid for as a separately-priced item is identified accurately as that paid item and is not, on that ground alone, categorised as gratuitous;

(c) may differ in scope, content, availability, look-and-feel and value from the bonus entitlements available at any other time, in any other region, on any other tier, or to any other Account cohort, whether before, during or after your period of access;

(d) may be introduced, trialled, modified, expanded, contracted, suspended, deprecated, replaced, removed or withdrawn under sections 4.1A and 4.1B, and you have no separable refund, substitution, replacement, credit or compensation right in respect of an individual bonus entitlement; and

(e) does not, on its own, give rise to a vested or accrued right, a separable subject of the pass-purchase contract, a separately enforceable promise, or a separable head of claim under these Terms or Applicable Law.

For the avoidance of doubt, items, currency, cosmetics, drops, content, leaderboards, social, trade, squad and store features that are made available as a benefit of a pass (and not as a separately-purchased item) are bonus entitlements within this section. Separately-purchased Crowns balances and server-native items under section 26B.1 are governed by their own provisions and are not bonus entitlements within this section. Non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54) are preserved.

4.1D Platform Games and Game-Specific Terms. The Platform is presently a chess and chess-derived competitive Platform. Checkmate Live may, from time to time, introduce additional Games (as defined in section 3.1) — including additional sports, formats, titles, Gameplay Options or competitive products — on the Platform. Where a Game has variations in rules, format, scoring, prize structure, supervision regime, federation affiliation, age classification or other Game-specific operational matters, those variations are set out in Game-Specific Terms (including the Tournament Rules for that Game, a Game-specific addendum, a Game-specific module of the Fair Play Policy, or a supplemental document), which are incorporated under section 2 and operate together with these Terms.

All Platform-wide legal, integrity, monitoring, anti-cheat, Platform Integrity System, SecOps, Fair Play, sanctions, suspension, termination, recovery, forfeiture, indemnification, reporting, Schedule A and dispute-resolution protections in these Terms apply at the Platform level across all Games, irrespective of the Game played, including (without limitation) Unauthorised Access (section 14A), Cyberattack, telemetry-consent (section 14.2A), matchmaking and integrity-based pool segmentation (sections 11.1C and 11.1D), RAMP (section 50A), cross-platform enforcement (section 15.9), retrospective reporting (section 14A.5), qualified privilege (sections 33.4 and 33.5), and the recovery and forfeiture framework in Schedule A. A Game-Specific Term does not displace, narrow, override or qualify a Platform-level protection or right of Checkmate Live under these Terms, unless these Terms expressly state otherwise; in the event of a conflict between a Game-Specific Term and these Terms, these Terms prevail (see section 2.3).

4.2 Reasonable conduct and notice. Checkmate Live will act reasonably when exercising any discretion under this section and will give advance notice of material changes where practicable.

4.3 Test-phase resets and data wipes. During a testing phase, Checkmate Live may reset game progression, wipe inventories, or adjust Credit or Crown balances to facilitate development. Where a structural wipe occurs, Crowns that you purchased will be restored to your Account wallet. Resets and wipes apply prospectively.

4.4 Effect of disclosure. The Alpha and Test Software state of the Platform is disclosed to you before and at the time of use. This disclosure is relevant to what amounts to acceptable quality and reasonable expectations for the Platform. Nothing in this section excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee or other right that cannot lawfully be excluded (see section 54).

5.1 By accessing or using the Platform you affirm that you meet the age requirements in section 7, that you have read and agree to these Terms and the incorporated documents, and that you understand the Platform operates an evolving competitive-integrity environment. Your acceptance is to the version of these Terms and each incorporated document in force at the time of your acceptance or use.

5.2 Evolving integrity environment. Conduct that is not detected at the time it occurs may be detected and enforced later, and improved detection methods may be applied to historical play. Continued access to the Platform is not a clearance of, or an endorsement of, your past conduct.

5.3 Version control. These Terms are Version 2.0. We may update them with reasonable notice for material changes (see section 46). Continued use after an update takes effect is acceptance of the updated Terms. Prior versions are retained for audit and regulatory purposes.

5A.1 Limited, revocable licence to render and execute. Subject to your acceptance of these Terms and your continuing compliance with them, the Designated Operator, as the authorised Platform operator, grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence to render and execute the user-facing Platform code — including its client-side scripts, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, WebAssembly and any compiled application assets — inside a standard, unmodified web browser or an expressly authorised Checkmate Live client application, solely for personal, legitimate gameplay and other use expressly permitted by these Terms. All other use is prohibited. The Platform incorporates proprietary and licensed technology belonging to VADR Media and other applicable owners or licensors. It is licensed, not sold, and no right to source code, server software, backend systems, non-public APIs, security systems or integrity methods is granted to you.

5A.2 Structural prohibitions. You must not, and must not attempt or permit or instruct any third party to:

(a) Code alteration — decompile, reverse-engineer, disassemble, decrypt, slice, repackage or otherwise derive the source, logic or structure of any client-side JavaScript, asset bundle, WebAssembly module or compiled application asset of the Platform;

(b) Structural tampering — inject, overlay, append, mutate or force custom styles, HTML elements, scripts, hooks, observers, middleware, service workers or instrumentation into the Platform's DOM, browser runtime, network layer or execution environment; and

(c) Derivative works, scraping and AI training — create derivative works of the Platform's interface or telemetry; or scrape, harvest or copy its layout, telemetry, schemas, content or code for the purpose of training, fine-tuning or providing training data to machine-learning models, artificial-intelligence systems, retrieval-augmented-generation agents, automated calculation models or competitive imitations.

5A.3 Automatic revocation and Unauthorised Access loop. Any breach of this section: (a) automatically and immediately revokes the licence granted under section 5A.1, without need for further notice; (b) may infringe the intellectual property of VADR Media or another applicable owner or licensor; and (c) constitutes Unauthorised Access under sections 3.1 and 14A, with all enforcement, attribution, countermeasure and reporting consequences of those sections applying.

6.1 Access depends on the laws and restrictions applicable to the relevant User, operator, service, event and transaction, including applicable sanctions and export controls. Payment and verification providers may impose additional service restrictions. We may restrict the affected service where providing it would be unlawful or a required provider cannot support it, and will give a reason and assistance where lawful and practicable.

6.2 Your identity-document issuing country, nationality, country of residence, current location, sporting federation and payment destination may differ. These facts are assessed separately for their respective purposes, and a legitimate difference between them is not, by itself, false information, misrepresentation or failed identity verification. Where a User asks to correct a country-connected fact — country of residence, nationality, or sporting-federation country — Checkmate Live requires verification of the specific fact being changed, and does not require verification of an unrelated fact as a condition of that correction. A FIDE or federation record is updated only where the sporting record or event eligibility requires it.

6.3 Federation affiliation, including FIDE or ACF affiliation, does not override applicable law or payment restrictions. Nationality or federation alone is not a representation that every service is available or prohibited. Event-specific sporting restrictions and legal/service restrictions are assessed separately.

6.4 Sanctions, restricted persons and restricted transactions. You represent, warrant and undertake that:

(a) you are not listed on, owned or controlled by, acting for, acting at the direction of, or acting on behalf of any person, entity, body, government agency, organisation or group that is subject to sanctions, asset-freeze, denied-party, counter-terrorism, export-control, defence-trade, anti-money-laundering or similar restrictions under any sanctions regime or law applicable to Checkmate Live, a CML Group Company, a Designated Operator, a payment provider, payout provider, identity provider, infrastructure provider, federation, sponsor, broadcaster, tournament organiser, or any director, officer or controller of any of them;

(b) you are not using the Platform, entering an event, making or receiving a payment, claiming a prize, receiving a payout, using an External Service, or participating in a transaction in a way that would cause Checkmate Live, a CML Group Company, a Designated Operator, a payment provider, payout provider, identity provider, infrastructure provider, federation, sponsor, broadcaster, tournament organiser, or any director, officer or controller of any of them to breach, or reasonably risk breaching, sanctions, asset-freeze, denied-party, counter-terrorism, export-control, defence-trade, anti-money-laundering, proceeds-of-crime or similar law in Australia, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United Nations or any other jurisdiction that applies to the relevant service, event, operator, provider, transaction or person;

(c) you are not located in, ordinarily resident in, incorporated in, established in, using the Platform from, or transacting through a country, territory, region, bank, payment instrument, wallet, provider, network, intermediary or other channel where the relevant service, event, payment, payout, prize, broadcast, identity check, External Service or transaction is prohibited, unsupported, restricted or unavailable under Applicable Law, provider rules, sanctions controls, federation rules, event rules, risk controls or Checkmate Live's published jurisdictional restrictions;

(d) you will not use the Platform on behalf of, for the benefit of, to make available funds or economic resources to, or to provide services to, any person, entity, jurisdiction, government agency, organisation or group that is subject to sanctions, asset-freeze, denied-party, counter-terrorism, export-control, defence-trade, anti-money-laundering or similar restrictions; and

(e) you will promptly notify Checkmate Live if any representation in this section ceases to be accurate, or if any payment, payout, prize, federation participation, event participation, account activity or use of the Platform becomes affected by sanctions, denied-party, export-control, payment-provider, payout-provider, federation, event, bank, tax, AML/CTF or similar restrictions.

For clarity, a User's nationality, residence, identity-document country, FIDE or federation affiliation, or participation from any particular country or territory (including, without limitation, any country whose national chess federation is a member of the Asian Chess Federation, FIDE or another chess federation recognised by Checkmate Live) does not, by itself, automatically prevent chess-only participation on the Platform where the relevant event rules permit participation and the relevant sanctions, provider, payment, payout, identity, federation, jurisdiction and risk controls are satisfied. Checkmate Live may, however, restrict, delay, hold, refuse or condition any Account feature, event entry, prize, payout, payment, broadcast, identity check, External Service or other Platform service where required or reasonably appropriate to avoid a breach or risk of breach of any sanctions, export-control, AML/CTF, provider, federation, event or jurisdictional requirement applicable to Checkmate Live, a CML Group Company, a Designated Operator, a provider, a partner, or any director, officer or controller of any of them.

A breach of this section is a material breach. Checkmate Live may take immediate action under sections 39 and 40, including suspension or termination without prior notice, and may hold, delay, block, reverse, cancel, restrict or refuse any payment, payout, prize, reward, event entry, feature, benefit or transaction where required or reasonably appropriate for sanctions, AML/CTF, export-control, provider, federation, event, legal or risk-control reasons. Non-excludable rights under section 54 and any mandatory Applicable Law are preserved.

6.4A Country and federation connections. This section is to be read with sections 6.2 and 6.3. Country, nationality, residence, current location, sporting federation, payment destination and payout destination are assessed separately. A country, nationality, residence or federation connection is not, by itself, a sanctions breach unless the relevant law, provider rule, federation rule, event rule, payment rule, payout rule or risk control makes the relevant service, event, transaction, prize, payout or feature unavailable.

7.1 Ordinary Accounts: 18+; staged commencement. You must be at least 18 to create or use an ordinary Account from the commencement applicable to you in the published Transition Notice. A higher applicable legal minimum also applies. Pro Pass and Echess Pass are restricted to Users aged 18 and over. The change to new ordinary registrations takes effect on the date confirmed in the controlling Transition Notice for new ordinary registrations. Existing Accounts receive the transition arrangements in sections 7.5 and 7.5A. Publication of these Terms is a statement of the contractual requirement and does not represent that the full technical age-gating or passkey system is already deployed. These are CML access rules, not a claim that every Game is officially classified R18+. Age Assurance and Age Verification (see section 3 definition), and separately identity verification, are applied at separate stages: (i) at Account creation — Age Assurance is applied; (ii) at purchase of a Pro Pass or an Arcade Pass under section 9.1 — Age Assurance is required (Age Verification and identity verification are not required at this stage by reason of the purchase alone); (iii) at activation of an Echess Pass — Age Verification and identity verification are required under sections 10.1 and 10.1A (including verified matching of a FIDE ID or partnered-federation identifier); (iv) at competitive entry into a prize-eligible, federation-affiliated or KYC-gated event — the checks required for that event under sections 10.1 and 19 apply; and (v) at payout of any prize — the payout checks in section 10.3 apply. Checkmate Live may additionally require a proportionate purpose-, event- or risk-triggered check, or a repeat check, before activation, entry, purchase or payout, as provided in section 10.1.

7.1A Junior onboarding paused. Junior onboarding is currently paused. New admission of under-18 users to the Platform (including any Federation Junior Account or similar junior pathway) is not available. No process exists by which guardian consent, federation enrolment, payment or any other step will result in the creation of a new under-18 Account while this pause is in effect. An ordinary 15–17 Account created before this pause commenced is not, of itself, a junior Account; the treatment of such existing under-18 Accounts is addressed in section 7.5A and by any separately notified lawful transition or safeguarding measures. No commitment is made in these Terms as to when, whether or on what terms a junior pathway may in future be introduced; any such pathway would be separately introduced, disclosed and consented to before it operated. Nothing in this section 7.1A reduces the age-misrepresentation consequences in section 7.4 or the eligibility restrictions in sections 7.1 and 7.2.

7.2 Current registration and age checks. The ordinary registration form currently collects the date of birth you enter. This is a declaration, not independent proof of age. Enter your own accurate date of birth. Acceptance of the form, email verification, a CAPTCHA, a payment, a FIDE ID or a passkey does not establish that you have completed Age Assurance or Age Verification or been approved for every feature. We may require proportionate additional checks before providing an age-restricted service. A service requiring additional assurance must not be used until the required check is completed. This provision does not reduce any verification or safeguarding obligation imposed on Checkmate Live by law.

7.2A Guardian consent — junior admission paused. While junior onboarding is paused under section 7.1A, guardian consent does not, by itself, admit an under-18 user to the Platform. Registration, a purchase, payment-card use or a verification of the player's identity is not, by itself, parental or guardian consent, and none of those steps result in the creation of a new under-18 Account during the pause. For any existing under-18 Account within scope of section 7.5A where a guardian-consent record is required for a lawful transition or safeguarding step, the required consent must be obtained through the stated guardian process and record the guardian's authority, its scope and when it was given. Consent may be withdrawn through support; withdrawal restricts the relevant access but does not retrospectively erase properly kept evidence or override applicable retention obligations. Guardian consent does not unlock an adult-only product and does not override the pause in section 7.1A.

7.3 Child safety. Where a junior pathway is opened, its published Age Policy must explain the safeguards, permitted communications, supervision, privacy and complaints process. A parent or guardian cannot authorise a child to play through an adult's Account.

7.4 Predatory conduct. Grooming, exploitation, coercion, inappropriate contact, solicitation of a minor's personal information, and recruiting a minor into cheating or match-fixing are prohibited. Credible reports receive priority safeguarding review and may be referred to appropriate authorities as required or permitted by law. Confidentiality provisions do not prevent seeking help or reporting harm.

7.5 Transition to enforced Age Assurance. The broader Age Assurance and mandatory-passkey system commences on the date confirmed in the controlling Transition Notice. Any published implementation window is an implementation estimate only, not an automatic commencement date or a representation that the controls already operate; the contractual requirement in these Terms is not itself a representation that the underlying technical control is deployed. The Transition Notice will identify the actual dates and steps for affected Users. We will notify affected users of the Age Assurance requirements, commencement date, completion period and available support before the new controls apply, except where an earlier restriction is reasonably necessary for safety or legal compliance. Users, including existing users, may be required to complete Age Assurance again where evidence is insufficient, expired or reasonably disputed. Pending completion, affected access may be restricted. A service can remain unavailable if the necessary check cannot be completed; available review and alternative verification methods will be explained without promising an unimplemented method.

7.5A Existing accounts. Raising the new-registration minimum does not itself complete the transition of existing 15–17 Accounts or convert them into approved junior Accounts. Their access remains subject to applicable feature restrictions and any separately notified lawful transition or safeguarding measures. A person who joined under earlier published age rules is not treated as having misrepresented age merely because the new minimum or process changes. We will explain available transition, restriction, closure and support steps. We will address prepaid services and accrued entitlements under the applicable contract and mandatory consumer law. The change does not automatically forfeit balances, earned prizes or unused paid benefits.

7.5B General approach to age-transition impacts. If the transition to the 18+ minimum affects a paid entitlement you currently hold, contact support. We will consider each case on its merits under the applicable terms, the ToS in force at the time you purchased the entitlement, and Australian Consumer Law where it applies. We do not undertake to provide a specific refund, credit or replacement outside those requirements.

7.6 Incorrect information and review. If we reasonably believe a user is below the applicable age or has provided incorrect information, we may restrict access while checking and take proportionate action after review. Deliberate misrepresentation may breach these Terms, but an inconclusive check, provider outage, inability to use one method or a genuine correction is not by itself proof of fraud. You or your guardian may contact support to request correction or review. Non-excludable rights are preserved.

8.1 Registration. Provide accurate, complete and current information, including your own date of birth, contact details and actual country of residence. An age or country selected in the registration form is self-declared until the relevant check establishes otherwise. Verified fields and eligibility decisions must not be falsified. If you need to correct an age, identity, residence or federation detail, contact support; a technical ability to edit a field does not turn it into verified evidence or permission to bypass restrictions.

8.2 Country information. Your declared residence must describe where you actually reside. Document issuing country, nationality, sporting federation and current location are separate facts and need not match; a legitimate difference between them, on its own, does not establish misrepresentation. We may consider available network-location and other relevant security signals to assess access, but a shared IP address, network change or country difference alone does not prove dishonesty. Material uncertainty may require review of the affected service. A correction to a specific country-connected field requires verification of that specific field only, in line with section 6.2.

8.3 One Account per person. You may hold only one Account. Multi-accounting is prohibited and may result in termination of all linked Accounts, forfeiture of associated balances and items, a permanent ban, and referral for fraud where applicable. Detailed account rules are set out in the Account Policy.

8.3A Multi-account network attribution. Penalties under these Terms are imposed on persons, not accounts. Where we determine on reasonable grounds that two or more accounts are operated by, or for the benefit of, the same person or coordinated group of persons — including by reference to technical, behavioural, financial and registration signals of the categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1 — penalties imposed on one account may be applied to all such linked accounts, and a User on a restricted, suspended or banned status who creates or uses an alternate account is in breach of these Terms in respect of that alternate account. Operating, directing or facilitating a network of multiple Accounts — whether registered by you directly, by proxies, by automated tools, or by third parties acting at your direction — is a serious breach. Where multiple Accounts share signals of the categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1, we may attribute the entire network to a single operator and treat all activity across the network as the conduct of that operator for enforcement purposes. The operator of a multi-account network is responsible for all conduct across every Account in the network, including tournament entries, prize claims, Fair Play violations and breaches of these Terms.

8.4 Account security. You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure and for all activity on your Account. You must enable available security measures and report any unauthorised access immediately.

8.4A Sign-in and mandatory passkey transition. During the interim period, use the sign-in methods actually available for your Account and maintain the security measures required by the service. Checkmate Live is moving to mandatory passkeys for human Accounts. We will notify you when enrolment is available, when the requirement applies to your Account and how to obtain help. From that commencement date, enrolment and successful passkey authentication are required for account activation and sign-in; passwords, social-provider login, email links, SMS and one-time codes do not substitute for the passkey. Recovery must restore a passkey before ordinary Account access resumes. Existing users are included in the transition. A passkey secures access; it does not, of itself, complete Age Assurance, Age Verification, identity verification or event-eligibility checks. No wording in this clause represents that mandatory passkey enforcement is already deployed.

8.5 No sharing, transfer or acquisition. You must not share, lend, sell or transfer your Account, and you must not purchase, acquire or accept the transfer of another person's Account. Both the transferor and the transferee of an Account are subject to permanent ban. You may not permit, facilitate or benefit from another person playing on your Account, playing under your identity, or using your rating, ranking or competitive standing, whether or not credentials are shared. We may use behavioural signals, device fingerprinting and pattern analysis to detect account transfer, and may treat material behavioural or contextual changes of the categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1, as indicators of unauthorised transfer. We may use the device, network and session security information described in the Privacy and Compliance Policy where those controls are deployed. Such signals support review and are not conclusive identity evidence; shared devices, changing addresses and provider limitations must be considered. We will explain material changes in collection or use as required by law.

8.6 Ban evasion. A banned User must not create or use another Account, access the Platform by any means, or have another person access the Platform on their behalf. Post-ban access is unauthorised access (see section 14A), may constitute a criminal offence and may be referred to law enforcement. We may investigate and act on Accounts linked by shared technical, payment or behavioural markers of the categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1.

8.6A Facilitating a banned User. Creating, providing or managing an Account for a banned User, allowing a banned User to play on your Account, or participating in events on a banned User's behalf, is prohibited and constitutes collusion. Both the banned User and the person facilitating access may face a permanent ban and forfeiture of prizes.

8.7 Username policy. We may modify a username or alias that does not comply with our published naming rules, including names that infringe third-party rights, impersonate any person, mimic Checkmate Live, FIDE, the Asian Chess Federation or a partner, or contain offensive content. Attempts to circumvent the naming rules are prohibited.

8.8 Household and shared devices. Each member of a household must maintain their own Account. Accounts accessed from a shared device or network are subject to enhanced monitoring. The following are prohibited: (a) multiple members of a household using a single Account; (b) creating Accounts for household members who do not genuinely play; and (c) using a household member's Account after your own Account has been restricted or terminated.

8.9 Household trading and competition restrictions. Household Accounts must not: (a) trade items with each other through Trade Mode; (b) be deliberately matched against each other in rated or prize-eligible games; or (c) be used to transfer items, currency, competitive advantages or value of any kind between household members. A pattern of value transfer between household Accounts is treated as multi-account manipulation, and section 15.8 (cluster enforcement) applies. Patterns of household-account matchings, whether or not individually deliberate, may be reviewed for value-transfer effect, rating distortion or coordinated outcome under section 14.1 (substance over form), and the same enforcement consequences apply.

8.10 Account dormancy and termination for inactivity. An Account that has not been accessed by the User, and has shown no User-initiated activity, for a continuous period of 24 months — or any other period published by Checkmate Live in the Account Policy from time to time — may be designated as dormant. Checkmate Live may, on reasonable notice to the registered email address (or by other reasonable means where the email address is not deliverable): (a) restrict, suspend or terminate a dormant Account; (b) archive the Account's records in accordance with the Privacy and Compliance Policy and the Account Deletion Policy; and (c) treat Crowns, Credits, items and other balances on a dormant Account in accordance with the Account Policy and section 26.2. Non-excludable rights under section 54 are preserved.

9.1 Account tiers. The Platform offers the following Account tiers and passes, each with its own features and conditions, as further described in the Account Policy: Rookie (free access; core features; no KYC required); Arcade Pass (subscription; enhanced casual features and Arcade Mode); Pro Pass (subscription; 18+; competitive tournaments with prizes and enhanced integrity monitoring; Age Assurance under section 7.2 required for purchase; identity verification required at prize withdrawal under section 10.3); Echess Pass (subscription; 18+; federation-affiliated and rated events, real-name use and Arbiter Mode; purchase requires a FIDE ID or a membership identifier issued by a partnered federation, and identity verification under section 10.1A to prove that identifier is yours, before the pass activates — a pending verification holds activation and does not fail the purchase; identity verification at prize withdrawal under section 10.3); and Federation Junior Account (paused — new junior admission is not currently available; see section 7.1A). No identity-document verification is required to purchase a Pro Pass or an Arcade Pass. Tier features, benefits and pricing may change during Alpha Stage with reasonable notice.

9.2 Subscriptions. Paid passes — including the Pro Pass, available on a monthly or annual cycle — renew on the published cycle until cancelled, are non-transferable, and are non-refundable except as required by Applicable Law (see section 54). You authorise Checkmate Live, and our payment processor, to charge your nominated payment method on each renewal cycle, at the price notified to you before the renewal takes effect, until you cancel. Price changes apply to a future renewal only, and Checkmate Live will give you reasonable advance notice of a price change and a cancellation route before that change takes effect; a renewal charge that has not been notified to you as required is not authorised by this section. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period; you may cancel through the in-Platform account management flow, through Platform support, or through any other cancellation route Checkmate Live has published. Where a charge attempt fails (for example, due to insufficient funds, an expired card or a declined authorisation), Checkmate Live or its payment processor may re-attempt the charge, up to a reasonable number of retries within a defined window of not more than 90 days; after that, the subscription may be suspended or terminated. Retries may recover only amounts already accrued for a period the User has retained the subscription; a retry does not create a new charge for a period after cancellation has taken effect, and where a retry would create a charge in respect of a period after effective cancellation, that charge is not authorised. Amounts already accrued and payable up to the effective date of cancellation may still be collected. Your payment-service provider may also apply a temporary pre-authorisation or card-verification charge that is reversed in accordance with payment-network rules; such a charge is not collected by Checkmate Live.

9.2A Pre-paid and partner-provisioned subscriptions. A subscription pass may be provisioned on a pre-paid or partner basis, including by redemption of a code or access credential. Such a subscription is a Platform service provided by Checkmate Live subject to these Terms; any code or access credential is an access credential only and is not a financial product. Pre-paid and partner-provisioned subscriptions are provided on an "as available" basis, are non-transferable, and any amount paid to a third-party provider is not refundable by Checkmate Live.

9.2B Account-standing verification for partner programs. Checkmate Live may, on request, confirm an Account's good-standing or eligibility status to a partner program operator, limited to eligibility information. Account-standing verification is a Platform information service, not a financial service.

9.3 Loyalty and participation rewards. Where a tier includes loyalty drops or participation rewards, those rewards are earned through genuine gameplay and active participation — they are not passively received and do not accrue during periods of inactivity — are server-native items subject to section 26B.1, may be adjusted or discontinued under section 26B.4A, and do not create any expectation of financial return.

9.4 Battle Pass. A Battle Pass is an optional, seasonal feature, and Battle Pass redemption applies to one season only. A Battle Pass issued during Alpha Stage must be redeemed within three months of the relevant feature becoming publicly available. Battle Passes and promotional codes are non-exchangeable for cash, non-transferable, and valid only within the Platform.

10.1 Purpose-specific checks. Pro Pass and Echess Pass currently require KYC after login and are restricted to Users aged 18 and over. This is an existing product requirement, not a future registration control. Account authentication, Age Assurance, Age Verification, identity verification, federation matching, event eligibility and payment-recipient verification are separate checks. We may require a check proportionate to the relevant service or risk before activation, entry, purchase or payout. A completed check is valid only for its stated purpose, operator, assurance and validity period. We do not represent that every registration currently undergoes independent Age Verification or identity verification. During the transition, an existing satisfactory verification may be reused where its assurance, purpose, operator and validity meet the new requirement. A new or additional check may be required where those conditions are unmet or a justified review is needed; repeat KYC is not automatic for every verified User.

10.1A FIDE and federation matching. Claim only an identifier that belongs to you. Where an event or pass requires a verified FIDE or federation link, activation requires satisfactory matching using available reliable information. A federation country may legitimately differ from document nationality or residence, and that difference alone does not establish misrepresentation. Unavailable birth-date data is not treated as a confirmed match. Ambiguity or duplicate claims may require additional evidence or review. A pending match does not automatically block unrelated services for which you remain eligible. A FIDE or federation record is updated only where the sporting record or event eligibility requires it (see section 6.2).

10.2 Review and accessibility. We will explain the purpose of a requested check, the information needed, relevant operator/provider, available methods and reasonable completion period. If a method is inconclusive or unavailable, you may request assistance or another supported method. We may withhold the affected service where required assurance is unmet, but refusal, inability or a provider error is not by itself a finding of cheating or fraud. Disputes may be raised through support and the applicable review process.

10.3 Prizes and payout. Permission to play, eligibility to win a prize, confirmation of an award and approval for payout are separate decisions. Payout may require current recipient identity, payment-account ownership, sanctions/provider checks and tax information where applicable. Entry checks do not guarantee payout approval, and separate payout checks do not excuse missing pre-entry checks. The entity responsible for the prize and any provider or separate contracting entity for payout must be identified to you before the relevant commitment.

10.4 Privacy and evidence. Before collecting verification information, we will provide the applicable privacy information, including purposes, responsible entities, providers/recipients, relevant transfer arrangements and retention. We will limit collection and access to what is reasonably necessary and permitted by law. The applicable provider notice must explain any document, selfie or biometric processing. We do not promise a particular storage location, on-device processing or immediate deletion unless those arrangements are in fact in place. Consent is obtained separately where required; accepting these Terms is not blanket consent to every processing purpose.

10.5 Reasonable reliance. Checkmate Live may reasonably rely on the truth, accuracy and currency of the information you provide at registration and verification — including identity, age, parental-consent status, country of residence, country of conduct, FIDE ID, federation membership, sanctions-screening declarations, payment-method ownership, and Tax File Number or equivalent. Where information you provide is false, misleading, materially out of date or fraudulent, Checkmate Live is not liable for any consequence flowing from reasonable reliance on it, and may exercise its rights under sections 8, 10, 13.4A, 15, 39 and Schedule A retrospectively as if the corrected information had been available at registration. Non-excludable rights under section 54 are preserved.

10.6 Operator-specific checks. A check completed for CML AU does not automatically satisfy a different operator, event or payment provider. Before a UAE or other operator requires new information or reuse of a result, its identity, purpose, applicable terms and relevant privacy arrangements will be explained. Sharing is limited to what is lawful, necessary and permitted by the relevant arrangements. Shared infrastructure or login alone does not permit unrestricted transfer of identity evidence.

11.1 Fair play and the protection of honest players is a core principle of the Platform. You must comply with these Terms, the FairPlay Policy, the Community Code of Conduct and the rules of each event you enter. Without limiting the general prohibition in this section, Fair Play violations include attempts to manipulate the game, to reveal information that should not be known, or to take automated actions with superhuman speed or accuracy.

11.1A Best-effort play. In any casual or competitive format — including rated and ranked matches, tournaments, Arcade Mode and casual or unranked play against human opponents or against Platform matchmaking, training, scrim or AI opponents — you must play to your genuine ability. Deliberate underperformance, intentional losses, sandbagging or other manipulation of results or ratings is a violation and may result in rating adjustment, invalidation of results, suspension or termination. Cheating, automation, engine assistance, agentic play, Unauthorised Assistance or other manipulation directed against Platform matchmaking bots, AI opponents, training partners or any other system-provided opponent is captured by, and is a violation of, these Terms in the same way as the equivalent conduct directed against a human opponent; the absence of a human opponent in the relevant match does not excuse, mitigate or exempt the conduct.

11.1B Fair Play warranty. By entering any rated, ranked or prize-eligible match or tournament, you represent and warrant that all moves, strategies and actions you take are solely the product of your own real-time intellectual effort. The use of any external assistance is strictly prohibited, including chess engines, opening or endgame databases, automated bots, move-evaluation tools, multi-accounting, rating manipulation, smurfing, boosting, and assistance from any other person.

11.1C Matchmaking and AI-opponent disclosure (casual play only). In casual, unrated and non-prize-bearing play only — and not in any tournament, qualifier, federation event, Echess or FIDE-rated event, rated or ranked match, supervised event, or other prize-eligible or competitively-rated format — Checkmate Live's casual matchmaking may pair you with a Platform-operated AI, training or matchmaking bot opponent in place of a human opponent. The operational circumstances in which a bot opponent may be served are determined by Checkmate Live and are confidential (see sections 15.1, 17A.3 and 17A.4), and include circumstances in which the available human pool is insufficient to support an effective casual match or where Checkmate Live otherwise determines bot pairing operationally appropriate.

A bot opponent in casual play is governed by the following:

(a) Identification of bot opponents; constructive disclosure. Checkmate Live may, but is not required to, identify a Platform-operated bot opponent in casual play through a visual indicator, opponent profile designation, post-match summary or other in-product cue. During Alpha Stage in particular, in-product bot identification may be partial, intermittent or absent; in those circumstances, the disclosure of bot pairing in this section 11.1C operates as your notice that any casual opponent may be a Platform-operated bot, and you acknowledge and agree that, in casual play, your opponent may be a bot whether or not an in-product identifier is shown at the time of play or in any subsequent record. A bot opponent may include, exhibit or simulate humanlike characteristics. Checkmate Live's right to serve Platform-operated bots without prior notice, disclosure or overt labelling — including under section 14A.4 (silent SecOps and integrity countermeasures) — is preserved without limitation; the silent-countermeasure shield in section 35.4 and the non-tipping carve-outs in sections 14A.5(c) and 50A.3 apply.

(b) Historical game logging. A match played against a Platform-operated bot may be recorded and displayed within your client-facing game history as part of your overall play history, including under the bot's assigned name, country, rating and profile imagery as those appeared at the time of play. Checkmate Live determines how those historical records are formatted, categorised or designated in the Platform UI and may, but is not required to, label or mark a historical opponent as a bot; an opponent that appeared without bot identification at the time of play may continue to appear without bot identification in your historical records, leaderboards extracts, head-to-head views, top-victories or toughest-losses panels and similar derived views. Checkmate Live is not required to retroactively unmask, alter, delete or disclose the automated nature of an opponent identifier within historical logs, and is not required to do so even after the operational, SecOps or integrity reason for non-disclosure has ceased.

(c) Exclusion from standings. A bot opponent is not represented on Platform leaderboards, ladders, ratings, qualifier seedings, prize-eligible standings or FIDE-rated standings as a competitor — bots do not occupy ranked positions, do not earn prize entitlements, and do not affect FIDE-rated or federation-rated standings.

(d) Progression and rewards. Play against a bot opponent may contribute to casual gameplay progression, item drops, pass progression, casual experience and similar reward systems as disclosed in the published reward and progression rules from time to time, subject to Checkmate Live's velocity limits, anti-farming caps and behavioural-integrity checks.

(e) Fair Play applies. Play against a bot opponent is subject to section 11.1A — cheating, automation, engine assistance, agentic play, Unauthorised Assistance or other manipulation directed against a bot opponent is a violation of these Terms in the same way as the equivalent conduct directed against a human opponent.

(f) Tournaments use human-only pools. For the avoidance of doubt, tournaments, qualifiers, federation events, Echess, FIDE-rated events, rated and ranked matches, supervised events and other prize-eligible competitive formats are conducted in human-only matchmaking pools and are not subject to bot pairing under this section.

(g) Infrastructure impersonation and name-masking prohibited. You must not register, alter or use any account name, username, clan tag, profile or visual identifier that copies, closely resembles, mimics or visually masks as a Platform-operated bot, Platform system or infrastructure account, or Checkmate Live administrative, arbiter, integrity, support or staff account — including by deliberate replication of bot naming conventions, by using lookalike characters, homoglyphs or typographical variations, or by other means designed to deceive other Users or evade detection. Where Checkmate Live identifies an Account engaging in infrastructure impersonation or name-masking under this section, Checkmate Live may restrict, lock, sanitise, reset or terminate the offending Account and any cluster-attributed Account (see section 8.3A) immediately and without prior warning, notwithstanding any general notice provision in these Terms. An affected User may appeal under section 16, which is the contractual review pathway for action under this section; non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54) are preserved. To the maximum extent permitted by law and subject to section 54, Checkmate Live is not liable for the loss, forfeiture or removal of digital items, currency, progression, ratings or other virtual rewards arising from action taken under this section.

11.1D Integrity-based matchmaking-pool segmentation (casual play only). Checkmate Live may route or restrict a matchmaking pool for security, integrity, abuse-protection or player-safety purposes, in casual play only. The specific routing mechanics are confidential (see section 15.1). A User affected by a matchmaking-routing decision may seek review under section 16 and the Automated Decision-Making Disclosure.

Tournaments, qualifiers, federation events, Echess, FIDE-rated events, rated and ranked matches, supervised events and other prize-eligible competitive formats are not subject to integrity-based matchmaking-pool routing under this section; integrity action affecting an Account's eligibility to enter a tournament, qualifier or rated event is taken under sections 15.7 (integrity-risk authority), 10.2 (integrity-triggered verification), 13.4A (where applicable) and the suspension and termination provisions, and is notified in accordance with those sections (subject to the silent-countermeasure exceptions in sections 14A.4, 14A.5(c), 35.4 and 50A.3).

Scope of effect. Routing under this section applies only in casual play and does not prevent a User from competing, playing rated or ranked matches, entering tournaments, qualifiers, FIDE-rated events, federation events or prize-eligible competitive formats. It is a cooldown, preventive or monitoring measure and is not a final adverse determination of Fair Play, integrity status, rights or eligibility. Where required by Applicable Law, Checkmate Live will, on a verified request from the affected User, provide information about the existence of automated processing under the Platform Integrity Systems and a reasonable opportunity for the User to express the User's view and to obtain human review of any continuing material adverse effect, subject to the confidentiality of the Platform Integrity Systems under section 15.1.

In casual play, routing under this section, or any other integrity-based casual-pool segmentation, is a silent Fair Play or SecOps countermeasure under section 14A.4 and is not required to be disclosed to, or notified to, the affected User at the time of routing or while the routing is in effect.

11.2 Independent gameplay. You must make all gameplay decisions independently. The following are prohibited: Unauthorised Assistance (including engines, AI or agentic tools, relays, secondary devices and overlays); agentic play; assistance from any third party during a game; Match-Fixing, Collusion, Matchmaking Manipulation, Tournament Interference and other pre-arranged outcomes; sandbagging, smurfing and boosting; farming; account sharing and ghost-playing; exploiting software errors, glitches, bugs, latency conditions or vulnerabilities for competitive or pecuniary advantage; stream sniping (viewing, accessing or monitoring an opponent's stream, broadcast or screen share during an active match for competitive advantage); and any other conduct that defeats fair competition. Information obtained from an opponent's broadcast during live play constitutes Unauthorised Assistance.

11.3 Monitoring and escalation — permitted purposes. Monitoring and supervision requirements may be imposed or escalated for event administration, competitive integrity, broadcast production, verification, prize or payout eligibility, or other requirements permitted by these Terms and the applicable event rules. This may occur before or during an event, including following a qualifier, progression to a later stage or an internal operational or integrity decision. Sections 14, 20.3B, 21 and 22 govern applicable capture, notice, consent and use requirements. We need not disclose confidential selection criteria or detection methods.

11.3A Data poisoning and integrity-system manipulation. You must not engage in conduct designed to corrupt, skew, train against or degrade the Platform's integrity, anti-cheat, behavioural-analytics, rating, detection, moderation or telemetry systems — including by:

(a) playing at deliberately distorted strength to skew baseline behavioural or rating data;

(b) coordinating multi-account behaviour to manipulate detection models, behavioural baselines or rating distributions;

(c) submitting deliberately false reports, complaints or appeals to corrupt moderation training or skew enforcement signals;

(d) generating adversarial inputs, edge-case test sequences or model-poisoning attempts against the Platform's classifiers, scoring systems or detection engines;

(e) engaging in mass, automated or coordinated behaviour patterns designed to teach an integrity model false positives, false negatives or new evasion signatures; or

(f) any other conduct intended to interfere with the training, calibration, accuracy, retraining or correction-loop of a Platform integrity system; or

(g) any other conduct, method, technique or pattern — whether known to Checkmate Live at the time of drafting, emerging subsequently, novel, untested or technologically distinct — that has the substance or effect of any of the conduct in paragraphs (a) to (f).

This list is not exhaustive. Section 14.1 (substance over form) applies. Conduct under this section is Tournament Interference (see sections 3.1 and 19.8) and may also be Unauthorised Access under section 14A and conduct within section 14A.1(l) (adversarial intent and informational reconnaissance) and section 17B (anti-benchmarking).

11.4 Self-admitted violations. Admissions are treated in accordance with the Fair Play Policy:

(a) Public admissions. Where you admit in a public forum — including social media, a public Discord communication, a public stream or another public statement — to conduct constituting a Fair Play violation, that admission is conclusive evidence of the admitted conduct for enforcement purposes. Checkmate Live is not required to independently re-prove that conduct. A later retraction, qualification or claim that the conduct was for testing, research, education or another purpose does not, of itself, diminish the admission or provide a defence.

(b) Other voluntary admissions. A voluntary admission made before a ruling may be taken into account on its substance in determining the breach and sanction.

(c) Admissions on appeal. An admission made or considered on appeal may be taken into account on its substance in determining the sanction. It does not automatically cancel a sanction, reopen a concluded matter or extend an appeal deadline.

(d) False or disruptive admissions. An admission made to disrupt, mislead or manipulate an investigation, ruling or integrity system is assessed on its substance and may itself constitute a breach.

(e) Authenticity. A statement shown on reasonable grounds to have been forged, fabricated or misattributed is not treated as your admission. Checkmate Live may assess a genuine authenticity or attribution dispute without disclosing protected information under section 15.1. Mere denial or retraction does not, of itself, establish such a dispute.

12.1 In addition to Fair Play violations, the following conduct is prohibited.

Technical prohibitions: reverse-engineering, decompiling or disassembling the Platform; modifying the Platform, injecting scripts, or creating derivative works; scraping or harvesting Platform data except as permitted by section 12.6; denial-of-service activity or packet manipulation; deploying malware, bots or keyloggers; and abusing APIs or bypassing security controls.

12.1A Environment file and source code probing. Without limiting section 12.1, probing, requesting or attempting to access environment-configuration files (including .env and its variants), source-code repository files (including .git directory contents), server-configuration files, credential files, or any deployment or infrastructure files not intended for public access is specifically prohibited. Such activity is treated as attempted credential harvesting and as Unauthorised Access, regardless of whether any file is successfully retrieved and regardless of the method used. It may be referred to law enforcement and cyber authorities.

12.2 AI, LLM and agentic tools. AI tools, large language models, agentic systems, extensions, overlays and automation that interact with the Platform are prohibited unless accessed through an expressly authorised, published API and within its limits. This includes, without limitation: tools that observe board state; extensions or overlays that read or capture the interface; screen-capture or pixel-reading tools that feed an external AI; script injection, DOM manipulation, browser-instrumentation, browser-automation or headless-browser frameworks of any kind; access through unofficial or reverse-engineered API endpoints; and intermediary tools placed between an AI system and the Platform. The existence of an authorised API for one purpose does not authorise AI or automated access for any other purpose. Prohibited-tool use may be detected through proprietary technical means and may result in immediate sanctions up to permanent ban, prize forfeiture and referral under section 18. Accessibility tools. A screen reader, braille display, magnifier, colour-contrast tool, alternative input device or other accessibility tool that a User genuinely requires and that does not provide move advice, engine assistance, prohibited automation or other competitive assistance is not prohibited by this section 12.2 or by section 11.2, and may be used through the accommodation process published by Checkmate Live. Unauthorised or misused tools remain prohibited, and the accommodation process may require confirmation that a claimed accessibility tool falls within this carve-out.

12.3 Arbiter and staff directions. You must promptly comply with the directions of arbiters, officials and support staff.

12.4 No improper influence of officials and staff. Arbiters, Fair Play staff, integrity monitors and administrative personnel exercise independent judgment. You must not attempt to influence, lobby, pressure, instruct or direct any official or staff member regarding pairings, results, rulings, fair-play decisions or enforcement outcomes. Support and community personnel have no authority over, and do not make, fair-play decisions; any comment they make on a fair-play matter, an investigation or an enforcement decision is operational guidance only, is not official, does not bind Checkmate Live, and may not be relied upon as authoritative (see section 46A). Fair-play matters are handled solely by the Fair Play team through official channels.

12.5 Social and deceptive prohibitions. The following are prohibited: harassment, hate speech, threats and discrimination; doxing; intimidation or harassment of arbiters, moderators or staff; phishing, impersonation and social engineering; payment fraud and abusive chargebacks; repeated cancellation of orders, refunds or pass purchases in a manner inconsistent with bona-fide consumer use and indicative of refund-policy abuse, payment-method cycling or chargeback farming; unlicensed betting on Platform activity; unsolicited mass marketing, spam, chain communications, pyramid or multi-level-marketing recruitment, undisclosed paid promotion and other unsolicited commercial messaging by Users, whether on or off the Platform, directed at other Users, Checkmate Live staff or the public, in connection with the Platform; knowingly or recklessly making false and harmful statements (lawful criticism is not restricted); and coordinated disruption campaigns, including coordinated false reviews or feedback campaigns directed at the Platform.

12.5A Corruption and recruitment of officials and staff. You must not offer, promise, solicit or provide any payment, benefit, favour or inducement to any Checkmate Live employee, contractor, arbiter, moderator, community manager or service provider in order to: obtain confidential information about enforcement methodology, detection systems, integrity thresholds or active investigations; influence a fair-play decision, ruling, tournament administration or enforcement outcome; obtain unauthorised access, privileges, exceptions or preferential treatment; recruit Platform personnel to act against the Platform's interests or disclose proprietary information; or otherwise compromise Platform integrity or the independence of officials. This section extends to third parties or intermediaries acting on your behalf. Attempted corruption is treated with the same seriousness as completed corruption and may be referred to law enforcement.

12.5B Solicitation of leaked or confidential operational information. You must not solicit, receive, use or distribute confidential Checkmate Live operational information — including detection methodology, integrity thresholds, investigation status, the identities of integrity or supervisory personnel, system architecture, and commercial arrangements — that you know, or ought reasonably to know, was disclosed without authorisation by a current or former employee, contractor or service provider. This section does not restrict lawful whistleblowing or disclosures required by law.

12.6 Data scraping and unauthorised collection of user data. You must not scrape, crawl, harvest, aggregate, store, analyse or process user data, account data, gameplay data, tournament data or Platform operational data, except (a) your own Account data through authorised Platform features, or (b) data made available through a published, authorised API within its limits. Collecting user data — including usernames, ratings, gameplay statistics, account status or behavioural patterns — and using it to build reports, assessments, allegations or public narratives about the Platform is a material breach of these Terms and may contravene the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. Where collected data includes information about a person who is or appears to be a minor, the matter will be treated with particular seriousness and may be referred to child-protection authorities and the eSafety Commissioner.

12.7 Reward, Voucher, Ticket, payment, record and External Service abuse. A User must not manipulate, exploit, automate, attack, interfere with, circumvent, reverse engineer, misrepresent, farm, duplicate, sell, transfer, launder, spoof, script, collude, abuse or otherwise misuse any Voucher or Ticket, Platform Benefit, Participation Record, Payment Method, Delivery Cost calculation, reward mechanism, eligibility mechanism, redemption mechanism, integrity mechanism, External Service, account status, event result, leaderboard, creator programme, organiser programme, promotional campaign, payment process, payout process, refund process or related Platform record. This includes claiming, presenting, redeeming or relying on a Voucher or Ticket, Platform Benefit, Participation Record, eligibility indicator, reward record or account status that the User knows or ought reasonably to know is inaccurate, expired, revoked, superseded or obtained through misconduct.

13.1 Tournament ban. The use of Location Masking technology is strictly prohibited for any tournament, prize, rated, Echess, Pro or supervised format, unless expressly authorised under section 13.4. This prohibition applies regardless of the reason for use, including privacy, security, corporate-network or latency reasons.

13.2 Action on detection. Where Location Masking is detected or reasonably suspected during the Tournament Lifecycle (from registration opening through to the payout window), we may block registration, require a network change and re-check-in, require step-up verification, restrict access, disqualify the User, and withhold or delay prizes.

13.3 Consequences. Consequences may include disqualification, forfeiture of entry fees and prizes, an impact on Fair Play standing, suspension and termination, subject to section 54.

13.4 Competitive-access exceptions. Checkmate Live may, on assessment of a User's circumstances at the relevant time, authorise a limited competitive-access exception for Pro or Echess tournaments to the location-masking prohibition before the User relies on it. Any such exception:

(a) attaches to a named Account, a specified event or events, a specified duration and to any conditions Checkmate Live imposes at the time it is granted;

(b) may be varied or withdrawn by Checkmate Live at any time, including where the underlying circumstances change or an integrity risk arises;

(c) does not override Applicable Law, sanctions regimes or restrictions imposed by an infrastructure, payment or connectivity provider; and

(d) must be requested from, and expressly approved by, the Fair Play team through logged in-app chat, which is the sole authorised approval channel. The approval record must identify the Account, the covered tournament or tournaments, the duration of the exception and any conditions attached. A User may not self-declare, assume or invoke an exception, and no conduct, silence or inaction by Checkmate Live constitutes an exception. An exception granted under this section 13.4 is subject to section 46A (delegated authority), and section 46A.6 expressly prevails over sections 46A.1 to 46A.5 for the purpose of such approvals.

13.4A Country-correction requests.

(a) Default country restriction. Your registered country is, by default, used to determine which tournaments, qualifiers, federation events, regional ladders, prize-eligible events and country-restricted features and content you are eligible to enter and access on the Platform. Updating your registered country may therefore change your tournament and feature eligibility prospectively.

(b) Casual and Rookie correction — no evidence required. A User on the Rookie tier (or otherwise playing only in casual, unrated and non-prize-bearing formats) who has mistakenly entered the wrong country at registration may request a correction by submitting a support request through the in-Platform chat or other published support channel. No supporting evidence is required for a casual-tier correction. Checkmate Live may, however, decline a correction that is implausible on its face, that is inconsistent with available network, device, payment or behavioural signals, or that appears to be an attempt to gain access to a country-restricted feature, tournament or prize pool that the User would not otherwise be eligible to access.

(c) Pro Pass, Echess, FIDE-rated and federation-affiliated correction. Where the User is on the Pro Pass, Echess Pass, FIDE-rated, federation-affiliated or any prize-eligible or KYC-gated tier, a correction requires verification of the specific fact being changed. Consistent with sections 6.2 and 10.1A, country of residence, nationality and sporting-federation country are treated as separate facts: a correction to one does not, of itself, require re-verification of the others. A FIDE ID or national-federation record is re-synchronised only where the sporting record or event eligibility requires it. A mismatch between the registered country and the verified identity, the FIDE ID or a national-federation record — where that mismatch is relevant to event eligibility — may be detected through the applicable verification controls; the User may be required to re-verify the specific fact concerned before further competitive participation, and Echess, FIDE-rated and federation-affiliated event eligibility may be paused until that re-verification is complete.

(d) Mismatch and bad-faith correction. Where Checkmate Live, on review, determines that an entry, or a purported correction, constitutes a mismatch — whether through deliberate misrepresentation, falsification, Location Masking, sanctions or sanctions-screening evasion, federation-eligibility arbitrage, prize-pool or jurisdictional arbitrage, country-restricted-feature circumvention, or other circumvention of these Terms or Applicable Law — the Account may be suspended or banned without prior notice, and the integrity, sanctions, verification, retrospective and enforcement consequences in sections 6, 8.2, 10.2, 13, 15 (including section 15.6 retrospective integrity authority) and 14A apply.

(e) No immunisation. Bringing forward a correction request does not, of itself, immunise prior conduct on the Platform from review, retrospective adjustment or enforcement.

13.4B Location not established. Where your location cannot be reliably established on available signals but there is no evidence of Location Masking, access to paid, prize-bearing, voice, video and value-movement features may be withheld until location is established; that withholding is a protective restriction pending verification and does not, by itself, establish that these Terms have been breached. Where a proxy, VPN or similar masking is detected, sections 13.1, 13.2 and 13.5 apply and the conduct is treated as a breach of these Terms, unless expressly authorised under section 13.4.

13.5 Casual and non-tournament use. The use of a VPN, proxy or other Location Masking technology is not permitted anywhere on the Platform, including in casual and non-tournament play, unless expressly authorised under section 13.4. Location Masking use is treated as an attempt to evade or circumvent the Platform's location, integrity, eligibility and sanctions controls, and is a violation of these Terms. Geolocation is analysed for impossible travel and related indicators; Location Masking detected outside a tournament may result in restriction, additional verification, suspension or termination, with the severity depending on the circumstances. Where Location Masking is detected in a tournament, section 13.1 applies.

14.1 Substance over form. We assess conduct by its practical effect, not its technical form or label. A method that achieves a prohibited outcome is a violation even if it is not specifically named in these Terms.

14.2 Anti-circumvention and technical protection measures. You must not test, probe, map or reverse-engineer the Platform's integrity systems, thresholds or logic, and must not engage in adversarial testing, traffic shaping, model extraction or prompt injection against the Platform. Repeated edge-case behaviour designed to identify detection boundaries constitutes circumvention. The Platform Integrity Systems — including the Platform's integrity, anti-cheat, client-integrity, server-side, anti-tamper, telemetry and protocol-protection systems — are technical protection measures that protect the Platform and its content. Circumventing, disabling, modifying, removing or defeating those measures, or producing, distributing, providing or making available a tool, device, component or service principally designed, marketed or used for that purpose, is prohibited and may infringe Applicable Law on the circumvention of technical protection measures — including the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996 (Article 11) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty 1996 (Article 18), as implemented by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (Australia), the EU Software Directive 2009/24/EC, the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and equivalent laws in other markets. Any attempt to hide, disguise or obfuscate your identity, your device or your use of the Platform may result in permanent suspension.

14.2A Mandatory anti-cheat telemetry and environment-inspection consent. As a condition of entry to, and continued use of, the Platform features that require integrity monitoring, you give your express, informed and unambiguous consent for Checkmate Live to execute automated client-side detection scripts and background integrity checks within your browser, client application and runtime environment.

Consent to monitoring may be obtained through these Terms, the Privacy and Compliance Policy, the Automated Decision-Making and Integrity Systems Disclosure, and one or more in-product notices or consent flows, including before supervised events, camera, microphone, screen-share, identity verification, liveness checks, age-gated features, prize-gated features or other integrity-gated features are used.

Where Applicable Law requires separate, additional or refreshed consent, Checkmate Live will seek that consent through the relevant product flow before the relevant feature is used.

Those checks may scan, inspect, read and log:

(a) Account, gameplay, session and device signals. Platform Integrity Systems may collect and transmit information about your account, gameplay, session and device necessary to detect, investigate and respond to conduct that breaches these Terms, subject to the Privacy and Compliance Policy. This includes environment, runtime, input and biometric signals reasonably necessary to detect integrity threats and validate identity, of the categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1; and

(b) Biometric and input telemetry — video, audio and spatial-coordinate data captured during gameplay via your webcam or system inputs, processed for environment, runtime, input and biometric analysis reasonably necessary to detect integrity threats and validate identity, of the categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1 (and further described in sections 21.7 and 21.7A).

The specific signals scanned, their parameters, the inspection cadence and the analytical methods applied are confidential and are not disclosed (see section 15.1); no adverse inference arises from non-disclosure.

14.2B Refusal pathway. If you do not consent to the inspection and telemetry described in section 14.2A, you must not enter, and must immediately cease using, the Platform. Continued use of the Platform without consent is itself a breach of these Terms.

14.2C Tamper-with-telemetry consequence. Blocking, blinding, forging, intercepting, manipulating, suppressing or attempting to prevent the transmission of any telemetry described in section 14.2A, or the execution of any client-side inspection script, is a material breach of these Terms and is Unauthorised Access under sections 3.1 and 14A (in particular section 14A.1(b), (c), (e) and (i)).

14.2D Lawful basis and data-protection alignment. Data collected under section 14.2A is processed strictly for security, anti-cheat validation, integrity protection and identity verification, in accordance with the Privacy and Compliance Policy. Consent under section 14.2A is given expressly to provide a lawful basis for that processing under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), the California Consumer Privacy Act, the India Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and equivalent data-protection laws to the extent each applies by its terms. Where a data-protection regime requires an additional or distinct consent, that consent is sought through the in-product consent mechanism. Records held under this section 14.2D for security, anti-cheat, integrity or identity purposes retain their confidential character even where separate footage of the same event is authorised for broadcast under section 22 (see section 22.6).

14.2E Necessary cookies, session storage and anti-evasion. Access to a Platform service is conditional on the operation of cookies and similar storage or access technologies lawfully necessary to provide that service, including essential authentication, session continuity, security and applicable integrity controls, as described in the Cookie Policy. You must not deliberately clear, delete, block, disable, reset, alter or interfere with those technologies to evade verification, supervision, Account restrictions, Fair Play or security controls, or to conceal prohibited conduct. A browser setting, privacy tool or automated clearing process does not excuse deliberate circumvention.

Where necessary service state is missing or cannot be validated, Checkmate Live may immediately suspend the affected session, service or Account access and require re-authentication or verification before access resumes. Where a breach of this anti-evasion rule is established under section 15 and the Fair Play Policy, the Account will be suspended or banned according to the seriousness and circumstances; a serious breach may result in an immediate permanent ban without a prior warning or lesser sanction. Applicable disqualification, forfeiture, linked-Account and retrospective enforcement provisions remain available.

The absence of a cookie alone does not establish deliberate circumvention. Routine expiry, genuine browser or device faults, ordinary browser maintenance and troubleshooting authorised by Checkmate Live are not, by themselves, misconduct, but access may remain suspended while necessary service controls are restored or verified. Refusal or failure to complete a required verification is governed by sections 15.7A and 15.7B. Rejecting or withdrawing consent to optional cookies is not a breach of this section. Describing a technology as necessary does not remove any notice, consent or other requirement of Applicable Law, and detection methods and thresholds remain confidential under section 15.1.

14.3 No defence from claimed purpose. A claim that conduct was undertaken for any educational, academic, research, security, journalistic, entertainment, operational, observational, monitoring, intelligence, scouting or other legitimate-sounding or pretextual purpose is not a defence to a breach of these Terms, and the framing or labelling of a prohibited activity does not change its character. Substance over form (section 14.1) applies. Responsible disclosure of a genuine security issue must follow the Security and Acceptable Use Policy and section 14.4.

14.4 Security research safe harbour. Security research against the Platform is permitted only where the researcher has:

(a) registered with us by submitting a completed Security Research Application Form through the channel published on the Platform or in the Security and Acceptable Use Policy;

(b) verified their identity, including legal name, contact details and any organisational affiliation;

(c) received written pre-authorisation specifying the approved scope, methods, systems, timeframe and conditions; and

(d) signed and returned the Security Research Approval Form acknowledging these Terms and the researcher's obligations.

Authorised research must remain within the approved scope at all times; must not impact live users, active events, prize flows or production integrity systems; must not bypass authentication, paywalls, identity verification or integrity controls; must not access, copy or retain user, financial or proprietary data beyond what is strictly necessary to demonstrate a vulnerability; must cease immediately if the researcher exceeds scope or accesses sensitive data; must report all findings to us before any public disclosure, with a minimum coordinated-disclosure period of 90 days or as specified in the Approval Form; and must not interfere with, disrupt, delay or affect any game, match, tournament, pairing, result or player experience, whether directly or indirectly. Security research that affects competitive play in any way is outside this safe harbour, regardless of intent. Research conducted without completing the registration and approval process, or outside the approved scope, is prohibited regardless of intent, qualifications or claimed good faith, and may be treated as Unauthorised Access and enforced under sections 12, 12.1A and 18. We may revoke security-research authorisation at any time by written notice, on which the researcher must immediately cease all access, testing and use, secure and segregate any Platform data then held, and return or delete that data as directed by Checkmate Live, subject to any lawful preservation obligation, legal hold, statutory retention requirement or court, regulator or law-enforcement direction. Where a lawful preservation obligation or legal hold applies, the researcher must retain the affected material in secure, segregated storage and must not use, disclose or process it other than as required by that obligation or as directed by Checkmate Live, and must notify Checkmate Live of the obligation without delay.

14.5 Account responsibility. You are responsible for all activity on your Account, whether or not authorised by you. Credential sharing or permitting remote access is itself a breach. Where your Account is used in a tournament, strict liability applies and intent does not affect enforcement.

14A.1 Scope and enumerated categories. Without limiting the definition of Unauthorised Access in section 3.1, and in addition to sections 12.1A, 12.2 and 14.2, the following categories of conduct fall within Unauthorised Access — whether undertaken by a User, player, automated agent, third-party program or external actor, and whether acting directly, through a proxy, or via an affiliated, contracted, instructed, commissioned or funded third party:

(a) Account and session violations — accessing the Platform after suspension, termination or ban, whether directly, through a proxy, VPN, device-ID obfuscation, hardware spoofing, new Account, intermediary, or linked, substituted or third-party proxy identity; continued access after a Fair Play Notice, warning or restriction has been issued; continued access after a cease-and-desist notice is served (see section 41.4); and accessing another person's Account, credentials or session without explicit authority.

(b) Security and anti-cheat evasion — bypassing or attempting to bypass authentication, access controls, paywalls, integrity controls, anti-cheat systems (the specific components of which are confidential — see section 15.1) or technical protection measures (see section 14.2).

(c) DOM and browser manipulation — modifying, injecting, altering or tampering with the Document Object Model (DOM), browser runtime environment, HTML source, JavaScript execution state or CSS styling of the Platform, including via custom scripts, browser extensions, userscript engines, developer tools, or browser-instrumentation, browser-automation or headless-browser frameworks of any kind (and including those referenced in section 12.2).

(d) Unauthorised overlays and visual interception — deploying, loading or overlaying any third-party graphical interface, heads-up display (HUD), assistive overlay or floating window on or over the Platform's interface that assists, automates, calculates or guides gameplay, move selection or analytical decisions.

(e) API abuse, replay, interception and unauthorised monitoring — intercepting, capturing, sniffing, mapping or monitoring any network communication, server telemetry, WebSocket stream or API traffic between client and server; executing replay attacks; endpoint abuse via mass registration, automated polling, scraping or fuzzing; and any unauthorised monitoring of Platform endpoints, APIs, network calls, telemetry or response patterns, irrespective of the framing, label or claimed observational purpose attached to the activity (see section 14.3).

(f) Automated agents and AI ingestion — utilising, deploying or facilitating any automated web crawler, data-mining agent, scraper, indexer or AI engine — including large-language-model training bots, retrieval-augmented generation agents and semantic parsers — to monitor, extract, scrape or copy match data, player telemetry, user-interface elements or code from the Platform.

(g) Commodity, custom and security scanning — launching, executing or directing any commodity network scanner, commercial vulnerability scanner, attack-surface-discovery service, infrastructure-enumeration service, custom or single-use script, automated fuzzer, port mapper or infrastructure-mapping tool, of any kind and whether commercial, open-source or proprietary, against the Platform's web interfaces, APIs, routing layers or cloud infrastructure without our express, prior written consent.

(h) Infrastructure reconnaissance and probing — probing, requesting, scanning, vulnerability-testing, reverse-engineering, decompiling or attempting to access environment-configuration files, source-code repositories, credential files, unexposed microservice endpoints or other infrastructure not intended for public access (see section 12.1A).

(i) Data and protocol manipulation — intercepting, manipulating, injection-testing or forging network packets or API payloads between the client and the server-side authoritative systems; and tampering with local client memory, local storage, session storage, cookies or runtime environment to manipulate game state or match data.

(j) Infrastructure and network attacks — launching, facilitating or participating in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) or Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, XML/JSON payload flooding, API rate-limit exhaustion, or any other conduct intended to impair, overload, degrade or crash the Platform's underlying cloud, network or hardware infrastructure.

(k) Exploit automation and tooling — utilising, deploying, distributing or developing automated macros, standalone software tools, exploit toolkits or pre-compiled malicious executables designed to exploit vulnerabilities, automate gameplay or harvest Platform data.

(l) Adversarial intent and informational reconnaissance — accessing the Platform for the purpose of reconnaissance against the Platform, evidence-gathering against the Platform's interests, or any purpose other than legitimate use of the Platform under these Terms; provided that this paragraph (l) does not, of itself, capture (i) lawful legal-process activity conducted through proper channels — including instructing legal counsel, seeking legal advice, giving evidence under compulsion of law, complying with a court, tribunal, regulator or law-enforcement order, or making a genuine, good-faith complaint to a regulator, integrity body or authority — (ii) lawful evidence preservation required by a statutory retention, discovery or legal-hold obligation, or (iii) lawful whistleblowing. Conduct captured by other paragraphs of section 14A.1 (including data or protocol manipulation, unauthorised access, scanning or scraping) is not excused by being described as, or coinciding with, activity in (i) to (iii); and

(m) Infrastructure impersonation and naming manipulation — registering, altering, utilising, or masking any account name, username, clan tag, profile, avatar, persona or online identifier that copies, closely resembles, mimics or visually simulates a Platform-operated bot, a Platform system or infrastructure component, or a Checkmate Live administrative, arbiter, integrity, support or staff account, including by deliberate character substitution, lookalike character strings, homoglyphs or typographical variations (for example substituting a capital "I" for a lowercase "l") designed to deceive other Users, misrepresent account identity, mask integrity-based pool routing or undisclosed-bot deployment, or evade automated detection. Conduct under this paragraph is also subject to section 11.1C(g); and

(n) any other conduct, method, technique or pattern — whether known to Checkmate Live at the time of drafting, emerging subsequently, novel, untested or technologically distinct — that has the substance or effect of any of the conduct in paragraphs (a) to (m).

The categories in section 14A.1 are not exhaustive. Section 14.1 (substance over form) applies: the form, label, novelty, technical mechanism, framing or claimed purpose of the conduct does not change its character where the substantive effect is Unauthorised Access.

14A.2 Strict liability; intent immaterial. Any conduct within section 14A.1 is an absolute breach of these Terms, irrespective of the actor's intent, motive or purpose. The absence of malicious or fraudulent intent — including claims of benign intent, academic research, independent security testing, good-faith security evaluation, journalism or entertainment — does not excuse, mitigate or exempt the conduct from being classified as Unauthorised Access. Any interaction with the Platform via automated tools, custom scripts or standalone software utilities that has not been expressly authorised in writing by Checkmate Live (including under the security-research safe harbour in section 14.4) is prohibited.

14A.3 Attribution of third-party actions. A User and any other external actor is fully and strictly liable for any Unauthorised Access executed on their behalf, for their benefit, or under their direction or instruction. A breach conducted by an affiliate, partner, employee, representative, instructed agent, commissioned contractor, paid third-party service provider or other intermediary is legally attributed to the principal as if the principal had executed the breach directly. Funding, instructing, commissioning, ratifying or knowingly benefiting from Unauthorised Access conducted by another person is itself Unauthorised Access by the funding, instructing, commissioning, ratifying or benefiting party. This section attributes conduct contractually where the person is bound by these Terms. Where an actor has not accepted these Terms, the distinction in section A.1 (Non-User actors and legal basis) applies: a contractual debt does not arise merely because a non-contracting person's conduct fits a definition in these Terms; Checkmate Live must establish the applicable cause of action, claimant and remedy under Applicable Law, and its injunctive, statutory and other legal rights (and any independent rights of VADR Media or another affected owner or licensor) are preserved.

14A.4 Deferred enforcement, silent drops and security countermeasures. Checkmate Live is under no contractual or legal obligation to provide real-time, immediate or automatic notification on detection of Unauthorised Access or other security-policy breach. For security operations (SecOps), anti-cheat containment and system-integrity purposes, Checkmate Live reserves the right to deploy silent, delayed or automated countermeasures without prior notice.

(a) Authorised casual countermeasures. Within casual, unrated and non-prize-bearing formats only, Checkmate Live may deploy silent, delayed or automated security, anti-cheat and integrity countermeasures, the specific design and operation of which is confidential (see sections 15.1, 17A.3 and 17A.4). Such countermeasures may include matchmaking-pool segmentation (see section 11.1D) and other operational measures, and may operate before, during or after a session. The silent-countermeasure shield in section 35.4 and the non-tipping carve-outs in sections 14A.5(c) and 50A.3 apply.

(b) Progression and historical records. Checkmate Live may restrict, quarantine or temporarily freeze progression, item drops, rewards, casual ratings, matchmaking metrics or leaderboard placement during forensic isolation. Client-facing historical logs are formatted at Checkmate Live's discretion, and Checkmate Live is not required to unmask any aspect of an integrity session to the suspected actor, including after the operational reason for non-disclosure has ceased (see section 11.1C(c)).

(c) Reservation of rights. The implementation of a silent or delayed countermeasure does not waive any right to enforce these Terms at a later date, does not limit immediate action under section 11.1C(g) (infrastructure-impersonation and name-masking prohibition) or under the suspension, termination and Schedule A recovery provisions, and is not an admission, election or representation by Checkmate Live as to the seriousness, classification or eventual treatment of the underlying conduct.

14A.5 Retrospective reporting and discretionary disclosure.

(a) Mandatory reporting in the jurisdiction of operation. Checkmate Live operates from New South Wales, Australia, and its mandatory reporting obligations are those imposed on it by Australian Applicable Law that applies to Checkmate Live Pty Ltd by its terms — in particular, where applicable, the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme under Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, AML/CTF, suspicious-matter or critical-infrastructure incident reporting obligations to the extent they apply to Checkmate Live, the rules of a federation or integrity body to which Checkmate Live is contractually bound, and a foreign data-protection, cybersecurity or integrity-reporting regime that applies to Checkmate Live by its own terms (such as a regime that captures Checkmate Live by reason of services offered to users in that jurisdiction). Where a reporting obligation applies, Checkmate Live will comply with it within the time and on the terms required.

(b) No submission to non-applicable regimes. Other than the obligations described in section 14A.5(a), Checkmate Live is not, by these Terms, made subject to the reporting regime of any jurisdiction in which Checkmate Live does not have a legal presence and in which a reporting regime does not otherwise apply to Checkmate Live by its terms, and the reference to a foreign regime elsewhere in these Terms does not constitute a submission to that regime.

(c) Discretionary right to report — broadly retained. Subject to section 14A.5(a), Checkmate Live is not required to report a security infraction or telemetry anomaly to an external body at the time it is detected. Checkmate Live reserves the right (without obligation) to retain all logged forensic data and, upon discovery or at any future date of its choosing, to advise, report to and share historical network logs, telemetry and identity records with competent sports integrity bodies, anti-cheat organisations, professional esports associations (including FIDE and ESIC), national gaming regulators and federal, national or international law-enforcement and security agencies — in any jurisdiction Checkmate Live considers appropriate, whether or not Checkmate Live has a legal presence there.

(d) Qualified-privilege carry-over. The qualified-privilege, common-interest and cross-border-reporting protections in sections 33.4 and 33.5 apply to any such report, whether discretionary or legally required.

14A.6 Criminal and civil exposure; cross-border cooperation. Unauthorised Access may breach computer-misuse, cybercrime, privacy, intellectual-property and fraud laws in Australia and other jurisdictions, including under multilateral cybercrime instruments (such as the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime and the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime). Two distinct pathways are contemplated. Criminal and law-enforcement pathway. Checkmate Live may report serious matters to law enforcement, regulators, cyber authorities, integrity bodies and affected partners where lawful and appropriate, and those authorities may, in the exercise of their own functions, use Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs), INTERPOL channels, extradition arrangements and similar state-to-state cooperation mechanisms. MLATs, INTERPOL channels and extradition arrangements are matters for the authorities of the relevant jurisdictions; Checkmate Live does not invoke or operate them as ordinary private debt-enforcement mechanisms. Civil pathway. Recognition and enforcement of civil judgments and arbitral awards obtained by Checkmate Live are pursued through civil-enforcement instruments — see section 44.2B (Foreign Judgments Act 1991 (Cth), the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, and equivalent civil-enforcement schemes).

15.1 Integrity confidentiality. The specific signals, weights, thresholds, calibrations, models, tools, dashboards, vendor identities, triage workflows, escalation criteria, review methodologies, countermeasure designs, countermeasure naming and countermeasure cadences used by Checkmate Live to detect, deter, investigate and respond to cheating, coordinated conduct, unauthorised access, matchmaking manipulation, tournament interference, sanctions and AML risk, account abuse, ban evasion and other integrity threats are confidential to Checkmate Live and its Protected Persons. Disclosure would materially undermine the effectiveness of those measures and prejudice Checkmate Live's ability to protect honest players, event integrity, prize pools and the Platform. Accordingly, these Terms describe integrity mechanisms at a general, category level only; Checkmate Live is not required to disclose, and by using the Platform you agree that Checkmate Live is not required to disclose, the specific mechanics, thresholds, signals, tools or workflows referred to above. Nothing in this section limits (a) Checkmate Live's disclosures required by Applicable Law or by a court, regulator or authorised law-enforcement body, (b) a User's rights under sections 15, 16 and the Automated Decision-Making Disclosure to seek review of a decision affecting them, or (c) the openness obligations Checkmate Live is required to meet under privacy law about the existence, general purpose and consequences of automated decision-making. The operational confidentiality of the detection mechanics in this section does not remove any disclosure Checkmate Live is required to make under privacy, data-protection or consumer law; user-facing collection and use of Integrity Telemetry is described in the Privacy and Compliance Policy and, where required, in the applicable in-product notice or consent flow. No adverse inference arises from non-disclosure.

15.2 Telemetry and evidence. By entering a paid tournament you consent to anti-cheating monitoring. Our integrity systems use automated proprietary algorithms, cheat-detection heuristics, human review and statistical analysis — using proprietary integrity-analytics methods, including statistical and behavioural analysis of gameplay, of the categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1 — to monitor gameplay. We may rely on aggregated, behavioural, statistical and circumstantial evidence, and will provide only a summary of the categories of factors considered and the rule basis for the decision.

15.2A Standard of proof; statistical sufficiency. A Fair Play determination made by Checkmate Live under these Terms is made on the balance of probabilities standard. A separate standard may apply where a matter is determined under FIDE regulations or another federation's regulations — including the "comfortable satisfaction" standard applied in international sports adjudication under the FIDE online-chess regulations — and, in that case, that separate standard applies to that determination. The Checkmate Live standard and the federation standard are not equated by these Terms. We are not required to prove a violation to a criminal or "beyond reasonable doubt" standard. Statistical or probabilistic evidence at or above the methodology threshold applied by Checkmate Live — or by FIDE under the FIDE Fair Play Regulations for federation events — is sufficient evidence of a Fair Play violation, whether it stands alone or is combined with other evidence under section 15.2. Checkmate Live applies statistical, probabilistic and behavioural methods calibrated to detect outcomes that are inconsistent with fair play. The applicable methods, parameters, thresholds, calibration and methodology details are confidential and are not disclosed (see section 15.1), and no adverse inference arises from non-disclosure.

15.2B Technology support and operator decisions. VADR Media and other authorised providers may operate or support Platform Integrity Systems and provide technical analysis, risk indicators or recommendations to the Designated Operator. The Designated Operator remains responsible for tournament sanctions, player communications and appeals under these Terms.

15.3 Enforcement measures. Enforcement measures include warnings, score and tier adjustments, enhanced monitoring, prize escrow, suspension and termination, disqualification with retrospective forfeiture, public disclosure under sections 31 to 33, reporting to federations, ESIC and law enforcement, and civil proceedings.

15.3A Enforcement classification and financial recovery.

(a) Classification. Checkmate Live classifies enforcement matters by reference to the nature, severity, impact, deliberateness and operational context of the conduct. The classification determines the applicable enforcement consequences, including whether cost recovery, Schedule A recovery, or other financial remedies are pursued. The classification methodology is confidential and is not disclosed (see section 15.1); no adverse inference arises from non-disclosure.

(b) Potential consequences — all conduct. Enforcement consequences for any breach of these Terms may include any one or more of: warnings and enhanced monitoring; Fair Play Score impact; Integrity Tier downgrade; prize forfeiture for the affected event; rating adjustment and retrospective disqualification; retrospective clawback of items, rewards and currency (section 15.6A); temporary or permanent suspension; permanent ban; public disclosure (sections 31 to 33); cross-platform enforcement (section 15.9); and reporting to federations, integrity bodies, regulators, law enforcement and cyber authorities.

(c) Potential consequences — elevated conduct. Where conduct involves Unauthorised Access (section 14A), Cyberattack, infrastructure attack, DDoS or denial-of-service activity, deliberate commercial interference, Tournament Interference (section 19), multi-account network operation, systematic identity fraud, infrastructure impersonation, or other conduct that, by its substance and nature, threatens the operational, financial, integrity, security or reputational interests of the Platform, its partners or its users — assessed by the substance and nature of the conduct, not by its scale, duration, or the extent of measurable harm caused in the particular instance — enforcement consequences may additionally include: cost recovery calculated by reference to actual documented costs and prevailing industry rates; Schedule A recovery (where applicable); interest on overdue amounts; legal costs on a full-indemnity basis; criminal referral; cross-border enforcement; asset preservation; injunctive relief; and such other remedies as are available at law or in equity. For the avoidance of doubt, a single instance of any conduct described in this paragraph (c) — such as a single DDoS attack, a single instance of Unauthorised Access, a single infrastructure attack, a single Tournament Interference incident or a single deliberate commercial-interference action — falls within this paragraph (c) by its substance and nature, regardless of duration, scope of disruption, number of affected events, or measurable financial loss.

(d) Potential consequences — commercial operators and third parties. Where conduct is carried out by or on behalf of a commercial operator, competitor, cheat-tool developer, data miner, account trader, unlicensed betting operator or other third party operating against the Platform, enforcement consequences may additionally include: joint and several liability; account of profits; intellectual property enforcement; and multi-jurisdictional litigation.

(e) CML discretion. Checkmate Live determines, in its discretion exercised reasonably and in good faith, which consequences apply to a particular matter, having regard to the factors in section 15.5. No person has a right to be classified or treated at any particular level, or to demand that a particular consequence be applied or not applied.

(f) No published criteria. Checkmate Live does not publish the classification criteria, boundary conditions, escalation triggers or internal methodology by which enforcement matters are classified. The absence of published criteria does not limit Checkmate Live's enforcement rights, and no adverse inference arises from non-disclosure. The classification is subject to review on appeal under section 16 for reasonableness and good faith, but the methodology itself is not disclosed on appeal (see section A.2.2).

(g) Applicable Law preserved. Nothing in this section excludes, restricts or modifies any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54).

(h) Account tier is not the test. Classification under this section is assessed by the substance and nature of the conduct, regardless of Account tier, subscription status, identity-verification level, account age, engagement level, payment history or other commercial attribute of the Account or actor. The use of a free, unverified, newly-created or low-engagement Account does not, by reason of tier or commercial standing, attract reduced classification under paragraph (c) or (d), under section 14A or under Schedule A.

15.3B Actual-cost recovery. Where Checkmate Live incurs costs directly attributable to investigating, containing, remediating or responding to a breach of these Terms, and the matter does not attract Schedule A recovery, Checkmate Live may recover reasonable, documented actual costs from the User responsible for the breach.

(a) Scope. Recoverable costs are limited to: forensic investigation time directly attributable to the breach; engineering remediation directly caused by the breach; and event rerun, remediation or rescheduling costs where the breach caused cancellation, disruption or modification of an event.

(b) Notification. Cost recovery under this section is notified to the User with an itemised summary of the costs claimed, the basis of calculation, and the link to the breach. The User may dispute the quantum through the appeal process in section 16 (or, for quantum only, section A.10).

(c) Standard payment terms. Amounts under this section are payable within 30 days of demand. Section 36.3 (pay-first, no set-off) does not apply to amounts under this section. The User may raise a genuine dispute about the quantum, the attribution to their conduct, or the reasonableness of the costs, without first paying the claimed amount.

(d) Relationship to section 36. This section does not limit Checkmate Live's right to recover actual loss under section 36 where that loss exceeds the cost categories in paragraph (a), but where recovery is sought under both this section and section 36 for the same head of loss, section A.6 (no double-counting) applies.

(e) Applicable Law preserved. Nothing in this section excludes, restricts or modifies any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54).

15.4 Escalating enforcement. Enforcement is proportionate to the conduct. Measures escalate, in no fixed or required order, and may include monitoring and enhanced supervision; Integrity Tier downgrade; prize escrow; conditional reinstatement with enhanced monitoring; temporary suspension; and permanent exclusion. We may proceed directly to permanent exclusion for serious violations.

15.5 Reasonableness. We exercise enforcement discretion reasonably, having regard to severity, whether conduct was systematic or isolated, history, impact, the User's cooperation and industry standards.

15.5A Human review for material adverse decisions. A decision under this section that has a material adverse effect on a User — including permanent suspension or termination, prize forfeiture, publication of a sanction under section 32, or long-term competitive ineligibility — is not based solely on automated processing, and includes, before final enforcement, contextual assessment, human review or escalation through defined enforcement workflows. This does not apply where immediate automated action is reasonably necessary to prevent ongoing cheating, fraud or fraud-network operation, to stop an active security threat or cyberattack, to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or to preserve investigation integrity or evidence (see sections 14A.4 and 50A); in those cases, human review follows as soon as reasonably practicable. Where immediate automated action is taken, human review follows within a reasonable period. Routing under section 11.1D is not, by itself, a material adverse decision for the purposes of this section; the on-request rights in section 11.1D apply where Applicable Law requires. Further detail on automated decision-making, categories of data used and human-review safeguards is in the Automated Decision-Making and Integrity Systems Disclosure and the Privacy and Compliance Policy.

15.6 Retrospective integrity authority. We may review historical play using improved methods and may retrospectively disqualify, reallocate prizes and publish outcomes — including after a tournament, event, season or qualifier has concluded — where new evidence, new analytic methods, a new disclosure, an external referral or a federation ruling indicates a violation of our Fair Play Policy, Code of Conduct or these Terms. The passage of time does not extinguish these rights.

16.1 Appeal pathway — by tier.

(a) Pass holders — appeal window. A User on the Arcade Pass, Pro Pass, Echess Pass or other paid pass tier may seek review of an enforcement decision through in-platform support or the published Fair Play contact address, subject to sections 16.3, 16.4, 16.4B and 16.8. An enforcement appeal, including specific factual evidence directed at the relevant games or events, must be lodged within 24 hours of the enforcement notice through the channels specified in the Fair Play Policy. Separate live-event protest windows and review timelines in that Policy continue to apply. A non-substantive appeal may be dismissed without review. No additional period arises automatically from lodging an appeal, withholding material or failing to cooperate. Any extension remains subject to section 16.2 and Applicable Law, and does not itself suspend an existing restriction, disqualification, payout hold or other protective measure. This provision does not expand appeal eligibility, credits or the categories eligible for review under the Fair Play Policy, nor shorten the separate Schedule A recovery appeal period. Nothing in this section grants a User access to protected detection methodology (see sections 15.1 and 16.4A).

(b) Free accounts (Rookie tier) — a User on the Rookie tier (free-of-charge account) does not receive the paid-tier appeal pathway under section 16.1(a) unless required by mandatory Applicable Law (including the Australian Consumer Law and applicable data-protection rights) or unless Checkmate Live elects to provide one. However, a Rookie-tier User may request a limited internal review where the decision involves permanent Account termination, publication of a sanction under section 32, identity misuse, a minor-safety issue, a continuing material adverse effect, or another matter for which mandatory Applicable Law requires review or human consideration. The human-review protection in section 15.5A, the additional pathway in section 16.6, and the protections in sections 16.7, 32 and 33 apply regardless of tier.

(c) Tier at the time of conduct. The applicable tier is the User's tier at the time of the conduct giving rise to the enforcement decision; a tier upgrade or downgrade after that date does not change the applicable appeal pathway.

(d) Categories final after internal review apply to all tiers. Section 16.4B (categories final after internal review) applies to all Users regardless of tier; for the matters listed in section 16.4B, internal review is the sole contractual review mechanism even for pass holders.

16.2 Extension of window for pass holders. For a User on a paid pass tier under section 16.1(a), Checkmate Live may extend the appeal window referred to in section 16.1(a) for reasons such as illness, travel, accessibility or evidence-gathering.

16.3 Substantive evidence requirement. An appeal must include factual evidence. A non-substantive appeal may be dismissed without review (see also section 16.8).

16.4 A Fair Play determination, after internal review (and any external expert review), is final and binding under these Terms, and is not re-litigable on its merits, subject to sections 16.5 to 16.7 and provided it has been applied consistently and in good faith. The form of review (whether by Fair Play staff, the integrity team, an external expert, an external panel, or any combination of these) is at Checkmate Live's discretion, exercised reasonably; no User has a contractual right to demand any specific form, panel composition or external review.

16.4B Categories final after internal review. The following determinations are final after internal review and do not carry a further contractual appeal right under this section 16; non-excludable rights under section 54 are preserved:

(a) confirmed engine use, agentic play or other Unauthorised Assistance determined on a statistical or evidentiary basis under section 15.2A;

(b) repeat Fair Play violations following one or more prior determinations;

(c) Unauthorised Access matters under section 14A;

(d) Cyberattack and security-incident matters under section 3.1 and section 14A;

(e) conduct under section 7.4 (protection of minors);

(f) cluster-attributed network activity under section 8.3A;

(g) sanctioned-jurisdiction misrepresentation, sanctions-screening evasion, AML/CTF evasion or related matters under section 6;

(h) infrastructure-impersonation and name-masking under section 11.1C(g) and section 14A.1(m); and

(i) corruption, recruitment of officials or solicitation of confidential operational information under sections 12.5A and 12.5B.

For matters within this section 16.4B, the internal review process is the sole contractual review mechanism, and Checkmate Live's determination is the contractual answer. Checkmate Live may, in its discretion, elect to provide an external review or to consider further evidence; that discretion does not create a right, expectation or obligation.

16.4A Presumption of violation; burden on appeal. Where statistical or probabilistic evidence at or above the applicable threshold has established a Fair Play violation under section 15.2A, a presumption of violation arises. On appeal, the User bears the burden of rebutting that presumption with credible, specific factual evidence directed at the games or events concerned. Mere denial, generalised character evidence, speculation about possible alternative causes, or a request for disclosure of methodology, thresholds, training data, calibration parameters or detection logic, is not sufficient to rebut the presumption (see section 15.1). The Fair Play team may consider plausible alternative hypotheses raised in the appeal, but is not required to do so where the statistical probability is sufficient on its face. Consistently with section 15.7A(f), the authorised reviewer on appeal may examine the protected evidence, detection logic, thresholds and methodology relevant to the decision under review even though those materials are not disclosed to the User, and must give proper consideration to any credible, specific factual evidence submitted by the User within the applicable window; unsupported speculation is not a basis to reopen. Proportionate protective restrictions may continue during review, and no adverse inference arises from the non-disclosure of protected material (see section 15.1). This section does not confer a right to unlimited reopening, to re-run the investigation, or to inspect the protected methods.

16.5 FIDE-rated and federation events may carry additional appeal rights under the event's Appeals Committee or the FIDE Fair Play Commission; those operate in addition to, not in substitution for, this process.

16.6 This section does not prevent you raising a concern through the ADM Disclosure pathway.

16.7 Nothing in this section limits or excludes any non-excludable right you have under the Australian Consumer Law or other Applicable Law; those rights are preserved and operate as a separate and independent matter (see section 54).

16.8 Abuse of process. Vexatious, frivolous, repeated, coordinated, mass-filed or bad-faith appeals may be rate-limited, consolidated, routed through a single nominated contact point, dismissed summarily without further review, or referred for action under sections 12.5 and 19.2B (Tournament Interference). A non-substantive appeal under section 16.3 may be dismissed without review. Repeated abuse-of-process conduct may be treated as a separate breach.

16.9 Weaponised complaints and data-request abuse. Making a bad-faith, vexatious or strategically-timed complaint, or a data-subject or access request, to a regulator, data-protection authority or integrity body, where its primary purpose is to disrupt operations, force disclosure of detection methodology, obstruct an investigation or create leverage, is an abuse of process and a breach of these Terms. We may identify the pattern to the relevant body and recover reasonable response costs. This section does not restrict genuine, good-faith complaints or the exercise of genuine statutory rights.

17.1 We collect and retain evidence for detection, investigation, enforcement and legal compliance. Retention periods are set out in the Privacy and Compliance Policy.

17.2 Legal holds. A legal hold applied to data relevant to actual or anticipated proceedings excludes that data from routine deletion, irrespective of any deletion request.

17.3 FIDE retention, broadcast rights, and reconstructed-game evidence.

(a) Carve-out. Where a FIDE-rated event or federation regulation requires a shorter retention period for primary supervised video footage, Checkmate Live complies with that requirement for the raw footage of that event, while retaining derived fair-play records, logs, analytical outputs and case files for as long as reasonably necessary for dispute resolution, fraud prevention, platform security and compliance with Applicable Law.

(b) Broadcast rights unaffected. A federation retention requirement applies only to raw supervised footage. It does not supersede, limit or cut down Checkmate Live's broadcast and content rights, or its ownership of broadcast output, under section 22. Broadcast content and recordings are distinct from raw supervised and integrity footage, and Checkmate Live's rights in broadcast output are unaffected by any federation retention rule.

(c) No obligation to store video; reconstructed-game evidence. Checkmate Live is not required to store or retain raw video as evidence. Checkmate Live may rely on derived integrity, telemetry and tracking data — including data from which its integrity and anti-cheat systems can reconstruct a game — in place of the original video. Reconstructed-game data and derived integrity records are valid evidentiary records for the purposes of these Terms (see sections 15.2 and 19.2C).

17.4 Integrity case history. We maintain an integrity case history for each Account and, where relevant, for linked Accounts, devices and networks, for as long as the relationship with the Platform continues and for a reasonable period afterwards, so that the same actor cannot re-enter events under a new identity and so that we can defend the integrity of past events.

17.5 No waiver by delay. A delay in enforcement is not a waiver, and continued access during an investigation is not a clearance.

17.6 Third-party information requests. We may, on reasonable grounds and with limited scope, request information from ISPs, registrars, hosts, CDNs, operators, processors, payment processors and financial service providers; those third parties may decline.

17.7 External integrity anchoring.

(a) Right to anchor. Checkmate Live may commit to an Integrity Anchor, as defined in section 3.1, tamper-evident and audit-ready records relating to: Fair Play decisions; integrity, anti-cheat, security and SecOps detections and outcomes; match results, tournament outcomes and bracket states; rating-system actions and adjustments; the version or identifier of a policy, ruleset, calibration or governance document applied to an event or account action; RAMP actions (see section 50A); audit and administrative-access records (see section 20.3B); Participation Records; Platform Benefits; reward, eligibility, redemption and account-status records; and such other integrity, security, audit, eligibility, reward, compliance and governance events as Checkmate Live reasonably determines support competitive integrity, transparent governance, partner cooperation, regulator or federation cooperation, auditability or independent verification.

(b) No personal information on its face. Checkmate Live does not intentionally commit personal information to an Integrity Anchor. Records committed to an Integrity Anchor are intended to be reference records, summary records, pseudonymous records, identifiers, markers, decision references, policy references or other records that do not identify a User on their face. The handling of any personal information processed in connection with integrity anchoring is governed by the Privacy and Compliance Policy.

(c) Durability and tamper-evidence. Records committed to an Integrity Anchor are intended to be tamper-evident and audit-ready for the purposes described in this section. Once a record has been committed, it is not retracted, deleted or unwound at the User's request, and Account deletion does not remove or invalidate a committed record, to the extent necessary to preserve the integrity of historical records (see sections 17.4 and 40.3). For the avoidance of doubt, a committed record may be superseded, supplemented or recontextualised by a subsequent record — including a subsequent integrity determination, enforcement decision, appeal outcome, reward determination, eligibility determination, redemption determination or retrospective review under sections 15.6, 15.6A and 17A — without the original record being altered; both the original record and the subsequent record are preserved.

(d) Third-party operation and conditions. Integrity anchoring may be performed by Checkmate Live, an affiliate, a separate service operator, or a third-party integrity, audit or infrastructure provider under separate operational arrangements. The use of an Integrity Anchor does not make the operator of that anchor a party to these Terms and does not provide any User with a digital asset, wallet, token, redemption, settlement or value-movement right. Checkmate Live does not warrant the continued availability, performance or features of any third-party Integrity Anchor service and may, on reasonable notice where practicable, change, supplement or replace the Integrity Anchor it uses, and may use more than one Integrity Anchor concurrently.

(e) No digital-asset commitment or financial service. This section does not provide, and is not to be construed as providing or implying the provision of, any token, digital asset, financial product, financial service, payment service, AML/CTF designated service or Web3 feature to Users. Integrity anchoring under this section is an integrity, security, audit and governance function only. Digital wallet, token, digital-asset, redemption or other value-movement features, if and when offered, are governed by separate terms with the relevant contracting entity (see section 28). The existence of an Integrity Anchor is not an offer of, an entitlement to, or a representation about, any such feature. The design, architecture and technical implementation of integrity anchoring under this section may be advised at a later date at Checkmate Live's election.

(f) Survival. This section survives suspension, termination, closure and deletion of an Account.

17A.1 Integrity and verification systems. Checkmate Live may use integrity systems and verification systems to monitor, assess, verify, challenge and enforce fair play, platform security, identity and eligibility, event outcomes and settlement conditions, subject to Applicable Law and the Privacy and Compliance Policy.

17A.2 Participation, verification and decision records. Checkmate Live may generate, collect, verify, store, rely on and cross-reference Participation Records, verification records, decision records, audit records, eligibility records, reward records, account-status records, event records and other evidentiary records for integrity monitoring, enforcement, event operations, reward administration, eligibility assessment, appeals, partner reporting, audit, compliance and legal proceedings.

17A.3 Sensitive methods not disclosed. Participation Records, verification records, decision records, audit records, eligibility records, reward records and related evidentiary records may be expressed in summary, category, flagged, reference or pseudonymous form. Checkmate Live is not required to disclose raw telemetry, proprietary indicators, thresholds, internal scoring, detection methods, model logic, system architecture, challenge logic, service architecture or other security-sensitive or commercially sensitive information, except where required by Applicable Law.

17A.4 Outcome summaries and protected evidence. Checkmate Live may provide outcome summaries, policy references, evidence categories and rule-based reasons in place of underlying technical evidence where disclosure would reasonably risk circumvention, platform abuse, user safety, security, harm to intellectual property, or prejudice to ongoing investigations.

17A.5 Provisional status and finality. Any live, provisional, broadcast, in-product or preliminary result, ranking, eligibility indicator, reward status or payout status is non-final unless and until Checkmate Live determines that the relevant outcome has reached final status. Final status may require the completion of integrity review, eligibility review, verification checks, Participation Records, decision records, account review, appeal windows, compliance checks or other conditions required for payout, prize release, reward issuance, ranking confirmation or other Platform action. Provisional displays do not create a right to payout, prize release, reward issuance, ranking permanence or economic entitlement.

17A.6 Operator-of-record authority. The Checkmate Live entity (or authorised affiliate, service provider or Tournament Organiser) responsible for operating the relevant event determines final outcomes (subject to Applicable Law and any stated appeal process). Integrity systems, verification systems, Participation Records, decision records and related evidentiary records support finality and auditability, but do not displace operator authority unless expressly stated.

17A.7 Eligibility and reward gating. Checkmate Live may require one or more Participation Records, verification checks, decision records, review outcomes, eligibility checks or compliance checks before permitting participation, progression, payout, prize release, reward issuance, redemption or other Platform action. Checkmate Live may hold, reject, delay, reverse, cancel or condition any such action where required records or conditions are missing, inconsistent, invalid, expired, linked to a review, or reasonably suspected to be compromised.

17A.8 Evidentiary monitoring and staged enforcement. Checkmate Live may, acting lawfully, monitor conduct, preserve evidence and build an evidentiary file before taking action, including where immediate action could compromise detection, user safety, staff safety, event operations or legal strategy. No delay, staged response, continued monitoring or temporary non-enforcement constitutes permission, approval, waiver, acquiescence or a conclusion that the matter is resolved.

17A.9 Technology and operator changes. We may change service technologies and procedures consistently with these Terms and Applicable Law. A material change to the contracting entity, verification burden, personal-information processing, paid service or accrued prize will be explained with appropriate notice and any required acceptance or consent. A technology migration does not itself transfer a contractual obligation or authorise a new operator to access your identity evidence.

17A.10 Future controls and External Services. As the Platform evolves, Checkmate Live may introduce additional verification, participation-record, eligibility, reward, redemption, audit, governance and finality controls for identity, access, gameplay integrity, event outcomes, Platform Benefits and payouts. Such controls may operate across one or more systems, providers, affiliates, service operators, External Services or environments and may be updated over time. Checkmate Live is not required to disclose the technical design, commercial design, service architecture or operator arrangements of those controls, provided it continues to act in accordance with these Terms, Applicable Law and its published policies.

17B.1 No benchmarking or monitoring of Platform systems. You must not monitor, benchmark, test, map, fingerprint, profile, reverse engineer or otherwise analyse the Platform, its APIs, event operations, integrity systems, verification systems, challenge flows, moderation processes or enforcement behaviour for the purpose of: (a) replication; (b) circumvention; (c) competitive intelligence; (d) adversarial testing; (e) identifying enforcement boundaries; or (f) disrupting Platform operations, tournaments or commercial relationships, unless Checkmate Live has expressly authorised the activity in writing.

17B.2 Indirect conduct. This prohibition applies whether the activity is carried out directly or indirectly, including through contractors, agents, scripts, bots, automation tools, browser instrumentation, test accounts, research accounts, proxy accounts, third-party service providers or related entities.

17B.3 No defence of benchmarking or monitoring. A claim that prohibited conduct was undertaken for any legitimate-sounding purpose does not constitute a defence unless the activity was expressly pre-authorised by Checkmate Live in writing and conducted within the approved scope (see sections 14.1 and 14.3).

17B.4 Treatment. Unauthorised monitoring, endpoint enumeration, behavioural probing, challenge-flow testing, authentication probing, token or session probing and repeated edge-case testing may be treated as Unauthorised Access, anti-circumvention misconduct, Tournament Interference or malicious commercial interference, depending on the circumstances.

18.1 Scope. This section applies to entities and individuals who engage with the Platform otherwise than as ordinary players — including competitors, hackers, cheat-software developers, data miners and aggregators, media exploiters, and unlicensed betting operators.

18.2 Prohibited third-party activities. The following are prohibited: developing, distributing or monetising cheat tools — regardless of the technical mechanism by which the tool operates, including tools that modify Platform code, manipulate runtime variables or memory, intercept, modify or replay network traffic, interact with the Platform's servers, simulate or automate client behaviour, or operate by any other means; deploying DDoS attacks, malware, ransomware, keyloggers or exploits; operating unauthorised betting markets on Platform activity; trading, selling, transferring or facilitating the transfer of Accounts or Platform assets; unauthorised API or SDK access, scraping, harvesting or aggregation of Platform data; using AI, LLM or agentic systems to replicate, derive or train against proprietary Platform information; phishing, impersonation, social engineering, fraud or coercion; bulk credential validation, credential stuffing or credential cracking against the Platform; defeating CAPTCHA, anti-automation or bot-mitigation controls; replaying verification, access, refresh, session or action tokens, or otherwise abusing the session lifecycle; enumerating or cracking promotional, voucher, referral or other supply tokens; last-moment automated action against limited supply — such as drops, qualifier slots, marketplace listings, time-gated rewards or settlement-bearing windows; marketplace self-dealing, wash trading or coordinated price manipulation; abusing chargeable supporting services or features to inflate costs; and tampering with, falsifying, deleting or impairing evidence, telemetry, audit logs or integrity records. It is the effect on Platform integrity and the breach of these Terms that is determinative, not the technical method (consistent with section 14.1).

18.3 Joint and several liability. Persons who create, distribute or monetise cheat tools, or who participate in a breach of this section, are jointly and severally liable for the resulting loss.

18.3A Unlawful interference with contractual relations and inducing breach of contract. Conduct that intentionally and unlawfully interferes with a contractual relationship between Checkmate Live and a User, a sponsor, a federation, a broadcaster, a tournament organiser, an advertiser, a partner or any other commercial counterparty — including by inducing, encouraging, facilitating, soliciting, promoting, distributing, selling, marketing or making available cheat tools, automation services, account-sharing services, account-trading services, multi-accounting services, ban-evasion services, anti-cheat-circumvention services, identity-spoofing services, hardware-spoofing services or other circumvention services that cause or are intended to cause a User to breach these Terms — may give rise to rights of Checkmate Live and, where applicable, VADR Media or another affected owner or licensor under Applicable Law. Conduct under this section is recoverable under section 36 and Schedule A (including section A.4(m) for statutory intellectual-property remedies and section A.4(n) for wrongfully-obtained benefits), and is elevated conduct within section 15.3A(c) or (d) as the case may be.

18.4 Multi-jurisdictional enforcement. We may pursue civil litigation, criminal referral and cross-border enforcement in any jurisdiction in which a relevant party, harm, asset or infrastructure is located.

18.5 Application of integrity provisions. Sections 11 to 17 apply, with any necessary changes, to cheat developers, hackers, data miners, unlicensed betting operators and other third parties who undermine integrity.

18.6 Cooperation. We may collaborate with FIDE, the Asian Chess Federation, national federations, ESIC, peer platforms and law enforcement. Cooperation with an integrity body is voluntary and is not a submission of our operational decisions to that body's jurisdiction; a third-party body's findings are advisory and do not bind Checkmate Live's own determinations.

18.7 Civil recovery. We may seek compensatory and aggravated damages, injunctive relief, asset preservation, discovery, an account of profits, cost recovery and other lawful remedies, in any competent jurisdiction.

18.8 Qualified privilege. Good-faith communications about a violation made to federations, integrity bodies, law enforcement or peer platforms are made on a qualified-privilege and common-interest basis.

18.9 False regulatory characterisation. Knowingly or recklessly making a materially false characterisation of Platform activities, competitive formats, prize structures or currency systems as gambling, wagering, commercial gaming, internet gaming, lottery or games of chance, in communications with partners, federations, sports bodies, regulators, media or the public, where the communication is intended or reasonably likely to cause commercial or regulatory harm to Checkmate Live, is malicious commercial interference and a material breach of these Terms, to which section 18.7 applies.

This section does not restrict genuine, good-faith complaints to regulators, lawful whistleblowing, legal advice, evidence given under compulsion of law, or fair comment based on honestly held opinion.

18.10 Unauthorised representations to partners and federations. You must not make knowingly false, misleading, bad-faith, coercive or commercially motivated representations, proposals, demands, complaints or allegations concerning Platform operations, integrity, compliance or commercial arrangements directly to Platform partners, federation partners, sponsors, broadcasters or regulators where those communications are intended or reasonably likely to interfere unlawfully with the Platform's commercial relationships or operational reputation.

This does not restrict good-faith complaints to regulators or integrity bodies through proper channels, lawful whistleblowing, evidence given under compulsion of law, legal correspondence, or communications Checkmate Live authorises in writing. Unsolicited commercial approaches to Platform partners that disparage Platform operations, or that are made together with an offer of competing services, may constitute tortious and malicious commercial interference under this section.

18.11 Vulnerability extortion and bug-bounty abuse. You must not use a discovered or suspected vulnerability, or confidential information, as leverage to demand payment, concessions, withdrawal of enforcement or reinstatement. Conditioning disclosure of a vulnerability on commercial terms, threatening disclosure to regulators or media to obtain an advantage, progressive escalation of such threats, and multi-channel amplification of them, constitute extortion. This section defines prohibited coercive conduct contractually; it does not conclusively determine that any conditional demand is a criminal offence, which is a matter for the applicable criminal law and the competent authorities. This section may be enforced by criminal referral and by civil recovery under section 18.7. It does not restrict participation in an authorised bug-bounty programme conducted under section 14.4.

18.12 Abusive intellectual-property and takedown claims. Making a bad-faith or fraudulent intellectual-property, DMCA-style or takedown claim, or issuing an abusive cease-and-desist, against Platform content, streams, broadcasts or tournament materials, is a breach of these Terms and may be met with civil recovery under section 18.7.

18.13 Selective leaking and media manipulation. Selectively, misleadingly or out of context disclosing Platform communications, correspondence or investigation details to media or content creators in order to construct a false narrative is a breach of these Terms, even where an individual excerpt is technically accurate, and even where done through an intermediary. This section does not restrict genuine, lawful whistleblowing.

18A.1 Competitive events and applicable law. Checkmate Live administers its competitive events as sporting competitions under these Terms and the Fair Play Policy. The responsible organiser and any applicable federation sanction, approval or licence are identified in the event rules; not every Platform activity or event is federation-sanctioned. Whether an event is a sporting event, and whether conduct constitutes an offence under any law, are determined under Applicable Law, not solely by its description in these Terms. Conduct prohibited by this section may also constitute an offence under applicable sport-integrity, fraud, bribery, computer-crime or other laws.

18A.2 Integrity code and independent contractual obligations. These Terms, the Fair Play Policy and the applicable Tournament Rules together set out Checkmate Live's written competition-integrity code. Applicable federation integrity rules operate alongside that code as provided in section 20. The contractual prohibitions and duties in this section apply independently of whether particular conduct constitutes a criminal offence, whether a bet is placed, whether a benefit is obtained, or whether proposed legislation has been enacted or commenced. This section supplements, and does not narrow, the prohibitions and remedies elsewhere in these Terms or the Fair Play Policy.

18A.3 Competition manipulation. You must not engage in, agree to, attempt, arrange or facilitate conduct that improperly affects or is likely to affect an event's outcome, progression or any aspect of its conduct. This includes:

(a) engine use or other Unauthorised Assistance;

(b) prearranging or collusively agreeing a result or any aspect of play, including a draw, whether or not money or another benefit is involved;

(c) deliberate underperformance, withdrawal, disconnection, forfeiture or loss to manipulate competition, evade supervision or improperly affect another participant or competitive outcome;

(d) Account sharing, substitution or allowing another person to play in your place;

(e) technical interference with the Platform, an event or another participant's device, connection, Account or session; and

(f) manipulation of ratings, pairings, seeding, qualification, standings or prize allocation.

The list is not exhaustive and sections 14 and 19.8 apply. A lawful in-game draw, resignation or genuine withdrawal permitted by the applicable rules is not, merely by occurring, competition manipulation; it remains actionable where its substance involves collusion, evasion or another prohibited purpose or effect. Nothing in this section restricts authorised event administration, Fair Play action, or cancellation, postponement, rescheduling and other operational measures under sections 19, 23 and 50A.

18A.4 Inducing, soliciting and facilitating manipulation. You must not offer, give, request or accept a benefit, make a threat, or solicit, encourage, assist or facilitate conduct prohibited by section 18A.3. An unsuccessful approach, agreement or attempt may itself be a breach. Attribution, facilitation and linked-Account provisions elsewhere in these Terms continue to apply.

18A.5 Duty to report. You must report to Checkmate Live without delay any approach, invitation, offer or request to engage in conduct prohibited by sections 18A.3 or 18A.4, and any knowledge or reasonable suspicion of that conduct or such an approach. A matter affecting an ongoing or imminent event must be reported immediately through the in-event channel, arbiter or Fair Play channel; other matters must in any event be reported within 48 hours after you become aware of them, through in-app support or the published Fair Play contact channel. The 48-hour outer limit is not permission to delay an urgent report. Unjustified failure to report is a separate breach. Merely receiving and promptly reporting an unsolicited approach in good faith does not, of itself, constitute participation in it. Reporting does not confer immunity for your own participation, concealment, false statements, delayed reporting or another independently established breach. Non-excludable rights under Applicable Law are preserved.

18A.6 Inside information. For this contractual prohibition, inside information means information about an event or participant that is not generally available and that a reasonable person would expect to influence whether or how a person bets on the event. Depending on the circumstances, it includes live game or move data not yet released to spectators, unpublished pairings or withdrawals, and non-public information about availability, condition or intentions. You must not use such information to bet or enable another person to bet, or disclose it where you know or ought reasonably to know that it may be used for betting. Authorised operational, integrity, production and lawful reporting uses remain subject to their permitted purposes and confidentiality requirements; they do not authorise disclosure for betting. This definition does not purport to determine the elements of a statutory offence.

18A.7 Betting restrictions. You must not bet, directly or indirectly or through another person, on any event in a competition in which you are entered. Staff, arbiters, match officials and contractors bound by this section who have access to non-public event information must not bet on any Platform event. These restrictions supplement all other applicable betting and conflict-of-interest prohibitions; they do not authorise a betting service, market or activity otherwise prohibited by these Terms or Applicable Law.

18A.8 Preservation of evidence. You must not falsify, alter, destroy, conceal or procure the destruction of information, records or communications relevant to suspected competition manipulation. Once aware of a relevant approach, report or investigation, you must preserve relevant material lawfully within your possession or control and comply with lawful preservation directions. Sections 17 and 17A govern Checkmate Live's evidence handling and retention. This obligation does not authorise access to another person's Account, device or information, and does not require preservation contrary to a binding legal requirement; any such conflict must be notified promptly where lawful.

18A.9 Cooperation. You must cooperate with a lawful Fair Play investigation by Checkmate Live or the responsible sanctioning federation, including providing truthful information, attending a required interview and producing relevant records lawfully within your control within the specified timeframe. Sections 15.7A and 15.7B and the Fair Play Policy continue to govern verification and non-cooperation. Nothing requires disclosure that Applicable Law protects you from being compelled to provide, or waiver of legally protected privilege. Where legally permitted, identify the particular basis for withholding information; a general assertion of legal rights does not excuse unrelated non-cooperation or automatically suspend sanctions, protective restrictions or eligibility requirements. Checkmate Live may proceed on the evidence lawfully available, subject to Applicable Law.

18A.10 Referral and cross-border conduct. Checkmate Live may refer suspected conduct to police, Sport Integrity Australia, a responsible federation or another appropriate authority or integrity body under sections 33.5 and 38, and preserve relevant records under sections 17 and 17A. Conduct outside Australia may fall within Australian or foreign law where the applicable jurisdictional requirements are met; foreign location does not, by itself, prevent investigation or referral. The relevant authorities determine their jurisdiction and any criminal proceedings. A contractual breach or referral is not represented as a criminal conviction.

18A.11 Separate determinations and consequences. Checkmate Live makes its own Fair Play determinations on the balance of probabilities under section 15.2A. A determination under applicable federation regulations follows the standard required by those regulations. Criminal allegations and proceedings are determined under the applicable criminal law. A decision not to prosecute, an acquittal or a different federation outcome does not, of itself, overturn a properly imposed CML sanction. Review and correction remain governed by section 16 and the Fair Play Policy. Immediate protective measures, disqualification, termination, forfeiture, retrospective correction, prize repayment and other remedies remain available under their applicable provisions; this section creates no automatic stay, additional appeal period or requirement for prior criminal or federation action.

18A.12 Officials and personnel. This section applies to Users acting as staff, arbiters, officials or contractors in connection with an event. For personnel acting outside a User relationship, these obligations must be incorporated into the applicable appointment or engagement terms. Describing a person in this section does not, by itself, bind a person who has not accepted the relevant contractual obligations. Checkmate Live may restrict or revoke event or system access under its existing powers, and rights under Applicable Law remain available.

19.1 Each tournament has its own Tournament Rules, published on the event page before registration opens. Registering for a tournament is acceptance of its Tournament Rules.

19.1A We may amend Tournament Rules, prizing or regulations where reasonably necessary to resolve a conflict with a partner or stakeholder requirement or to clarify procedure. A material amendment is published with the date of change.

19.1B Publication, location and versioning. Tournament Rules are published on the event page; where additional rules, eligibility requirements or supplementary regulations apply to a series or championship pathway, they are published in the Playbook and linked from the event page. Rules are published with a version date, and a materially amended version is clearly identified as revised. Versions under which completed events were conducted are archived and remain available for regulatory, federation or integrity-body review on request. We may remove or archive event pages and historical rulesets from public view after an event; archival is not deletion.

19.2 Condition precedent. Participation in a tournament is conditional on a compliant network and device, completed verification and confirmed eligibility. Failure to meet a condition may result in immediate disqualification without refund, subject to section 54.

19.2A Squad integrity. We may apply squad-level integrity assessment for rating manipulation, artificial skill imbalance or coordinated sandbagging. A manipulative squad may be disqualified, disbanded, adjusted or denied entry. The best-effort obligation in section 11.1A applies to each squad member.

19.2B Good-faith participation. By registering for a tournament or event you represent and warrant that you are entering in good faith, with genuine intent to compete to the best of your ability. Registering or participating for the purpose of intelligence-gathering, system testing, evidence manufacturing, competitor benchmarking, tournament disruption, or any purpose other than genuine competition is a material breach and constitutes Tournament Interference.

19.2C Alpha-stage tournament features. Tournament-management features — including automated no-show ejection, lobby management, pairing optimisation, check-in enforcement and real-time disqualification tools — are released iteratively during Alpha Stage. The absence of a particular automated feature at any point is not a deficiency in tournament integrity or operational competence. Where a feature is not yet available, or where an event encounters a system limitation (such as proceeding with fewer than the minimum players, becoming stuck, or requiring manual intervention to progress or conclude), the Tournament Organiser and authorised personnel may apply manual processes, capture screenshots, screen recordings and contemporaneous records of event state, and manually modify, reset, void or delete the event where the system provides no automated mechanism. Screenshots and contemporaneous records taken by authorised personnel are valid evidentiary records and are preserved alongside system logs. The deletion or reset of a stuck or compromised event under this section is an operational necessity, not evidence of manipulation or falsification.

19.3 All tournaments on the Platform are skill-based competitions. They may not be used for wagering, peer-to-peer betting or unlawful gambling.

19.3A Federation events. Tournaments operated in partnership with, sanctioned by, or affiliated with FIDE, the Asian Chess Federation, national chess federations or other recognised sporting bodies are sporting competitions conducted under the rules and governance of the relevant federation. They are not commercial gaming, internet gaming, lottery, wagering or regulated gaming activities. Organiser responsibility for a federation event is determined event by event: where Checkmate Live is identified on the event page and in the applicable Tournament Rules as the organiser, Checkmate Live is the contracting organiser for that event, notwithstanding the federation affiliation; the "technology service provider" or "infrastructure-only" description applies only to events that are expressly identified on the event page and in the applicable Tournament Rules as third-party operated. Prize pools for federation events are funded by federation budgets, sponsors and/or Platform operating funds, and not by pooled player entry fees functioning as wagering stakes.

19.4 Qualification reruns and format modifications. Where an event or qualification pathway is affected by cheating, collusion, a Cyberattack or an integrity gap, we may void results, disqualify participants, adjust standings, modify format, add verification, suspend progression or rerun the event. No result is final until formally confirmed. You waive any claim for lost opportunity, disruption, preparation costs or consequential loss arising from action under this section.

19.4A Administrative actions during integrity incidents. Where the Platform identifies active tournament interference, suspected coordinated disruption or an integrity threat during a live event, administrative actions taken by authorised personnel — including result modification, player removal, round adjustment, event cancellation, evidence-preservation operations and the deployment of arbiter tools — are operational integrity decisions made under sections 19.4 and 19.6. Where suspicious or known-violator Accounts are identified in an event, we may allow the event to proceed, in whole or in part, in order to gather evidence, monitor behaviour or confirm attribution, provided legitimate participants are individually notified and protected from competitive harm. Allowing a known or suspected violator to play through an event for evidence-gathering purposes is a deliberate operational decision, not an oversight or an endorsement of that participation. Actions under this section do not constitute manipulation or falsification and may not be characterised as such.

19.5 No-rerun default. An event is not rerun unless its integrity was materially compromised. Where a rerun occurs, a new date is set, absentees are ineligible, and eliminated players are not reinstated unless their elimination was caused by the issue.

19.6 Security override. Where there is an active or imminent threat to the Platform, an event or its participants, we may immediately suspend, void or apply emergency measures to the event without prior notice.

19.7 Qualification-pathway integrity. Entering or coordinating entries across multiple qualifiers in order to manipulate seedings, bracket position or progression, otherwise than by genuine competitive performance, is Tournament Interference and a Fair Play violation.

19.8 Categories of Tournament Interference. Without limiting section 3.1 or section 14.1 (substance over form), Tournament Interference includes:

(a) intelligence-gathering against the Platform, the Platform's integrity systems or another participant;

(b) system testing or evidence manufacturing;

(c) competitor benchmarking;

(d) coordinated disruption;

(e) manipulation of seedings, brackets, pairings or progression;

(f) coordinated entries across multiple qualifiers or Accounts;

(g) post-lobby-close non-attendance, late withdrawal, deliberate forfeit or dropout designed to disrupt bracket structure, pairings, seedings, BYE allocations, prize distributions, broadcast scheduling or event operations — whether by a single User, in coordination, or as part of a pattern (see section 23.2);

(h) data poisoning, training-data manipulation, model-poisoning attempts or other conduct designed to corrupt, skew, train against or degrade the integrity, anti-cheat, behavioural-analytics, rating, detection, moderation or telemetry systems of the Platform (see section 11.3A);

(i) Match-Fixing, Collusion, Matchmaking Manipulation or coordinated outcome manipulation — including arranged results, pre-arranged draws, throwing games or matches, soft-play arrangements, spot-fixing, score-manipulation, rating-manipulation arrangements, prize-pool splitting arrangements, and any arrangement, agreement, understanding, communication or coordination with another participant, team, official, organiser, broadcaster, sponsor, betting operator or third party to predetermine, share, divide, manipulate, influence or distort match, game, round, bracket or tournament outcomes, results, ratings, standings, qualifications, prize entitlements or competitive performance (see also section 11.1B Fair Play warranty);

(j) other conduct described in sections 19.2B, 19.4A and 19.7; and

(k) any other conduct, method, technique, behaviour, pattern or arrangement — whether known to Checkmate Live at the time of drafting, emerging subsequently, novel, untested or technologically distinct — that has the substance or effect of any of the conduct in paragraphs (a) to (j).

This list is not exhaustive. Section 14.1 (substance over form) applies: the form, label, novelty, technical mechanism, framing or claimed purpose of the conduct does not change its character where the substantive effect is interference with a tournament, qualifier, ladder, event, integrity system or related operations of the Platform. Tournament Interference is elevated conduct under section 15.3A(c) and may attract recovery under Schedule A; the substance-and-nature test in section 15.3A(h) applies.

20.1 Checkmate Live is the official online platform of the Asian Chess Federation.

20.2 For FIDE-rated events and events conducted under FIDE authority, we apply the FIDE Online Chess Regulations and the FIDE Fair Play Regulations (including Appendix I — Fair Play Rules for Online Competitions with Supervision), as incorporated into the event regulations, to the extent consistent with Applicable Law and these Terms.

20.3 Checkmate Live's enforcement operates independently of any federation proceeding.

20.3A Echess rules and supervision. Echess Mode is a Checkmate Live competitive format conducted under rules agreed between the Asian Chess Federation and Checkmate Live. Echess rules are not generic FIDE online regulations; they are tailored to the Checkmate Live platform and its integrity infrastructure. The supervisory panel for an event may include Checkmate Live, ACF, FIDE or national arbiters; the composition is published with the tournament regulations.

20.3B Event supervision, official assignment and operational security. It is Checkmate Live's operational decision whether an event is conducted as an automated event or an online-supervised event, and that may vary by game type, stage, prize tier, federation requirement or integrity-risk assessment; no User has a right to demand a particular supervision mode. We may assign, reassign, decline or remove any administrator, arbiter, official or supervisor from an event for any operational reason, including operational-security and conflict-of-interest considerations; assignment decisions are not subject to User approval or challenge. For operational-security reasons, we are not required to disclose the identity of administrators, Fair Play staff or integrity monitors assigned to an event; where FIDE National or International Arbiters are assigned, their names are reported in the relevant fair-play report or tournament record. All access to tournament administration, arbiter tools, integrity dashboards and supervisory functions is permission-based and role-restricted, and internal audit trails record administrative access and actions; those audit trails are available to FIDE, the ACF, national federations, ESIC, regulators, law enforcement and courts on authorised request or as required by Applicable Law. Where disclosure of supervisory assignments or administrative actions would compromise an active investigation, an evidence-gathering operation or operational security, disclosure may be withheld or delayed. A tournament may begin without Arbiter Mode and later require Arbiter Mode for qualifiers, finals, prize confirmation, broadcast selection, integrity review or payout eligibility. Where Checkmate Live escalates supervision during a live event so that newly required capture (for example, camera, microphone or screen-share) begins mid-event, the User is presented in-product, before that new capture starts, with (i) the supervision conditions that will apply, (ii) the uses of that capture consistent with sections 14.2A to 14.2D and section 22, (iii) the consequences of declining (including that the User may be unable to continue in the event), and (iv) the required consent or acceptance to proceed. Checkmate Live is not required to disclose the confidential selection reasons or the detection methods that led to the escalation (see section 15.1); the substantive power to escalate supervision mid-event is preserved. For the avoidance of doubt, this section 20.3B distinguishes (i) the activation of new capture (for which legally necessary notice or consent is presented in-product before that new capture begins) from (ii) subsequent uses of footage already lawfully authorised under sections 14.2A to 14.2D, 21.7 and 22, which do not require a further approval step or repeat acceptance. A User does not have a right to remain unsupervised where Checkmate Live has, on operational or integrity grounds, required Arbiter Mode; legally necessary safeguards continue to apply.

20.4 Event-specific requirements. The event rules identify whether a FIDE ID or partnered-federation identifier, matching verification, pass, rating authority, real-name reporting, device, camera or supervision is required. An Echess label alone does not establish that an event is FIDE-rated. Junior onboarding is paused under section 7.1A; while that pause is in effect, no new junior pathway to a federation event is available on the Platform, and any existing under-18 Account is treated in accordance with sections 7.1A and 7.5A and any separately notified lawful transition or safeguarding measures. Nothing in this section creates a private-supervision-only route around broadcast participation.

20.4A Administration and permissions. Event and verification decisions are made by the responsible operator and authorised personnel. Shared infrastructure does not authorise one operator's staff to administer another operator's identity or finance decisions. Operational access controls remain the operator's responsibility.

20.5 FIDE ID integrity. You may only claim a FIDE ID that belongs to you. Falsifying a FIDE ID, claiming a title not earned, or impersonating another player is a severe violation and may result in permanent ban, notification to the legitimate FIDE ID holder, reporting to FIDE and the relevant national federation, and referral to authorities. A FIDE ID is not activated on the Platform until verification is complete.

20.6 Host federation, host-operator and host-jurisdiction requirements. A participant in an official Echess, FIDE-rated, federation-affiliated, sponsored, hosted or physical-venue event acknowledges and agrees that, in addition to these Terms and the applicable Tournament Rules, the participant may be subject to:

(a) the rules, regulations and integrity requirements of the host federation, FIDE, the Asian Chess Federation, the relevant national federation, and any sanctioning or governing body for the event;

(b) the rules, integrity, supervision, broadcast, sponsorship, identity-verification, age-verification, anti-doping, anti-corruption, anti-match-fixing and conduct requirements of the event-host operator, organiser, sponsor, broadcaster, venue and settlement counterparty, in each case as published with the event regulations;

(c) the laws, regulatory requirements, eligibility rules, customs and visa requirements, age-classification rules, taxation rules, financial and AML/CTF rules, gambling-and-gaming classification rules, content-classification rules, sanctions screening and data-protection requirements of the jurisdiction in which the event is hosted, held, broadcast, organised, sanctioned or settled, including any jurisdiction in which a host federation, broadcaster, sponsor, partner, settlement counterparty or licensed venue is established or licensed; and

(d) any conditions imposed by an event-host counterparty for the use of facilities, broadcast feeds, supervisory arrangements, telecast, settlement infrastructure or other event-related services.

The participant is responsible for ensuring their own compliance with these requirements before entering the event. Checkmate Live may withhold registration, suspend participation, withhold prizes or refuse settlement where a participant is not in compliance with a requirement under this section. Nothing in this section makes any host federation, organiser, sponsor, broadcaster, venue, settlement counterparty or other person a party to these Terms.

21.1 You must maintain, at your own expense, a device meeting the published minimum specifications and a stable internet connection (minimum 5 Mbps).

21.2 In a supervised event you must enable Arbiter Mode and comply with the camera, screen-share and environmental requirements in the Tournament Rules.

21.2A Camera specifications for supervised events. Unless the Tournament Rules for a specific event require otherwise: (i) the primary camera must maintain a minimum resolution of 720p, show the participant's face and upper body, remain unobstructed and maintain proper lighting; and (ii) where a secondary camera is required, it must maintain a minimum resolution of 480p, show a complete room view, capture all required monitoring angles, and remain stable and unobstructed.

21.3 In a supervised event you must not use headphones, secondary displays or unauthorised software. VPNs and proxies must not be used in a supervised event unless expressly authorised under section 13.4; the section 13.4 authorisation applies to VPN and proxy use only, and does not authorise any other item listed in this section. Location Masking detected at check-in or during play results in immediate disqualification, unless expressly authorised under section 13.4.

21.4 Browser permissions for audio, camera and screen-share are preconditions of participation in a supervised event.

21.5 We are not responsible for third-party software conflicts, device failures or connectivity issues on your side.

21.6 Backend authority. Server-side logs are authoritative for clock and move-registration disputes; client displays are not determinative.

21.7 Monitoring consent. In a supervised event you expressly consent to: (i) video recording of your person, your playing environment, your screen and your actions; (ii) where audio is enabled or required for the supervised event, audio recording of your voice, your environment and your communications; and (iii) retention and use of those recordings, subject to Applicable Law, for integrity purposes (including fair-play analysis, dispute resolution, quality assurance, training, legal compliance and Platform improvement) and, where the event is administered in Arbiter Mode or is otherwise a broadcast event, for event administration, production, broadcast, replays, highlights and promotion under section 22. Arbiter Mode serves both fair-play integrity and broadcasting purposes, and this section 21.7 is to be read consistently with, and does not contradict or narrow, the licence and release granted under section 22. Where a use falls within an authorisation already granted under section 22 (including sections 22.1, 22.1B and 22.6), no fresh acceptance is required for each subsequent use within that original lawful authorisation.

21.7A Computer vision and automated monitoring. Supervised events may use computer-vision, behavioural and telemetry techniques (see section 15.1). Participation is consent to that monitoring. Detection thresholds and methods are not disclosed (see section 15.1).

21.7B Lobby entry is express consent. Every event card states the event's supervision level and the integrity measures that apply at that level (Tournament and Prize Terms — Supervision levels). By entering the lobby of, or checking in to, a supervised event you expressly consent that: (i) the integrity measures stated for that level — including, at Supervised+ (Level 3), video, screen-share and any second camera — are in place and active for the duration of the event; (ii) those measures are administered according to the rules applicable to the specific event under sections 20.2 and 20.3A — being, where applicable, the FIDE Online Chess Regulations for FIDE-rated events, the Echess rules agreed between the Asian Chess Federation and Checkmate Live for Echess events (section 20.3A), and the Tournament Rules for all other events — without displacing Checkmate Live's separate enforcement authority or any applicable federation requirement; and (iii) the consents in sections 21.7 and 21.7A and the licence in section 22.6 apply from the moment you enter the lobby, not only from the first move. The lobby will not admit you until the required permissions in section 21.4 are granted. If you do not consent, do not enter the lobby; leaving after check-in closes is treated under section 23.2. This consent is given in addition to, and does not replace, any in-product notice or consent flow under section 14.

21.8 Video privacy. No recording is made during casual, private or unranked one-on-one matches unless stated in settings or required by law.

21.9 Network performance, latency and routing. The Platform is hosted on international server networks. Your connection speed, latency and packet stability depend on third-party infrastructure, and we do not guarantee a low-latency or interruption-free connection. We are not responsible for network degradation caused by infrastructure outside our control, including routing failures by your internet service provider, domestic network congestion, and the damage, degradation or severance of international submarine fibre-optic cables. This section discloses these conditions; it does not exclude, restrict or modify any consumer guarantee or other right that cannot lawfully be excluded (see section 54).

21.10 Pre-event testing and support. Players should test their setup before an event using any available test modules. We may provide pre-tournament onboarding checks to confirm camera, internet and Arbiter Mode compatibility. Technical support is available before an event but may not be available during active matches.

21.11 Nature of in-game video and voice. In-game video and voice are ancillary features of a game session or supervised event. They exist only while a game or supervised session is active, connect only the participants, arbiters and officials of that session, cannot be initiated outside a session, and end when the session ends. Voice is enabled only in supervised formats whose Tournament Rules require it, so that arbiters can communicate with players and the integrity of the event can be verified; voice is not available in casual play. Checkmate Live does not provide a telephony, voice-calling, VOIP, messaging-app or video-conferencing service; the Platform has no telephone numbering, no interconnection with any public telephone network, and no emergency-call capability, and in-game video and voice must not be relied on for any such purpose. Availability of in-game video or voice, and whether audio is enabled for a given event, may vary by jurisdiction, event and tier, and may be withheld where local law or event rules require (see sections 4.1B, 13.4B and 21.4). For the avoidance of doubt, the ancillary and session-scoped character of in-game video and voice under this section 21.11 does not restrict, cut down or condition Checkmate Live's broadcast, replay, archival, retention, sublicensing or promotional rights in captured footage, feeds or output authorised under section 22 (including sections 22.1, 22.1A, 22.1B, 22.4, 22.6 and 22.8); those rights continue on their own terms and are not confined to the duration of the session.

22.1 Participating in a tournament, broadcast or supervised format grants Checkmate Live a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, sub-licensable licence to capture, record, stream, rebroadcast, edit, clip and otherwise use your gameplay and associated audio and video, including your name, username, likeness, voice and country flag, across the Platform, online platforms, linear and OTT services, cable networks, mobile and smart-device applications, and social media networks.

22.1A The broadcast licence survives Account deletion, suspension and termination. Deletion does not remove already-published content or require its de-publication. The treatment of broadcast content on Account deletion is further described in the Account Deletion Policy.

22.1B Release and waiver. By entering an event in which Arbiter Mode is required, or by using the video feature on the Platform, you grant Checkmate Live an irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free release and waiver of any claims, demands or causes of action arising out of or related to the public broadcast or distribution of your gameplay, video, voice or environment. This release extends, to the maximum extent permitted by law, to claims for damages, loss of privacy, embarrassment or other liabilities arising from the real-time or delayed broadcast, distribution, archiving or commercial use of that content. Non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law and other mandatory Applicable Law are preserved (see section 54).

22.1C Squad, team, franchise and roster participation — participant grant, warranty, survival and indemnity. Where a User enters, registers for, qualifies into or participates in a tournament, match, broadcast, qualifier, ladder, league, series, stage, draft, exhibition, hosted event or supervised format under, on behalf of, as a representative of, or as a member of a squad, team, franchise, club, roster, lineup, federation, organisation, esports organisation, sponsor stable, content house, partnership, agency, collective, academy or other affiliation, or with the support of any sponsor, agent, manager or representative (each, a "Team Affiliation"):

(a) Participant grant. All broadcast, recording, streaming, content, image, likeness, name, username, voice, identity, gameplay-footage, derivative-work, sub-licensable and other rights granted to Checkmate Live under sections 22.1, 22.1A, 22.1B, 22.2, 22.4, 22.6, 22.7 and 22.8 apply to that User as if the User had entered as an individual, are granted directly by the participating User to Checkmate Live, and are independent of any Team Affiliation. Those rights are not contingent on, conditioned by, subject to revocation by, or limited by any contract, member rules, roster rules, content rules, image-rights arrangement, exclusivity arrangement, sponsorship arrangement, federation rules, transfer rules, agency arrangement or other arrangement between the User and any Team Affiliation, or between Team Affiliations, or with any third party, and apply notwithstanding any provision of any such arrangement.

(b) Participant warranty (time of participation). By participating, the User warrants and represents to Checkmate Live, at the time of the event and on each occasion of participation, that the User has all rights, permissions, consents, releases, authorisations, waivers and clearances required from every Team Affiliation, sponsor, agent, manager, federation, organisation, club, league or other person with a claim over the User's image, likeness, name, username, voice, identity, content, broadcast rights, exclusive rights, content-monetisation rights, sponsorship rights or participation rights to (i) participate in the event on the basis stated, (ii) grant Checkmate Live the rights described in section 22, and (iii) accept and perform these Terms in respect of the event.

(c) Survival across status, transfer and roster change. The rights granted to Checkmate Live under section 22 survive and continue notwithstanding any change in the User's Team Affiliation status, including any roster change, signing, release, transfer, trade, loan, free-agency, retirement, suspension, expulsion, dispute, breach, termination, novation, rebranding, dissolution, acquisition, merger, sponsorship change, contract change, exclusivity arrangement, representation change, federation change or jurisdictional change occurring before, during or at any time after the relevant event, broadcast, recording, capture, stream, archive, distribution or commercial use. Checkmate Live's rights once granted are not affected by any subsequent change in the User's Team Affiliation and are not subject to take-down, withdrawal, restriction, geo-blocking, re-edit or de-publication on the request of any Team Affiliation, sponsor, agent, federation or other person, except where required by Applicable Law.

(d) No verification obligation; reasonable reliance. Checkmate Live is not required to enquire into, verify, approve, audit, confirm or police the existence, scope, validity, currency or continuation of any Team Affiliation arrangement, any sponsorship, image-rights, content-rights, exclusivity, federation, agency or representation arrangement, or any consent, permission, release or clearance required from any such person. Checkmate Live is entitled to rely without further enquiry on the User's warranty in paragraph (b) and on the User's participation as confirmation of the matters in paragraph (b), and is not liable for any failure of the User to obtain or maintain any such right, permission, consent, release or clearance.

(e) No contract with Team Affiliation. Checkmate Live does not enter into a contract, licence, partnership, joint venture, fiduciary, agency or other relationship with any Team Affiliation, sponsor, agent, manager, federation, organisation or other person by reason only of a User's participation. A Team Affiliation, sponsor, agent, manager, federation, organisation or other person does not, by reason only of a User's participation, become a party to these Terms or acquire any right, claim, interest, licence, approval right, consent right, veto right, content right, image right, exclusivity right or revenue right against Checkmate Live in respect of the event, the broadcast, the recording, the content, the licence in section 22, the Platform or any prize, reward, Voucher or Ticket, Platform Benefit or other entitlement, except where Checkmate Live has expressly entered into a separate written agreement with that person.

(f) Indemnity. The User indemnifies and holds harmless the Protected Persons (as defined in section 35.1), on the terms of section 36, against any claim, demand, action, proceeding, dispute, complaint, loss, damage, fine, penalty, cost or expense brought, made or threatened by or in respect of any Team Affiliation, sponsor, agent, manager, federation, organisation or other person, arising out of or in connection with: the User's participation; the rights granted under section 22; the use, exploitation, broadcast, distribution, archiving, sub-licensing or commercialisation of broadcast or content rights; an alleged breach of any Team Affiliation, sponsorship, exclusivity, image-rights, content-rights, agency, representation, federation or jurisdictional arrangement; an alleged failure to obtain or maintain any required consent, permission, release or clearance; or any change in, dispute under or termination of any such arrangement.

(g) Personal account for the purposes of these Terms. A User who participates under, on behalf of, as a representative of, or as a member of any Team Affiliation does so on the User's own account for the purposes of these Terms. The rights, obligations, warranties, releases, licences, consents, waivers and indemnities under these Terms apply to the User personally regardless of the User's Team Affiliation, the manner of registration, the manner of payment of entry fees, the source of any sponsorship, the source of any contribution to any prize pool, the manner of payout, the manner of any payment direction, or any external arrangement between the User and the Team Affiliation.

Non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law and other mandatory Applicable Law are preserved (see section 54). For the avoidance of doubt, this section 22.1C does not affect any separate written agreement between Checkmate Live and a Team Affiliation, sponsor, federation, organisation or other person which expressly varies the matters in this section in respect of a specified event, series or User.

22.2 The licence applies to official broadcasts, commentary, highlights, replays, archives, and promotional and commercial use. It does not apply to casual, private or unranked matches unless broadcast features are enabled.

22.3 Minors and parental consent. The broadcast licence for a User under 18 is subject to the parental-consent requirements of the Age Policy and to age-appropriate content practices. By entering an event involving broadcast or recording, a User who is under 18 (or who is within a consent band specified in the Age Policy) confirms that the required parental or guardian consent has been obtained and accepts responsibility for verifying that consent. Where required consent has not been obtained, Checkmate Live may close the Account and revoke access to the Platform.

22.4 Checkmate Live owns the recordings and broadcast output. You retain ownership of your own image and identity, but the broadcast-event content is Checkmate Live's intellectual property. Checkmate Live's proprietary broadcast assets include AI-generated commentary, analytics overlays, real-time data visualisations and controlled video-on-demand systems, and Checkmate Live retains all rights in those assets. Checkmate Live holds multi-camera broadcast rights for tournaments and may operate, select between and combine multiple feeds (including primary, secondary, room-view, supervision and broadcast feeds) in any broadcast output.

22.4A Broadcast data, database and processing rights; no unauthorised extraction. The broadcast output, feeds and event data — together with the compiled game data, statistics, timing data and metrics, and the processing, derived analytics, AI-derived insights and integrity signals that produce them — are Checkmate Live's copyright and intellectual property and are protected as its data, database and processing rights, reflecting Checkmate Live's substantial investment in obtaining, collecting, verifying and processing that data (see sections 29.3 and 30). Scraping, harvesting, crawling, capturing, extracting, copying, storing, aggregating or redistributing any broadcast feed, stream or event data, by automated or manual means, is prohibited except under an express written licence or the tiered-access arrangements in section 22.8, and section 12.6 applies in addition. This includes real-time capture of live-game data to circumvent the broadcast delay (section 22.8A) or the delayed or archived access tiers. Third-party data, statistics, odds and betting aggregators must obtain a licence and use the delayed or archived tier; unlicensed collection infringes Checkmate Live's rights, is a material breach of these Terms, and is actionable as intellectual-property and database-right infringement in addition to the other remedies in these Terms. Non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law and other mandatory Applicable Law are preserved (see section 54).

22.5 Streaming. Streaming your own casual games on third-party platforms is permitted. Streaming a tournament is subject to the Tournament Rules for that event; streaming an event without the applicable rights is a breach of these Terms and the FairPlay Policy and will result in disqualification without compensation. In nominated tournaments, the public sees a delayed stream while you and the arbiter view the game in real time; Tournament Rules may restrict the stages at which you may stream, or whether you may stream from your primary Account. While competing in a tournament, you must not broadcast, stream or share your live player view (your own board, screen or perspective); any streaming of a live competitive game must use the delayed spectator view only. Broadcasting your live player view during a competitive game leaks real-time information, is Unauthorised Assistance and stream sniping under section 11.2 and the FairPlay Policy, and may result in disqualification without compensation.

22.6 Arbiter Mode broadcast and camera coverage. In Arbiter Mode, the game, video, camera, voice, screen-capture and environment feeds may be captured, recorded and used for both fair-play integrity and broadcasting purposes, including event administration, production, broadcast, replays, highlights and promotion, subject to Applicable Law. Entering such an event is consent to that capture, recording and use, and grants the licence and release in sections 22.1 and 22.1B. For clarity: the face webcam is treated as a standard public-broadcast feed; the observer camera is ordinarily monitored by arbiters and the Fair Play team; and arena coverage may include observer-camera footage. Once a use is authorised under this section 22.6 and the licence in section 22.1, no fresh acceptance is required for each subsequent use falling within that original lawful authorisation, and the duration, sublicensing, archiving and survival provisions in sections 22.1, 22.1A and 22.1B apply. Broadcast footage distinguished from confidential records. Footage licensed for broadcast under this section 22.6 — being the face webcam public feed, observer-camera footage where used in arena coverage, and (where enabled) event audio — does not lose its authorised broadcast uses merely because a copy of the same footage is also retained as integrity, identity or investigation evidence. Conversely, confidential case files, identity documents, investigation records, Fair Play records, appeal records and other materials held under sections 14.2D, 15.1, 17, 17A and 30.2 for security, integrity, identity, Fair Play, appeals or investigation purposes retain their confidential character and do not become public-broadcast material by virtue of the broadcast rights in this section 22.

23.1 Right to cancel, postpone, reschedule or modify. Checkmate Live may cancel, postpone, reschedule, restart, consolidate or modify any tournament or event, including its format, schedule, prize structure, technical requirements and participation criteria, where reasonably necessary for operational, integrity, security, compliance, staffing, technical, broadcast, partner, minimum-field or commercial reasons. Checkmate Live will act reasonably and will provide notice where practicable. Subject to the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54), Checkmate Live is not liable for consequential or indirect loss arising from such action, including travel, accommodation, preparation costs or lost opportunity (consistent with sections 19.4 and 23.6). Refunds of entry fees, where applicable, are handled in accordance with these Terms (see sections 23.2 and 23.3) and any non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law. These powers apply in the ordinary course of tournament and broadcast operations and are not limited to exceptional circumstances or Force Majeure Events. They include action in response to sponsor withdrawal, unavailable funding, changes in event viability or partner requirements. Participant approval is not required, subject to any consent required by Applicable Law. Refunds, credits, re-entry and other remedies remain governed by the applicable provisions of these Terms and section 54.

23.1A Event archiving and data preservation. Completed events are archived from the active event listing based on event type and schedule. Archiving removes an event from public listings but does not delete event data, results, game records or metadata. Results, pairings, standings and performance data remain accessible through each participant's player profile. Archived events — including full event data, ruleset versions and operational logs — can be restored for audit, regulatory review, federation inspection, integrity investigation or legal proceedings. Where an event is voided or reset under section 19.4, the original event data is preserved in full for evidentiary purposes. The archiving, delisting, voiding or restricted visibility of an event or record does not indicate manipulation or improper conduct; archival and the operational deletion of stuck events are routine processes.

23.2 Withdrawal and no-show. Withdrawing 24 hours or more before an event credits the entry fee, less any transaction fee. Withdrawal after the deadline, a no-show, or disqualification forfeits the entry fee and placement. A squad no-show may forfeit team fees and placement. A pattern of post-lobby-close withdrawals or no-shows, or a withdrawal or no-show carried out for the purpose of disrupting bracket structure, pairings, seedings, BYE allocations, prize distributions, broadcast scheduling or event operations — whether by a single User, in coordination with others, or across multiple Accounts attributed to a User under section 8.3A — is Tournament Interference and is subject to sections 19, 19.2B, 19.4A, 15.3A (including section 15.3A(c) elevated-conduct treatment) and 14A.4 (silent countermeasures). Genuine non-attendance due to illness, accessibility, emergency, technical failure outside the User's reasonable control or other bona-fide reason is not Tournament Interference, and the User may request review under section 16.

23.3 Prize adjustment and minimum fields. Advertised prizes assume a fully-fielded division and may be reduced pro rata where a division is not filled. Where a minimum field is not met, an event may be cancelled and entry fees refunded.

23.3A Rescheduling, restart, pause and consolidation in the normal course of online events.

(a) Normal-course operational events. In the normal course of online tournament operations, Checkmate Live may reschedule, restart, pause, consolidate, merge, defer, postpone or re-stage an event, qualifier, round, match or pairing in response to operational realities that arise routinely in online competitive play, including without limitation:

(i) Insufficient registration, fill rate or minimum field — where a division, bracket, qualifier or stage has not met its minimum registration threshold or required entry count;

(ii) Insufficient check-in, no-show or drop-off — where the proportion of registered players actually checking in, remaining present or completing pre-event technical checks is insufficient to run the event in its scheduled format;

(iii) Active fair-play, integrity or security investigation — where an active or developing fair-play, integrity, anti-cheat, SecOps or security investigation affecting the event, a participant, a bracket or a round requires the event, round or stage to be paused, suspended, restarted, replayed, voided or rescheduled (see sections 14A, 15.7 and 50A);

(iv) Technical, supervision, arbiter, staff or broadcast readiness — including any technical, supervision, Arbiter-Mode, camera, microphone, screen-share, broadcast or production readiness issue, and the availability of qualified arbiters (including FIDE-, ACF-, federation- or event-level qualified arbiters), supervisors, integrity monitors, Fair Play staff, technical or production operators required to run the event in its scheduled format — including a decision by Checkmate Live that a qualified arbiter or other required staff member is not available, or is required to stand down, for the scheduled session;

(v) Server, network or platform conditions — including transient load, latency, routing, capacity, deployment-window or maintenance-related conditions;

(vi) Participant-side technical non-readiness — where one or more participants does not, or cannot, meet the technical, equipment, network, environment, device, location, identity or integrity requirements published in the Tournament Rules, in section 21 or otherwise under these Terms — including, without limitation: bandwidth, network stability, latency, packet loss; device type (for example, attempting to play on an unsupported tablet, mobile or non-desktop device where a desktop computer or other supported client is required); operating system or browser version; camera and microphone availability and resolution; screen-share, Arbiter-Mode and supervision compatibility; environmental and lighting compliance; and location-eligibility compliance. Checkmate Live relies on each participant to meet the technical and event requirements they have agreed to under the Tournament Rules and these Terms, and many such issues are not detectable until the participant logs in, completes check-in or commences play; an event, round or pairing affected by participant-side non-readiness may be paused, deferred, restarted, re-paired or rescheduled, and the affected participant may be disqualified under section 19.2 without refund (subject to section 54); and

(vii) Other operational conditions — including scheduling conflicts, federation or partner scheduling requirements, sponsor or broadcast scheduling, prize-pool funding readiness, or other reasonable operational considerations.

(b) Not a failure to provide the service. Rescheduling, restart, pause, consolidation and re-staging under this section is a normal, inherent and reasonable feature of online tournament operation and is not, of itself, a failure to provide the Platform service, a breach of these Terms, a denial of a consumer guarantee, or a basis for a refund, damages, lost-opportunity claim or other compensation — subject only to your non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54).

(c) Notice and communication. Where practicable, Checkmate Live notifies affected participants through the Platform, the event page or a published communication channel as soon as is reasonable in the circumstances. Where an active fair-play, integrity or security operation is in progress, notification may be deferred or abbreviated under sections 14A.4, 14A.5(c) and 50A.3.

(d) Refund position. A rescheduled, restarted, paused or consolidated event in the normal course of online operations does not, of itself, trigger a refund of an entry fee or pass. Where a rescheduled event subsequently cannot be run in any reasonable format, the refund position in sections 23.1, 23.3 and 23.6 (subject to section 54) applies.

(d1) Postponement preserves earned status. Where an event is postponed or rescheduled (rather than cancelled), earned qualification status, finalist positions, seedings, bracket placements and prize-eligibility positions are preserved pending rescheduling, subject to continuing eligibility and to any valid review, correction, disqualification, forfeiture, retrospective adjustment or rerun under these Terms (including sections 15.6, 15.6A, 19.4, 19.4A and 24.3), unless the event is formally cancelled under section 23.1 — in which case sections 23.1, 23.3 and 23.6 apply. Format, rules and scheduling for a rescheduled event are confirmed by Checkmate Live in advance of any rescheduled date.

(e) Relationship to other sections. This section is distinct from, and does not limit, the absolute cancellation right in section 23.1, the qualification-rerun and format-modification right in section 19.4, the security override in section 19.6, the integrity-risk authority in section 15.7, the RAMP override in section 50A, or the Force Majeure suspension in section 50. Action under any of those sections may proceed concurrently with, or in lieu of, action under this section.

23.4 Hosted and federation-executed events. Organiser responsibility is determined event by event. Where an event is expressly identified on the event page and in the applicable Tournament Rules as third-party operated, Checkmate Live's role may be limited to providing technology and infrastructure. Where a federation or third party executes the full event under that express identification, the organiser is solely responsible for operations, officiating and prizes; Checkmate Live is not liable for officiating errors or prize disputes; complaints are directed to the organiser; and primary fair-play authority rests with the federation officials. Checkmate Live may display results but makes no representation as to a third-party-executed event. Where an event has physical or hybrid components, the Tournament Organiser is solely responsible for those components — including flights, accommodation, per-diems and venue — and Checkmate Live is not liable for any act, omission, injury, loss or claim arising from the physical organisation of the event. Refund requests for physical event components must be directed to the Tournament Organiser.

23.5 Host financial failure. Checkmate Live is not liable where a federation or third-party host fails to meet its financial obligations. Checkmate Live may deduct its event-related costs before processing any refund.

23.6 Entry-fee liability cap. Checkmate Live's liability for the cancellation, postponement or modification of an event is limited to the entry fee paid, subject to section 54. Checkmate Live is not liable for travel, accommodation, visa or other expenses.

23.7 Cyberattack and event disruption. You acknowledge that online live events are high-profile targets for malicious third-party interference, and that a Cyberattack may cause severe latency, server outages, lobby disconnection, unauthorised access, or the postponement or cancellation of an event. Where a Cyberattack disrupts an event, the primary remedy is to postpone and reschedule the event, or to roll back server data to a pre-attack state, under section 50A. A Cyberattack is a criminal act by a third party. Checkmate Live maintains commercially reasonable security measures and a documented risk-management framework and takes reasonable steps to mitigate and restore service. This section discloses the risk and the primary remedy; it does not exclude, restrict or modify any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law, and any refund is handled in accordance with these Terms (see section 54).

23A.1 Checkmate Live has the exclusive right to manage all sponsorship and promotional opportunities for Platform tournaments and events.

23A.2 The following sponsor categories are prohibited: gambling and gambling-related services; alcohol, tobacco and non-prescription drugs; firearms and weapons; pornographic and adult content; and direct competitors of Checkmate Live or its partners (without our written permission).

23A.3 Players, clubs, teams and hosts must comply with the sponsorship terms published for each tournament.

24.1 Prize-eligible tournaments are identified on their event pages. Prizes are contingent on verification and compliance.

24.2 Prizes are processed after fair-play review, dispute resolution and verification, typically within 3 to 14 business days, or as stated in the Tournament Rules.

24.3 Prize eligibility and payment prerequisites. We may delay, withhold or void a prize where a violation is suspected, and may hold a prize in escrow pending resolution. A confirmed violation results in forfeiture or reallocation of the prize. Prize eligibility and payment are conditional on:

(a) Successful completion of required verifications, including identity verification, Age Verification, residency verification, AML/CTF verification and any required tax documentation;

(b) Compliance with the Platform Rules, including the FairPlay Policy, the Tournament Regulations, the applicable technical requirements and conduct standards; and

(c) The absence of: a Fair Play violation, a technical violation, a pending investigation or an unresolved account dispute.

We may delay payment to allow additional verification, to resolve a technical issue, to complete a compliance review or to allow an investigation to conclude, and may modify a prize structure where reasonably necessary due to participant numbers, technical issues, format changes or regulatory requirements. Mandatory Applicable Law is preserved (see section 54).

24.4 Lawfulness of participation; local-age affirmation. You are solely responsible for confirming that your participation in any prize-eligible tournament, qualifier, ladder or event is lawful in your jurisdiction of residence and in any jurisdiction in which you participate, and that you have attained the minimum legal age required to enter into a contract for the receipt of a prize in those jurisdictions. Where local law imposes a higher minimum age for prize-bearing competitions, or where parental or guardian consent is required, that requirement applies in addition to section 7 and the Age Policy. Checkmate Live does not verify, and is not responsible for, the lawfulness of your participation, and may reasonably rely on your affirmation of eligibility (see section 10.5). Non-excludable rights under section 54 are preserved.

24.5 Release and discharge — competition participation. By entering a prize-eligible event you release and discharge the Protected Persons (as defined in section 35.1) from any claim, demand or proceeding (whether brought by you or by a third party on your behalf) arising out of or in connection with your participation in the event or the award, non-award, adjustment or recovery of a prize, except a claim that cannot lawfully be released and subject to section 54.

24.6 Platform Benefits and reward finality. Any prize, reward, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket, Participation Record, eligibility indicator, leaderboard position, event result, promotional benefit or related entitlement remains subject to final integrity review, eligibility verification, account review, identity verification, fraud checks, sanctions checks, payment checks, event rules, jurisdictional restrictions and any applicable appeal or dispute process. Checkmate Live may delay, withhold, reverse, cancel, reclassify, replace, convert, credit or condition any prize, reward, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket, Participation Record or related benefit where required or appropriate for integrity, security, fraud prevention, compliance, governance, partner, issuer, tax, accounting or operational reasons.

24.7 Vouchers, Tickets and claimed rewards. Checkmate Live may make available Vouchers or Tickets, claimed rewards, promotional rewards, partner rewards, sponsored rewards, creator rewards, organiser rewards, event rewards, participation rewards or other Platform Benefits from time to time.

A Voucher or Ticket may be described differently in promotional copy or product copy depending on the campaign, event, reward type or user experience. The use of a promotional name such as "ticket," "voucher," "pass," "drop," "claim," "reward," "invite," "coupon," "allocation," "access pass," "entry ticket" or similar wording does not change its legal character as a Voucher or Ticket under these Terms.

A Voucher or Ticket is subject to these Terms, the applicable event rules, campaign terms, reward terms, issuer terms, External Service terms, eligibility rules, integrity rules, verification requirements, jurisdictional restrictions, expiry dates, claim windows, use restrictions and redemption conditions notified by Checkmate Live or the relevant issuer, sponsor, partner or External Service.

A Voucher or Ticket may be used only in the manner made available by Checkmate Live or the relevant issuer, sponsor, partner or External Service. Checkmate Live may delay, withhold, reverse, cancel, expire, replace, restrict, convert, credit or condition a Voucher or Ticket or claimed reward where required or appropriate for integrity, security, fraud prevention, eligibility, compliance, sanctions, AML/CTF, tax, accounting, operational, partner, issuer, campaign or legal reasons.

Unless expressly stated otherwise in the applicable terms, a Voucher or Ticket or claimed reward does not guarantee cash payment, withdrawal, transfer, exchange, redemption, token issuance, digital-asset issuance, future utility, market value, liquidity or availability in any jurisdiction.

24.8 CML election of delivery method. Unless the event rules expressly state a specific mandatory payment or delivery method, Checkmate Live may determine, at its election, the Payment Method by which a prize, reward, refund, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket or other entitlement is paid, delivered, credited, made available or administered.

Without limitation, Checkmate Live may elect to satisfy or administer a prize, reward, refund, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket or other entitlement by one or more of the following methods:

(a) domestic bank transfer;

(b) international payment;

(c) payment through a payment provider;

(d) credit to a Platform account;

(e) Crowns;

(f) Credits;

(g) tournament entry;

(h) access rights;

(i) Voucher or Ticket;

(j) Platform Benefit;

(k) partner-issued benefit;

(l) sponsor-issued benefit;

(m) claimed reward;

(n) deferred reward;

(o) external redemption pathway;

(p) External Service; or

(q) any other method made available by Checkmate Live from time to time.

Checkmate Live may change, restrict, suspend, replace or withdraw a Payment Method where required or appropriate for legal, regulatory, sanctions, AML/CTF, tax, fraud-prevention, integrity, payment-provider, issuer, partner, operational, commercial or security reasons. A User has no right to require a prize, reward, refund, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket or other entitlement to be paid, delivered, credited, redeemed or made available through any specific Payment Method, currency, provider, issuer, partner, External Service, account, wallet, jurisdiction, technical method or pathway unless Checkmate Live expressly states otherwise in writing.

Nothing in this section 24.8 is, or is to be construed as, an undertaking by Checkmate Live Pty Ltd to itself operate an exchange, custody, remittance, stored-value, redemption, payment, wallet, settlement or external value-movement service. Where a Payment Method elected under this section 24.8 involves any such service, that service is provided by the relevant entity, issuer, payment provider, gateway, affiliate, separate contracting entity or External Service under separate terms (see sections 25.2 and 28). The listing of a Payment Method in this section 24.8 is an election by Checkmate Live as to the method by which a prize, reward, refund, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket or other entitlement may be paid, delivered, credited, administered or made available, and is not an offer by Checkmate Live Pty Ltd of any regulated or value-movement service.

Preservation of the agreed entitlement. A Payment Method election under this section 24.8 permits Checkmate Live to change the routing, provider or delivery mechanism by which an entitlement is delivered (including through the disclosed payout obligor under section 25.1 or a payment service provider). It does not permit Checkmate Live to change the type, currency or value of the prize, reward, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket or other entitlement agreed with the User for the event without the User's agreement, except where a change is required by Applicable Law. Where a discretionary change would alter the type, currency or value of the entitlement, Checkmate Live will offer the change to the User and, where the User does not agree, will provide the originally agreed entitlement or a remedy required by Applicable Law. Material charges (including Delivery Costs under section 24.9) that will reduce the net value received by the User are disclosed to the User before the User commits to the relevant transaction, so far as those charges are known or reasonably ascertainable at that time.

24.9 Gross value, net receipt and Delivery Costs. Unless expressly stated otherwise in the event rules, prize pools, prizes, rewards, Platform Benefits, Vouchers or Tickets and other entitlements are advertised or described as gross values. The net amount, credit, benefit or value received by a User may be lower than the gross advertised or described value because of Delivery Costs, including third-party fees, currency-conversion costs, intermediary charges, receiving-institution charges, operator fees, External Service fees, jurisdictional charges, tax withholding, compliance charges or other costs outside Checkmate Live's control. Checkmate Live may deduct, pass through, net off, require reimbursement of, or require the User to bear Delivery Costs unless the event rules, campaign terms or Applicable Law require otherwise. Where practicable, Checkmate Live or the relevant payment provider, issuer, partner or External Service will provide a confirmation, statement, receipt or summary showing the gross value, the Payment Method, any known deductions or Delivery Costs applied before dispatch, and the net amount, credit, benefit or value dispatched, credited or made available. Checkmate Live is not responsible for later fees, deductions, taxes, conversion charges, account charges or other costs imposed by the User's bank, payment provider, receiving institution, wallet provider, local authority or other third party after Checkmate Live or the relevant provider has dispatched, credited or made available the prize, reward, refund, Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket.

25.1 Responsibility and disclosure. The event organiser is responsible for its event and the prize obligations stated in the event rules. Before entry or payment, the relevant terms must identify the organiser, merchant, fees, prize currency/funding and material eligibility and payout restrictions. Before payout setup, they must identify the payout obligor and provider, required recipient information and expected process. Use of a third-party provider does not remove an obligation that law or contract places on Checkmate Live.

25.1A Merchant-of-record receipts; no value-rail operation. Where Checkmate Live Pty Ltd temporarily holds prize-pool, subscription, entry-fee, sponsorship, refund or other Platform balances pending payout, refund, delivery, credit, administration or release, it does so only as fiat held via standard payment-service-provider arrangements and segregated banking arrangements as merchant-of-record receipts. Checkmate Live Pty Ltd does not provide crypto custody, wallet settlement, remittance, currency exchange, stored-value, payout execution for digital assets, token issuance, redemption or any external value-movement service, and does not custody, settle, transmit or exchange digital assets, tokens, wallet balances or external value for any User. Any digital-wallet, token, digital-asset, external-redemption, payout-execution or external value-movement feature, where offered, is operated and contracted by the relevant entity, payment provider, issuer, affiliate, separate contracting entity or External Service under separate terms (see sections 25.2 and 28). For the avoidance of doubt, holding fiat balances as merchant-of-record receipts pending payout, delivery, credit or release is an ordinary commercial and accounting function of the Platform operator and is not, and is not to be construed as, the operation of a regulated value-rail, designated, exchange, custody, remittance, stored-value, redemption or payment service by Checkmate Live Pty Ltd.

25.1B Regulatory disclosure and Arcade Cards scope. Only payment and payout methods expressly offered for the relevant event and jurisdiction may be used. These Terms do not themselves establish a regulatory exemption, authorise custody or remittance, or represent that an unlaunched wallet, token or payment service is available. Arcade Cards remains Web2-only with no external redemption or crypto features.

25.2 Separate eligibility. Entry, prize eligibility, award confirmation and payout are separate decisions under section 10.3. We will disclose known material restrictions before accepting payment for a prize opportunity. We will not knowingly accept paid entry on the representation that you can receive a prize when the relevant rules already exclude you. An approved non-prize entry option, if any, must be explained and agreed before entry.

25.2A Review and settlement. Event rules state the applicable result-review and claim periods and payout timetable. A prize may be held while a relevant eligibility, integrity, appeal, sanctions or provider issue is resolved. We will review a hold within a reasonable time, provide appropriate status information and a support/review route, and release an eligible prize once the applicable conditions are met. A hold affecting one recipient does not by itself require withholding every other recipient's prize. These terms state the settlement conditions without claiming that an automated settlement gate is already deployed.

25.3 Failures and remedies. A payment success screen is not final confirmation of event registration or payout. If a processing failure, expired entry or cancellation prevents provision of a paid service, we will reconcile the transaction and provide the remedy required by the relevant terms and Applicable Law. Provider failure, an outstanding verification or ordinary voluntary account closure does not automatically forfeit an accrued prize or balance. Ordinary voluntary closure is distinct from termination for cause, in which sections 40.1 and 40.1A apply. Ordinary voluntary closure does not defeat established eligibility conditions, forfeiture, retrospective clawback (section 15.6A), set-off, repayment (section 25.4B) or other recovery rights that arose before, or arise independently of, the closure. We will assist with a lawful available resolution; we will not route payments through another entity or recipient to evade restrictions.

25.4 Fees, exchange and tax. Applicable charges, currency and any conversion method or material deduction must be disclosed before you agree to the relevant transaction. Mandatory tax withholding and information requirements apply where legally required. We may request proportionate supporting information and provide required reports lawfully. We will not introduce undisclosed discretionary charges or retrospectively change an accrued prize's value merely by changing provider or operator.

25.4A Changes. Material changes to an offered payment or prize arrangement require appropriate notice and treatment of affected users' accrued rights. Where a paid service cannot be supplied on the agreed basis, applicable cancellation, refund and consumer-law remedies remain available. Do not assume AU and UAE balances or provider accounts can be combined or transferred.

25.4B Repayment of prizes and awards later invalidated. If we subsequently determine under these Terms that you were not entitled to a prize or award because of cheating, fraud, ineligibility, prohibited assistance or another material breach affecting entitlement, we may revoke or revise the affected result and award, cancel any unpaid portion and require repayment of the amount already paid to you to which you were not entitled. This applies even if the breach is discovered after verification, confirmation, payment, account closure or termination. Our demand will identify the affected award, the amount claimed, the material basis for recovery and the payment deadline, without requiring disclosure of protected detection methods, security information, privileged material or other persons' confidential information. You must repay that amount to the person legally entitled to recover it by the stated reasonable deadline. Where Checkmate Live collects for another person, we will identify that person and our authority. We may exercise lawful set-off and pursue recovery and recoverable costs under these Terms and Applicable Law. An appeal or dispute does not automatically stay revocation, restriction, a payout hold or recovery, subject to Applicable Law and any binding order. This obligation survives account closure and termination, and does not depend on whether Schedule A applies. No amount may be recovered twice.

25.5 Sanctions and AML screening. Payments and payouts are subject to anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing requirements, including identity verification, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening and, for digital-asset payouts, blockchain-address risk screening. We may screen a payment or payout recipient, and may refuse, delay or hold a payment or payout where there is a compliance or sanctions risk or a reasonable suspicion of money laundering, fraud or proceeds of crime. Junior Accounts have no prize/payout access under section 7.1A unless these Terms are expressly amended following a separately approved pathway.

Virtual Content — nature, licence and no ownership. When you purchase, earn or receive as a gift any virtual currency (including Crowns), Battle Pass or other Pass, Derivative Item, in-game reward, avatar, avatar trait, chess set, card pack, single card, access item, DLC, downloadable content, cosmetic or other virtual content on the Platform (each, and collectively, Virtual Content):

(a) you receive a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use that Virtual Content within the Platform, on the terms of these Terms and any applicable Battle Pass rules, Tournament Rules or product disclosures;

(b) you do not acquire ownership of the Virtual Content and have no proprietary right, title or interest in it. All Virtual Content is and remains the property of Checkmate Live or its licensors;

(c) Virtual Content is not money, currency, legal tender, stored value, a cash balance, a financial asset, security or investment, and does not represent or confer any right to payment or payout by Checkmate Live in fiat, cryptocurrency or any other form outside the Platform;

(d) Virtual Content is Platform-specific and generally Game-specific or feature-specific, has no monetary value outside its intended use on the Platform, and cannot be redeemed, cashed out, converted or exchanged for real-world money, cryptocurrency or property except where these Terms expressly say otherwise;

(e) Virtual Content is non-transferable other than through a Platform-authorised mechanism (for example, Trade Mode under section 26B where enabled); you must not sell, gift, trade, lend, rent, share or otherwise transfer Virtual Content outside such an authorised mechanism, and any purported transfer outside an authorised mechanism is void and may result in enforcement action under Parts C and K;

(f) your licence and access to Virtual Content is subject to and revocable under these Terms, including for material breach (see sections 39, 40 and 40.1A), on discontinuation of a service or of the Platform (see section 26.7), and on the operation of the applicable Battle Pass rules, Tournament Rules or product disclosures.

Non-excludable rights under section 54 (Australian Consumer Law) and any equivalent mandatory local consumer law are preserved.

26.0A Currency architecture. The Platform operates a tiered in-Platform value system designed to maintain clear separation between entertainment features, competitive play and external value. The tiers are Credits (earned through gameplay; not directly purchasable; no monetary value; no withdrawal path) and Crowns (a digital entertainment currency purchased with supported payment methods; usable only within the Platform; with no external conversion). Value does not flow upward between tiers, and neither tier is convertible to external value except through a specific, documented prize mechanism. Token, wallet and digital-asset features are not part of this architecture and are governed by the separate Web3 and Digital Asset Terms (see section 28).

26.0B Credits. Credits are an in-Platform reward medium earned through gameplay, participation and reward mechanics. Credits are not directly purchasable. Because Credits are not purchased, no purchase consideration attaches to them: Credits cannot be redeemed, withdrawn, exchanged or converted to cash or any external value, and are not refundable. Credits have no monetary value outside the Platform and may be used only within the Platform in accordance with these Terms.

26.1 Nature of Crowns. Crowns are a closed-loop digital entertainment currency for in-Platform transactions, of the kind commonly used by established digital entertainment and gaming platforms. Crowns are purchased with supported fiat and token payment methods as a one-way transaction. Where a token payment method is used, the payment is processed through a supported third-party payment provider or gateway as consideration for a one-way purchase of Crowns; Checkmate Live does not thereby operate, and Crowns do not provide, a currency exchange, conversion, remittance or off-ramp service. Crowns have no cash value outside the Platform and cannot be redeemed, withdrawn, exchanged or converted to cash or any external value, except where a specific prize mechanism is explicitly offered and documented. Crowns are not money, currency, a virtual asset, a financial instrument, an investment, a security, e-money, a payment token or stored value under any regulatory framework; the description of Crowns as a "currency" is a colloquial description of an in-Platform entertainment medium and does not indicate any regulated characteristic.

26.1A Token is not cash; gateway-mediated payment. For the avoidance of doubt, a supported token-denominated payment used to purchase Crowns through a third-party payment provider or gateway is not, for the purposes of these Terms, a payment in cash, money, currency, legal tender, e-money, fiat, stored value or any non-cash payment facility, and the use of a token-payment gateway does not characterise Checkmate Live as accepting, dealing in, exchanging, holding, custodying, transmitting, brokering, settling or refunding token or any virtual asset. A token may be treated under Australian law as property, a CGT asset, a virtual asset, a digital asset or another regulated or non-regulated asset type depending on its features, use and the applicable legal context. For the purposes of these Terms, a token-denominated gateway payment is not treated as cash, legal tender, stored value or a refund currency owed by Checkmate Live for the purposes of any refund, valuation, set-off, deduction, claim or other consequence under these Terms. The gateway is the party that handles, custodies and converts the token; Checkmate Live receives only the AUD (or supported settlement currency) the gateway remits to it. Refund mechanics where token-payment was used are governed by section 26.6D.

26.2 Expiry. Crowns do not expire while an Account is active and in good standing. After 24 months of inactivity we may expire unused Crowns on 30 days' notice. Expired Crowns are non-refundable.

26.3 Crowns are non-transferable between Accounts and may not be sold, traded, gifted or exchanged outside the Platform.

26.4 We may change Crown or item pricing with reasonable notice. Pricing changes apply prospectively.

26.5 Chargebacks and forfeiture. Crowns are forfeitable on termination for cause, on a chargeback, or on fraud or material breach. A chargeback or payment reversal initiated for successfully delivered Crowns or digital content is a material breach of these Terms; on notification of a chargeback we may immediately suspend or terminate the Account where reasonably necessary to protect the Platform, deduct the value of the reversed payment, and a negative balance may result. We may recover the value of a reversed payment together with associated fees and reasonable administrative costs.

26.5A Match, rating and result consequences. Where a Fair Play violation is determined, Checkmate Live may, in addition to action under sections 39 and 40:

(i) void affected match, game and tournament results;

(ii) reverse rating, ranking and leaderboard adjustments;

(iii) forfeit Crowns and Credits earned through or contaminated by the breach (subject to section 26.6 and section 54);

(iv) withhold or claw back prize entitlements under sections 24, 25 and Schedule A; and

(v) report the outcome to relevant tournament organisers, federations, integrity bodies, peer platforms and partners under sections 32, 33.5 and 38.5.

This section 26.5A applies in addition to the cross-purchase chargeback and forfeiture framework in sections 26.5, 26.6A and Schedule A, and does not exclude, restrict or modify any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54).

26.5B ACL supremacy and statutory liability limit (Crowns and Derivative Items). Nothing in sections 26.0A to 26.8 excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded (see section 54). Where the goods or services in question are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption, Checkmate Live's liability for a breach of a consumer guarantee under the Australian Consumer Law is limited, to the extent permitted by section 64A of the Australian Consumer Law, at Checkmate Live's option, to one or more of:

(a) replacement or re-supply of the relevant Crowns, Derivative Item (as defined in section 26.6B), Pass, tournament entry or Platform feature;

(b) the payment of the cost of replacement or re-supply of the relevant Crowns, Derivative Item, Pass, tournament entry or Platform feature; or

(c) where (a) and (b) are not reasonably available, a refund in accordance with sections 26.6, 26.6B and 26.6D.

For the avoidance of doubt, the limitation in this section 26.5B does not apply to a consumer guarantee that, under the Australian Consumer Law, cannot be limited under section 64A, and does not derogate from any non-excludable right of the User.

26.6 Refunds. A Crown purchase is final. A refund is available within 14 days where the Crowns are unspent, or where the Australian Consumer Law requires (see section 54). Refund requests are made through Platform support.

26.6A Refund clawback. Where a refund is issued for purchased virtual currency, we may reverse or deduct the value of items, rewards or benefits acquired with the refunded currency; a traded item may be valued at its trade price. This prevents double recovery and does not limit any right under the Australian Consumer Law.

26.6B Crown spend and Derivative Items. When you spend Crowns on a Pass, tournament entry, Trade Mode commitment, Store item, Platform Benefit or other in-Platform benefit (each, a "Derivative Item"), the consideration for that Derivative Item is the Crowns spent. The Crown purchase and the Derivative Item purchase are two separate transactions: the Crown purchase is complete on credit of the Crowns to your Account; the Derivative Item purchase is complete on the supply of the Derivative Item. A refund right (whether contractual under these Terms or arising under the Australian Consumer Law) attaches to the relevant transaction:

(a) a refund of unspent Crowns under section 26.6 reverses the original Crown purchase and is processed back to the original payment method used for that purchase, or by an equivalent process consistent with the Australian Consumer Law where the original payment method is unavailable, and (where the original Crown purchase was made via a token-payment gateway) subject to section 26.6D. For the avoidance of doubt, this section 26.6B(a) governs the refund of an unspent Crown purchase, and is a separate mechanic from the re-credit of Crowns to a User's Crown balance following the reversal of an item purchase under section 26.6B(b)(ii);

(b) a remedy in respect of a Derivative Item is satisfied, at Checkmate Live's election and subject to section 26.5B, by:

(i) re-supply of the Derivative Item;

(ii) re-credit of the Crowns spent on the Derivative Item to the User's Crown balance; or

(iii) where the Australian Consumer Law or other Applicable Law requires a money refund, a money refund equal to the AUD value of the Crowns spent on the Derivative Item, calculated at the AUD price at which those Crowns were purchased (and, where the Crown purchase was made via a token-payment gateway, satisfied in accordance with section 26.6D).

For the avoidance of doubt, the existence of a refund right or remedy in respect of a Derivative Item does not, of itself, give rise to a refund right in respect of unrelated Crown balances, unrelated Derivative Items, unrelated Passes, unrelated tournament entries or other Platform features or entitlements not affected by the underlying failure.

26.6C Consumption and finality triggers. A Derivative Item is treated as supplied and consumed, and a contractual refund right (other than a right arising under the Australian Consumer Law for a Major Failure — see section 26.6E) ceases to be available, on the earliest of:

(a) for a tournament entry — bracket seeding, draw publication, check-in close, or commencement of the first round, whichever occurs first;

(b) for a Trade Mode commitment — commitment of the cards or items into a Trade;

(c) for a Pass (including Pro Pass, Echess Pass, Battle Pass or any other Pass) — first use of any Pass-gated feature, event, content, benefit or eligibility;

(d) for a Store digital good — first use, equip, activation, redemption, download or load of the item;

(e) for a Platform Benefit, Voucher or Ticket — first use, activation, claim, presentation or redemption;

(f) for a Crown grant or Crown spend — application of the Crowns to a Derivative Item or other in-Platform feature; and

(g) for any other Derivative Item — first exercise, use, consumption or realisation of the right or benefit conferred.

A Derivative Item, once treated as supplied and consumed under this section 26.6C, is not refundable on a contractual change-of-mind basis and consumption under this section 26.6C limits only clearly identified contractual change-of-mind rights of that kind. Applicable remedies for a Derivative Item, Pass, tournament entry or Platform service that is defective, not supplied, or not remedied within a reasonable time are preserved. First use, activation, download, redemption or other consumption of a Derivative Item does not extinguish a Major Failure remedy under the Australian Consumer Law, and this section 26.6C does not exclude, restrict or modify any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law or other Applicable Law (see sections 26.5B, 26.6E and 54).

26.6D Refund form where Crowns purchased via supported token payment.

26A.1 Digital goods. The Store offers digital goods — collectibles, cosmetics (such as avatars, badges, themes and chess sets), access items, virtual currency, loot boxes, cards, card packs, tournament tokens and battle passes. Digital goods offered in the Store constitute Virtual Content (as defined in section 3 and section 26). Digital goods are server-native items that exist only within the Platform's infrastructure. They are not NFTs, crypto-assets or financial products. They are licensed on a limited, non-exclusive, revocable basis for personal use within the Platform, and are non-transferable except through Platform-controlled mechanisms.

26A.1A Loot boxes and card packs. Where items are offered through randomised mechanics (including loot boxes, card packs and similar probability-based distribution), we disclose the applicable probability categories and rarity tiers before purchase, and update those disclosures when the mechanics change. Purchasing a probability-based item does not guarantee any specific item, rarity or outcome. Items obtained through randomised mechanics are entertainment goods, not investments.

26A.2 Physical merchandise. Physical merchandise is subject to availability and the published shipping policy. Returns and exchanges are available within 30 days where the item is unused and in its original packaging. Refunds for physical merchandise are issued as store credits unless otherwise stated. This does not limit your rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

26A.3 Account deletion does not entitle you to a refund for digital goods, tournament entries or other purchases, which are final; unused balances may be forfeited on termination, subject to Applicable Law and section 26.7.

26B.1 Nature and classification of items. All Trade Mode items are server-native digital game goods and constitute Virtual Content (as defined in section 3 and section 26). They are not NFTs, crypto-assets, securities or financial products; they are not externally transferable; and they confer no property, financial, yield or profit right. They are licensed on a limited, non-exclusive, revocable basis, and Checkmate Live retains ownership and may modify, retire, rebalance or remove items.

26B.1A Licensed digital content. Items are licensed entertainment content, not goods sold as property. The consideration paid (whether in Crowns, Credits or through gameplay) is for access to and use of entertainment content within the Platform, not for the purchase of transferable property. The ability to trade an item is not evidence that it is property or a financial instrument. This characterisation does not limit any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law.

26B.2 Trade Mode is a game feature, not a financial market, exchange or investment service. It has no public order book, matching engine or price-discovery facility.

26B.3 Eligibility. Trade Mode requires Age Verification (18+), account integrity, item integrity, and compliance with jurisdictional restrictions and any published requirements. An item earned in a match that is under dispute, investigation or integrity review may be temporarily locked and unavailable for trading until the matter is cleared.

26B.4 Item provenance and trading eligibility. Items may be acquired through gameplay, purchase or other mechanisms. We may impose unlock requirements — gameplay thresholds, holding periods or integrity clearance — before an item becomes tradeable. Items may have different trading eligibility depending on how they were acquired; the applicable restrictions are disclosed at the point of acquisition or in the item description.

26B.4A Drop rates, probabilities and reward balancing. We may adjust drop rates, loot-box probabilities, reward multipliers, seasonal reward curves, item-distribution mechanics and any other parameter affecting item acquisition at any time, in order to maintain fairness, economy management, integrity and fraud protection. No specific drop rate, probability, distribution or reward outcome is guaranteed. Changes to drop rates, probabilities, multipliers or distribution mechanics apply prospectively and do not, of themselves, affect items already legitimately acquired. This prospective-only rule does not protect an item that was improperly acquired, is affected by an established breach, or is otherwise subject to Checkmate Live's rights under sections 15.6, 15.6A (retrospective clawback), 26B.10 (trade disputes and reversal), 26B.12 (modification and discontinuation) or 26B.12A (cooldowns and locks); those rights are preserved and are not a new power to confiscate legitimately acquired items for unrelated reasons. Where a loot box or card pack requires payment, the applicable probability information is disclosed before purchase in accordance with our published probability disclosure.

26B.5 Live-service balancing. The Platform is an online, evolving live-service product. To maintain competitive balance, economy management, integrity and fraud protection, we may modify, patch or adjust the statistics, attributes, functionality or performance of any item, character or feature. Ongoing balancing adjustments are a normal feature of live-service software. This section discloses that the Platform evolves; it does not exclude, restrict or modify any consumer guarantee or other right that cannot lawfully be excluded (see section 54).

26B.5A Limited editions and serial metadata. Some items may be issued as limited editions. Edition information — such as edition size, serial placement and season or series identifiers — is descriptive metadata only. It is not a token identifier, an on-chain supply index or a proof of ownership, and it does not create any property right, financial interest or transferable claim.

26B.6 Trades are made using Crowns, Credits or other supported methods. Fees may vary by item type, trade method and currency used, are disclosed before a trade is executed, and applicable fee schedules are published on the Platform.

26B.7 Facilitated agents. We may authorise a third-party agent to act, under explicit player delegation, as a trade facilitator and not as a principal, market-maker or proprietary trader. An agent must not hold proprietary inventory, make markets, circumvent controls, act without delegation, or engage in wash or circular trading. An agent's principals, directors, employees and beneficial owners must disclose any connected player Accounts; section 15.8 applies to an agent-connected network. Authorisation is revocable and the User remains responsible.

26B.8 Trades are recorded as settlement-grade receipts for audit, integrity and dispute purposes; a receipt is not an ownership certificate or a blockchain transaction.

26B.9 Traded items have no monetary value outside the Platform ecosystem and are not cash-redeemable, subject to section 54. Tax treatment depends on the transaction and Applicable Law. Non-cash transactions may have tax consequences. You are responsible for your own tax position and should obtain independent advice.

26B.10 Trade disputes. A trade dispute is resolved under Part L. We may lock items or reverse a trade for breach, an integrity hold or fraud; sections 15.6A and 15.7 apply.

26B.11 Trade Mode does not make Checkmate Live a financial market operator, exchange or regulated market, and it provides no investment advice or financial service.

26B.11A Financial-product exclusion. Trade Mode is not a financial market, exchange, or clearing-and-settlement facility under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) or equivalent legislation, and items are not financial products, managed-investment-scheme interests, derivatives or securities. This statement is included for regulatory clarity and is not a legal opinion.

26B.12 Modification and discontinuation. We may modify, suspend or discontinue Trade Mode. On discontinuation, items remain licensed but non-tradeable; section 26.7 applies to any associated currency.

26B.12A Cooldowns and locks. We may apply cooldowns, locks, velocity limits or freezes to items or trading, to protect the integrity of the trading ecosystem, prevent fraud and comply with legal obligations. Triggers may include recent acquisition (a post-match holding period), account-integrity signals, unusual trading patterns or velocity, a dispute or investigation hold, policy changes or system maintenance, and other integrity, compliance or abuse-prevention reasons. Where a lock is imposed we notify you of the reason category and, where possible, the expected duration, subject to the lawful withholding, deferral, abbreviation or omission of confidential reasons under sections 14A.4, 14A.5(c), 15.1 and 50A.3 where notification would compromise an investigation, blind or disable an anti-cheat mechanism, interfere with a silent, delayed or automated countermeasure, tip off a suspected actor or prejudice a referral to a federation, integrity body, regulator or law-enforcement agency. Where sufficient notice can safely and lawfully be given, it is given; anti-abuse triggers, detection thresholds and other categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1 are not disclosed. An integrity or investigation lock is lifted or escalated within a reasonable time.

26B.12B Trade Mode and item features are provided for entertainment. Items are game goods, not investments or stores of value.

26B.13 Prohibited conduct in Trade Mode. The following are prohibited: price manipulation; automated or bot trading; farming for trade profit; exploiting trade mechanics or timing; transferring items to circumvent a hold; conduct that replicates a financial exchange; and facilitating, advertising, listing on or participating in any off-platform marketplace, escrow or exchange for Platform items, or receiving or paying real-world consideration outside the Platform in connection with an on-platform trade. Section 14.1 (substance over form) applies.

27.1 Sponsored tournaments are identified in their event rules. Sponsors are not parties to these Terms.

27.2 Prize funding and event changes. Publication of an event or advertised prize pool does not remove Checkmate Live's rights under section 23 and the Tournament and Prize Terms to postpone, reschedule, cancel or otherwise adjust the event.

Checkmate Live is not required to replace withdrawn or unavailable third-party funding from its own resources unless it has expressly undertaken that obligation in the applicable event terms. A decision properly made under the event-change provisions does not, of itself, entitle a participant to the advertised prize pool, hypothetical winnings or compensation for a lost opportunity to compete.

Any entry-fee refund, credit, re-entry or other remedy is determined under section 23, the Tournament and Prize Terms and section 54. Existing prize-payment obligations are determined under the applicable event terms and remain subject to eligibility, verification, Fair Play, forfeiture, retrospective correction and repayment provisions.

27.3 Sponsored, partner and claimed rewards. Checkmate Live may facilitate a prize, Voucher or Ticket, Platform Benefit or reward in two cases: (a) a sponsored or partner reward, where the relevant prize, Voucher or Ticket, Platform Benefit or reward is funded, issued or made available by a sponsor, partner, issuer or other third party and Checkmate Live distributes or facilitates it as agent; and (b) a claimed reward, where a reward, Voucher or Ticket or Platform Benefit is claimed by the User through an active opt-in claim step and is provided by Checkmate Live, an affiliate, a sponsor, a partner, an issuer or an External Service under the applicable terms. In each case, Checkmate Live distributes, facilitates or administers the prize, Voucher or Ticket, Platform Benefit or reward and does not, merely by doing so, operate an exchange, custody, redemption, remittance, payment, stored-value or external value-movement service. Any redemption, onboarding, eligibility, jurisdictional availability, external value movement, wallet, digital-asset, token or third-party delivery feature, where applicable, is governed by the separate terms of the relevant operator, issuer, sponsor, partner or External Service, including the Web3 and Digital Asset Terms where applicable (see section 28).

28.1 These Terms govern Web2 gameplay, tournaments, broadcast, subscriptions, Crowns, Credits, Platform Benefits and Platform services provided by Checkmate Live Pty Ltd. Features involving digital wallets, tokens, NFTs, digital assets, external redemption, external value movement or other digital-asset functionality are not governed by these Terms unless expressly stated.

28.2 Separate terms and entity. Any digital-wallet, token, digital-asset, external-redemption or external value-movement feature, where offered, is governed by separate terms, operated and contracted by the relevant entity, and accepted separately at the point those features are accessed. No such feature is provided under these Terms or by Checkmate Live Pty Ltd as the contracting party unless expressly stated.

28.3 You have no entitlement to a digital-asset, tokenised or blockchain feature that has not been officially launched for your tier and jurisdiction under the Web3 and Digital Asset Terms.

28.4 Claimed digital-asset rewards. Where a separate digital-asset programme offers a reward that a User may claim, the reward requires an active, opt-in claim step and is issued, redeemed or made available by the relevant issuing or operating entity under separate terms. Checkmate Live's role, where applicable, is limited to facilitating the claim or confirming Platform-side eligibility. Holding or claiming any such reward does not exempt a User from these Terms, the FairPlay Policy or enforcement, and confers no governance, voting, dividend, profit-share or financial right in Checkmate Live.

28.5 Cross-platform arbitrage. Exploiting price, reward or policy differentials between the Platform and an affiliated or partner platform or game, in order to extract value, is prohibited and is a Fair Play violation; section 14.1 applies.

28.5A Vouchers or Tickets before external redemption launch. Checkmate Live may issue, facilitate, recognise, display, track, credit, convert or administer Vouchers or Tickets, Platform Benefits or claimed rewards before any related digital-wallet, token, digital-asset, external-redemption or external value-movement feature is launched. The issue, display, claim, possession, crediting, conversion or use of a Voucher or Ticket before such a feature is launched does not mean that the related feature has launched, does not give the User a right to require launch, does not create a right to any particular Payment Method or redemption method, and does not guarantee that the Voucher or Ticket will be redeemable for any token, digital asset, cash amount, external value, wallet credit or other benefit unless expressly stated in the applicable Voucher or Ticket terms. Checkmate Live may support interim uses for a Voucher or Ticket, including use for Platform access, tournament entry, promotional benefits, in-Platform utility, Crowns, Credits, event participation, creator or community rewards, or other Platform Benefits, where made available by Checkmate Live from time to time. Any future external redemption, token, digital-asset, wallet or value-movement pathway remains subject to separate terms, eligibility checks, jurisdictional availability, verification, compliance checks, issuer approval, operator availability, Delivery Costs and Applicable Law.

28.6 Foreign tax and external value-movement reporting. Where any tax, AML/CTF, or external value-movement reporting obligation applies to a digital-asset or token feature — including any obligation under the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) or equivalent regimes — that reporting is performed by the value-movement, token-issuing or external value-movement entity operating those features under the Web3 and Digital Asset Terms, and not by Checkmate Live Pty Ltd. Checkmate Live Pty Ltd does not act as a reporting financial institution, designated service provider or crypto-asset service provider in respect of Web3 features.

29.1 The Platform contains materials owned or licensed by the Designated Operator and underlying technology owned or licensed by VADR Media and other applicable owners or licensors. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of any Platform intellectual property, integrity technology, confidential system, data, software, method, model, detection process or related right to any User.

29.2 The Platform and its content are licensed, not sold. You receive a limited, non-transferable, revocable licence and acquire no ownership.

29.3 Although isolated raw chess moves may be in the public domain, the Platform's protected presentation, analysis, statistical aggregation, timing data, metrics, curated compilations and database structures — including those generated through Arcade Mode, Pro Mode, Echess Mode, gameplay options, opponent-selection options, queues, formats, session types, ladders, leagues, Arcade Games and other Platform features — may be owned or licensed by the Designated Operator, VADR Media or another applicable owner or licensor and are not placed in the public domain merely because they are made available through the Platform.

29.4 Notice-and-counter-notice procedure. A person whose content has been removed under section 18.12, section 29 or a third-party intellectual-property claim may submit a counter-notice through the legal contact address displayed on the Platform that identifies the removed content, provides a verified contact address, and gives a good-faith statement (subject to penalty of perjury under any applicable jurisdiction) that the removal was the result of mistake or misidentification. Checkmate Live may, in its discretion and within a reasonable time, restore the content if no proceeding has been commenced by the complainant within a reasonable period after the counter-notice is forwarded. A bad-faith, knowingly false or fraudulent counter-notice is itself a breach of these Terms (see section 18.12), is Unauthorised Access where it interferes with Platform integrity (see section 14A), and is recoverable under section 36 and Schedule A.

29.5 Repeat-infringer policy. Where a User is the subject of repeated, substantiated third-party intellectual-property infringement notices, Checkmate Live will, in appropriate circumstances and consistent with its safe-harbour obligations under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and equivalent laws elsewhere, suspend or terminate the Account under sections 39 and 40, irrespective of the User's separate Fair Play standing. Section 54 is preserved.

30.1 Platform-generated data. The Designated Operator and its authorised service providers may collect, process and generate gameplay records, telemetry, move and timing data, statistics, analytics, integrity signals and compilations for Platform operation, security, fair play, fraud prevention and service improvement, as described in the Privacy and Compliance Policy. The allocation of rights between the Designated Operator and its providers is governed separately and does not affect your rights in personal data under Applicable Law.

30.1A Digital commercialisation — all formats. The Designated Operator reserves the right to monetise, license, tokenise and otherwise commercially exploit gameplay records, tournament data, participation data, broadcast and content outputs, and other digital assets that it owns or is authorised to use — across all current and future formats. You acknowledge that digital value derived from your activity may be subject to such commercialisation without further compensation, save for prize entitlements expressly offered and earned under these Terms. This section does not transfer to the Designated Operator any technology or provider rights that it does not otherwise own or hold under licence. This section operates in addition to sections 22, 27, 28, 29, 30.2 and 30.6 and does not limit any of them.

30.1B Protocol, settlement-layer and future value-technology rights (technology-neutral). Without limiting section 30.1A, you acknowledge and agree that the Designated Operator and its authorised CML Group Companies and licensees may record, attribute, account for, settle, tokenise, mint, distribute, reward and commercialise participation, engagement, gameplay, viewership, content-creation and value generated through or derived from your activity on the Platform, in digital or physical form, by means of any current or future protocol, settlement layer, ledger, token, digital asset, credit, points, unit, representation, instrument, record of value, on-chain or off-chain mechanism, or other value-movement, value-representation or value-attribution technology — in whatever form it ultimately takes — and whether or not that protocol, technology, token, digital asset or representation exists at the date of these Terms. This right is technology-neutral and format-independent, but applies only to the extent the relevant entity owns or is authorised to exercise those rights. Any such feature (i) is not owed, promised or guaranteed, and is available only if and when officially launched for your tier and jurisdiction (section 28.3); (ii) is governed in addition by the separate Web3 and Digital Asset Terms (section 28) and any applicable protocol or token terms, which are accepted separately at the point the feature is accessed; and (iii) is exercised without further compensation to you, save for prize, reward, Voucher or Ticket entitlements expressly offered and earned under these Terms. Where participation involves you claiming a reward, token, benefit or asset (whether digital or physical), that participation is optional and opt-in (consistent with sections 24.7 to 24.9 and 30.2). Nothing in this section grants you any ownership, security, financial product or entitlement, constitutes an offer of any financial product, or derogates from your non-excludable rights under the Australian Consumer Law (section 54).

30.2 Participation data. Registering for, entering or participating in Platform activity grants the Designated Operator the right to use participation data, including gameplay records, event records, activity records, eligibility records, integrity records, Participation Records, reward records, Voucher or Ticket records, Platform Benefit records, Payment Method records, Delivery Cost records and related operational data, including by assignment or sub-licence to CML Group Companies, service providers and partners for analytical, audit, integrity, governance, reward-administration, Voucher or Ticket administration, payment administration and operational purposes; commercial exploitation is separately governed by sections 30.1A, 30.1B and 30.6 and by any additional consent required by law. Integrity records — separation from commercial use. Integrity, Fair Play, appeals, dispute-resolution and identity records (including pseudonymous records that remain identifiable in the hands of Checkmate Live or a recipient) are treated as personal information for the purposes of Applicable Law and are not treated as non-personal information merely because they are held in pseudonymous form. Those records are collected, used, retained and disclosed only for the integrity, Fair Play, appeals, dispute-resolution, compliance and legal-proceedings purposes described in sections 17, 17A and 33, subject to the Privacy and Compliance Policy and the purpose, disclosure and retention limits set by Applicable Law. The broad commercial-exploitation rights in sections 30.1A, 30.1B and 30.6 do not extend to integrity, Fair Play, appeals, identity or dispute-resolution records. These records retain their confidential character even where separate footage of the same event is authorised for broadcast under section 22 (see section 22.6). Claiming any associated Voucher or Ticket, Platform Benefit or reward is optional and is governed by section 24.7, section 24.8, section 24.9, section 27.3, section 28 and any separate terms applicable to the relevant Voucher or Ticket, reward, Payment Method, issuer, partner or External Service.

30.3 User content. You retain ownership of content you create, and grant Checkmate Live a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence to use, reproduce, modify, distribute and display it for operating and promoting the Platform.

30.4 You may export your own gameplay files (such as PGN) for personal use. Bulk export or redistribution of Platform-compiled data is prohibited.

30.5 Data scraping and AI-training prohibition. You must not collect Platform data by automated or manual means, create a database of it, or use it to train, fine-tune or distil any machine-learning model, AI system or large language model, regardless of whether the data is publicly visible. Section 12.6 applies in addition.

30.6 Coverage and media rights. Checkmate Live holds all broadcast, coverage, data-collection and media-distribution rights in its tournaments and events, and exclusive rights in game data and metadata, and may assign or licence those rights.

31.1 Checkmate Live is a public competitive platform. Results, leaderboards, ratings and Fair Play enforcement outcomes are public records.

31.1A Access to the Platform — by players and viewers — requires a logged-in Account. The Platform is not an open-access data source.

31.1B Public results do not grant any right to scrape, harvest, aggregate or redistribute Platform data. A breach may result in termination, IP blocking and civil recovery.

31.1C Jurisdictional availability. Feature, service and access availability is subject to the User's jurisdiction, and we may restrict or modify availability where reasonably necessary to comply with Applicable Law.

31.2 You cannot enjoy public competitive success while claiming privacy over the enforcement of a related violation.

32.1 Checkmate Live maintains a sanctions record. A published sanction includes, at minimum, the username, violation category, the tournament concerned, the sanction and the date.

32.2 Real-name publication. Real-name publication is permitted where the violation occurred in an identity-verified format (Pro Mode or Echess Mode), where the violation is serious or systematic, where federation regulations require it, or where the severity and public interest warrant it. For Users under 18, publication is limited in accordance with the Age Policy.

32.3 We may share sanctions information with ESIC, FIDE, national federations (including, for a Federation Junior Account, the enrolling federation), cross-platform integrity networks, and — limited to sanction status, category and duration — the operator of any third-party sign-in provider you have linked under section 8.4A where that operator maintains a player-sanctions service. Checkmate Live's own sanctions record remains the authoritative record.

32.4 Nothing requires publication beyond what is reasonably necessary for integrity, deterrence and record-keeping.

33.1 A good-faith, evidence-based Fair Play publication, made for a legitimate purpose, is made on a qualified-privilege basis.

33.2 To the maximum extent permitted by law, Checkmate Live relies on any applicable defence, including qualified privilege, common-interest privilege, statutory reporting and honest opinion, in respect of a factual, legitimate and proportionate sanctions publication. This section does not guarantee that every good-faith communication is privileged or immune from claims; the availability of a defence depends on the facts and Applicable Law.

33.3 Section 33.2 does not apply to a bad-faith, baseless or disproportionate publication; judicial review of the reasonableness of enforcement is preserved. A public communication under this section 33 distinguishes clearly between an allegation, suspicion or investigation in progress and an established finding, and does not present a matter that is under investigation, or a suspicion that has not been determined, as if it were an established finding.

33.4 These protections extend to all Protected Persons (as defined in section 35.1), including the Designated Operator, CML Group Companies, VADR Media, their officers, directors, employees, agents, contractors and licensors, and federation and integrity partners.

33.5 Reports to integrity bodies, regulators, sanctions and stakeholders. In addition to the protections in sections 33.1 to 33.4, a communication that Checkmate Live or any Protected Person makes in good faith, for the purposes of integrity, security, compliance, enforcement or risk management, to:

(a) a federation, integrity body, national governing body, anti-doping or anti-corruption body, sanctions list, or AML/CTF screening service in any jurisdiction (including ESIC, FIDE, the ACF, national chess federations, and other national, regional or international sports or esports governing bodies and integrity bodies — whether in the user's country of residence, the country in which the conduct occurred, the country in which the user holds a federation rating, licence, membership or commercial relationship, or any other jurisdiction with a legitimate interest in the matter);

(b) a law-enforcement, regulatory, supervisory, taxation or public-safety authority in any jurisdiction (including the AFP, AUSTRAC, the ACSC, ASIC, the OAIC, the eSafety Commissioner, the ATO, state and territory police, and equivalent foreign authorities, including those in the user's country of residence or the country in which the conduct occurred);

(c) a peer platform, an industry cross-platform integrity network, a chess or esports tournament organiser or league, a venue, a host broadcaster, or a contracted service provider, in any jurisdiction; or

(d) a contracting, commercial, sponsor, prize-pool funder, host federation, host city, or rights-holder counterparty with a legitimate interest in receiving the information, in any jurisdiction,

is made on a qualified-privilege and common-interest basis. This includes communications concerning suspected cheating, suspected fraud, suspected unauthorised access, suspected cyberattack, sanctions or sanctions-screening matters, an account suspension, ban or restriction, a Fair Play investigation, a suspected breach of these Terms, and a cross-platform or cross-federation integrity matter. To the maximum extent permitted by law, no such communication gives rise to a claim in defamation, injurious falsehood, malicious falsehood, breach of privacy, breach of confidence or any other tort against Checkmate Live or any Protected Person. Cross-border scope. The protections in this section apply to communications made by Checkmate Live or any Protected Person to a federation, integrity body, governmental authority, regulator, sports/esports governing body, league, tournament organiser, venue, host broadcaster, peer platform, sponsor or other counterparty located in or operating under the laws of a jurisdiction other than Australia, where the user's conduct has breached, is suspected of having breached, or is reasonably capable of breaching these Terms, the integrity rules of that body, or the laws of that jurisdiction. By accepting these Terms you acknowledge that Checkmate Live operates across multiple markets, that conduct on the Platform may be reported in the jurisdiction in which it occurred, in the jurisdiction in which you reside, and in any other jurisdiction whose federation, integrity body or authority has a legitimate interest, and you consent to such cross-border reporting on a qualified-privilege and common-interest basis.

Bad-faith, knowingly false or disproportionate communications are not protected; non-excludable rights under Applicable Law (including the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) and equivalent statutes elsewhere) are preserved.

34.1 Platform communications and operational information are confidential, unless we agree otherwise or the information is already legitimately public. This includes: support tickets, appeals, investigation correspondence, and arbiter and verification exchanges; private chat messages, direct messages, internal correspondence and recorded calls; video conferences and screen-sharing sessions; and internal reports, security protocols and technical documentation. Operational confidentiality: you must not share sensitive details about Platform operational workflows, fair-play detection protocols, technical systems, APIs or backend infrastructure, anti-cheat measures, security configurations, or internal investigative procedures.

34.2 You must not disclose, screenshot, record or disseminate a confidential communication without our written consent, except to legal counsel, under a court order, to law enforcement, to a regulator (such as the OAIC, the eSafety Commissioner or AUSTRAC), for lawful whistleblowing, or to preserve evidence of wrongdoing.

34.3 Investigation confidentiality. During an active Fair Play investigation, you must not disclose that you are under investigation, or its details or findings, before public announcement.

34.4 Doxing. Intentionally and harmfully disclosing another person's personal information without consent is prohibited. This applies to the personal information of Checkmate Live players, staff, arbiters, moderators and volunteers, and of federation officials, integrity partners and legal representatives. Prohibited disclosures include real names, residential addresses, contact information, employment details, financial records and other personally identifiable information. A first offence may result in a permanent ban; consequences may include suspension or termination, civil or criminal proceedings, and cooperation with law enforcement and regulatory authorities.

34.5 A confidentiality violation may result in warnings, suspension, permanent ban, prize forfeiture or legal action.

34.6 Monitoring of Platform communications. You acknowledge and agree that Checkmate Live and its service providers may monitor, record, store and review communications made through the Platform, including chat, in-game video and supervision audio, screen-share, support tickets, broadcast feeds and Comms Features, for Fair Play, integrity, safety, security, moderation, dispute resolution, training, audit and compliance purposes.

This monitoring is subject to the Privacy and Compliance Policy, Applicable Law, and any in-product permissions or notices required for the relevant feature. Nothing in this section removes any privacy right, access right, correction right, complaint right or other non-excludable right under Applicable Law.

34.7 Beta-test and unreleased-feature confidentiality. Where you access the Platform in an Alpha, Beta, Early Access, closed-beta, private-preview, pilot or other pre-general-availability programme — or otherwise obtain access to features, content, integrity-system capabilities, technical infrastructure, roadmap information, operational arrangements, External Services, settlement controls or commercial arrangements that are not generally available to the public — you must:

(a) keep that access and the related information confidential;

(b) not publish, post, stream, broadcast, screenshot, leak, share, blog, podcast, demonstrate, reverse-engineer, benchmark, or otherwise disclose any aspect of the pre-release feature, programme or information to any third party (including on social media, video-sharing platforms, community forums, news media or to competitors), without Checkmate Live's prior written consent;

(c) treat the access and information as Checkmate Live confidential information for the purposes of this Part H and sections 12.5B, 17B, 18.13 and 36; and

(d) on request, return or destroy any related materials and provide written confirmation of compliance.

This obligation continues after your access ends, after the feature is publicly released, and after termination of your Account, in respect of any information that was not publicly available at the time of disclosure. For the avoidance of doubt, this section does not apply to (i) content or footage authorised for broadcast, replay, promotion or public distribution under section 22 (including authorised streams and archives), or (ii) information that is already lawfully in the public domain at the time of disclosure and not through breach of this Part H, section 12.5B or a related confidentiality obligation. Non-public technical, commercial, integrity, security, roadmap, investigation and operational material referred to in this section 34.7 continues to be protected after any related public release. Breach of this section is Tournament Interference within section 19.8 where competitively material, and is elevated conduct within section 15.3A(c), recoverable under section 36 and Schedule A.

35.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, none of the Designated Operator, CML Group Companies, VADR Media, or their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, contractors, licensors, sub-licensees, and federation and integrity partners (together, the "Protected Persons") is liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, or for loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, opportunity, reputation or other intangible loss, arising out of or relating to your use of the Platform — whether the claim is based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence), statute, equity or any other legal theory, and even where the Designated Operator or a Protected Person has been advised of the possibility of such loss. The Designated Operator's total aggregate liability to you is limited to the greatest of: (a) the fees you paid to the Designated Operator in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim; (b) for a claim arising specifically out of or in connection with a particular tournament, the entry fee paid by you for that tournament; and (c) AUD $100. This cap applies on a per-User basis and may not be aggregated across Users, claims, causes of action or proceedings.

35.2 To the maximum extent permitted by law, a refund or re-supply (where required) is the exclusive monetary remedy, and no additional compensation, damages, monetary relief, restitution, disgorgement, account of profits, equitable monetary relief, or claim framed as unjust enrichment or under any similar doctrine arises beyond the cap in section 35.1; non-excludable rights under section 54 are preserved.

35.3 Sections 35.1 and 35.2 are subject to section 54; nothing in them excludes, restricts or modifies a non-excludable consumer guarantee, and Checkmate Live's liability for a failure to meet a non-excludable guarantee is limited, where permitted, to re-supply or the cost of re-supply. Some of the limitations and exclusions in this section 35 and in section 37 may be limited, modified or unavailable under the consumer-protection or unfair-contract laws of a User's jurisdiction (including the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, the United Kingdom Consumer Rights Act 2015 and equivalent regimes); to the extent so limited, those provisions are read down to the minimum necessary to comply with that mandatory law and the remainder continue to apply.

35.4 Checkmate Live is not liable for good-faith enforcement; for a report made to an authority, federation or integrity body; for the act of a third party; for a service interruption; for the deployment of silent, delayed, automated or other lawful protective countermeasures and deferred-enforcement protocols under section 14A.4, the specific design and operation of which are confidential (see section 15.1) and which are not exhaustively described in these Terms; for a reasonable detection error; or for the value of a digital asset.

35.5 Remedy-failure preservation. The limitations, exclusions and disclaimers in this section 35 and in section 37 apply to the maximum extent permitted by law and continue to apply even if a contractual remedy or limitation in these Terms or Schedule A is found by a court or tribunal to have failed of its essential purpose; non-excludable rights under section 54 are preserved.

35.6 Operational continuity and equitable relief. Subject to section 54 and any non-excludable right under mandatory Applicable Law, a User must not seek interlocutory or equitable relief for the primary purpose of disrupting, restraining or interfering with the ordinary operation, availability, broadcast, distribution or content of the Platform, the Services, or any other User's access to or use of the Platform, where damages or a statutory remedy would be an adequate remedy.

Nothing in this section prevents a User from seeking urgent relief where required to protect a non-excludable statutory right, prevent unlawful disclosure of personal information, restrain bad-faith publication, prevent misuse of confidential information, or obtain relief that a court or tribunal considers appropriate.

This section does not affect: (i) Checkmate Live's rights to seek equitable relief under sections 18.7 and 44.2A; (ii) a User's right to bring a separate proceeding under section 44; or (iii) any non-excludable statutory right.

36.1 You indemnify the Protected Persons (as defined in section 35.1) against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees and, without limitation:

(i) forensic-investigation surcharges and third-party incident-response and security-consultant fees;

(ii) engineering remediation and developer hours (charged at Checkmate Live's standard internal rates), cloud-infrastructure scaling, compute, bandwidth and storage costs, and anti-cheat re-baselining and re-tuning costs;

(iii) business interruption and lost revenue, including lost gameplay, subscription, pass, store, prize-pool, broadcast, streaming, sponsor, advertising, ticket and entry-fee revenue;

(iv) event cancellation, postponement, rescheduling and re-run costs, including refunds to entrants, re-funding of prize pools, venue, arbiter, supervision, broadcast and production re-engagement costs, and sponsor and broadcaster make-goods;

(v) third-party contractual liability and contractual penalties payable to federations, governing bodies, integrity bodies, broadcasters, streaming partners, sponsors, advertising counterparties, venues, host-city and host-federation counterparties, prize-pool funders and other commercial counterparties;

(vi) regulator engagement, breach-notification, compliance and external-reporting costs (including under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the GDPR, the CCPA, the India Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and equivalent data-protection regimes);

(vii) payment-processor chargeback fees, acquirer-imposed penalties and fraud-rate or scheme-imposed remediation costs;

(viii) insurance excess, deductible, increased premium, re-underwriting and related insurance costs — including premium uplifts on the relevant policy and on related, adjacent or successor policies over the current and each subsequent renewal cycle where the claim is a rated factor; erosion or loss of no-claims bonus or premium-affecting policy feature; insurer-imposed re-underwriting, audit or security-assessment costs; policy non-renewal, cancellation or restriction by the insurer attributable to the claim and the incremental cost of obtaining replacement coverage; and broker, advisory and consultant fees;

(ix) reputational-repair, public-relations, crisis-communications, customer-communications and player-retention and re-engagement costs; and

(x) reasonable internal management time of Checkmate Live's executive, legal, integrity, compliance and operations personnel;

(xi) legal, dispute-resolution and enforcement costs on a full-indemnity basis, including legal and counsel fees (solicitor-and-own-client basis), barrister and expert-witness fees, court and filing fees, arbitration and arbitrator fees and tribunal-seat costs (including under section 44.3A — ACICA, ADGM and WIPO Videogames forums), mediation, conciliation and expert-determination costs, e-discovery, evidence-preservation, forensic-expert and process-server costs, security-for-costs, freezing-order, search-order and Mareva-type relief costs, costs of obtaining and enforcing judgments (including in foreign jurisdictions, through civil-enforcement instruments — see section 44.2B), and collection and recovery costs; and

(xii) regulatory, administrative and pass-through penalties, fines, awards and orders imposed on, or paid by, Checkmate Live or any Protected Person — including (without limitation) civil penalties, administrative penalties, infringement notices, court-ordered awards, settlement payments to resolve regulator action, enforceable undertakings, remediation orders, compliance directions, payment-network or scheme-imposed fines (beyond ordinary chargeback fees within (vii)), federation- or integrity-body-imposed sanctions or fines on Checkmate Live itself, and equivalent penalties or orders imposed by any Australian or foreign regulator, governmental authority, supervisory body, federation, integrity body, competent court or payment network — where the penalty, fine, award, settlement, direction or order arises out of, or is in connection with, your conduct, your breach of these Terms, your violation of Applicable Law or the rights of a third party, or the conduct of a third party attributed to you under section 14A.3 or section 8.3A; and the cost of complying with, contesting, defending or settling any such matter; and

(xiii) any other loss, cost, expense or adverse impact on the Platform, on Checkmate Live's business, on a Protected Person or on a tournament, event, broadcast, partner relationship, federation relationship, sponsor relationship or regulatory standing, that is reasonably attributable to your conduct, whether direct or consequential and whether or not specifically enumerated above,

in each case directly resulting from your breach) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use of the Platform; (b) your breach of these Terms (including, without limitation, any act of Unauthorised Access under sections 3.1 and 14A or any participation in a Cyberattack as defined in section 3.1, whether executed directly, through a proxy, or by an affiliated, instructed, commissioned, funded or otherwise facilitating third party — see section 14A.3); (c) your content or its infringement of any right of a third party; (d) your violation of Applicable Law or the rights of any third party; (e) a defamation, privacy, injurious-falsehood or similar claim arising out of or relating to a report or other communication made under section 33; or (f) your failure to cooperate with an investigation.

36.1A Ordinary player conduct limitation. For ordinary player conduct that does not involve Unauthorised Access, Cyberattack, External Adversarial Conduct, deliberate Tournament Interference, fraud, deliberate commercial interference, systematic identity fraud, multi-account network operation, payment fraud, data scraping, intellectual-property misuse, corruption of officials, or conduct classified under section 15.3A(c) or (d), the indemnity in section 36.1 is limited to reasonable, direct and documented losses caused by the breach, and does not include business interruption, lost revenue, insurance premium uplift, reputational-repair costs, regulatory penalties, full-indemnity legal costs or other consequential categories except to the extent recoverable under mandatory Applicable Law.

36.2 This indemnity survives termination and does not exclude a mandatory right under the Australian Consumer Law.

36.3 No set-off, no counterclaim, pay-first.

(a) Pay in full, free of set-off. Every amount payable by you to a Protected Person under this section 36, Schedule A or any other recovery, indemnity, sanction, fee or charge under these Terms must be paid in full and in cleared funds, free of any set-off, counterclaim, cross-claim, deduction, withholding or recoupment, whether arising in contract, in tort, in equity, in statute or otherwise. This paragraph (a) and paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of this section 36.3 apply to amounts payable in connection with conduct classified under section 15.3A(c) or (d), or in connection with Schedule A recovery. For amounts payable in connection with conduct addressed solely under section 15.3A(b) or section 15.3B, standard payment terms apply and the pay-first requirement in this section 36.3 does not apply.

(b) No conditioning, suspending or delaying payment. You must not condition, suspend, defer or delay payment by reason of any dispute, claim, alleged claim, complaint, investigation or proceeding (whether commenced or threatened, and whether arising out of these Terms or otherwise) that you have or assert, or might have or assert, against a Protected Person.

(c) Waiver of counterclaim, cross-claim and third-party claim. In any proceeding — including any arbitration under section 44.3A, court proceeding, enforcement action, recovery action or interlocutory application — commenced by a Protected Person to enforce these Terms, Schedule A, any indemnity, any sanction (including a Fair Play sanction) or any recovery, you waive, to the maximum extent permitted by law, any right to bring, advance, raise or rely on a counterclaim, cross-claim or third-party claim against any Protected Person. Any such claim, if you have one, must be brought as a separate proceeding under section 44.

(d) No appeal or review as a basis to withhold payment; workable dispute process. The fact that you have lodged, or intend to lodge, an internal appeal under section 16, an appeal under section A.10, an application for judicial review, an arbitration challenge, a regulator complaint or any other review or challenge is not, of itself, a basis on which you may withhold, set off, condition or delay payment under this section 36.3. Where a person raises a genuine, particularised dispute as to quantum, attribution or the reasonableness of the claim, in response to the particulars provided under section A.3.2, we will consider it in good faith. We may, acting reasonably, agree a payment plan, defer enforcement or suspend collection while it is considered. Raising a dispute does not automatically grant an extension or suspend payment, collection, sanctions or protective action, subject to non-excludable rights and any binding court or tribunal order. Nothing in this section 36.3 limits any non-excludable statutory right, including under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54).

(e) Compulsory and statutory carve-outs. Section 36.3(c) does not require you to forgo a counterclaim that, under the rules of the relevant court or arbitral institution, is a compulsory counterclaim that must be raised in the same proceeding on pain of being forever barred, and does not exclude a non-excludable statutory right of set-off, counterclaim or recoupment under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54), the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth), the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) or any other mandatory Applicable Law that cannot lawfully be excluded.

(f) Acknowledgement of commercial purpose. You acknowledge that this section 36.3 is included to support the efficient, prompt and orderly recovery of integrity-, security- and event-related costs and harm under these Terms and Schedule A, and that it operates alongside — not in place of — your right to bring a separate proceeding under section 44.

37.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Platform, tournaments, subscriptions, Services, content and integrity systems are provided "as is" and "as available", with no warranty of uninterrupted, error-free or secure operation, no warranty that defects will be corrected, no warranty that the Platform, servers, content or downloads are free of viruses, malware or other harmful components, and no warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement other than to the extent provided by non-excludable consumer guarantees (see section 54). Checkmate Live may change, modify, suspend, withdraw or discontinue any feature, content, service or the Platform itself, in whole or in part, in accordance with sections 4, 39 and 40 and subject to section 54.

37.2 We do not guarantee detection of all cheating or immunity from false positives, and will take reasonable corrective measures, including reinstatement, for a confirmed false positive. A confirmed false positive is corrected in respect of the affected erroneous finding and its consequences; the correction does not, of itself, require reinstatement of access, features, entries, prizes or entitlements that remain lawfully restricted, suspended, forfeited or withheld on separate, independently substantiated grounds under these Terms, and does not compel unconditional reinstatement despite a separate substantiated ban, disqualification, sanction, sanctions or AML restriction, safety measure or other independent lawful restriction.

Corrective measures under this section operate consistently with the Fair Play Policy and the Tournament and Prize Terms, including their fixed-bracket, live-ruling and remedy provisions. Overturning an erroneous enforcement decision does not, of itself, require an event to be rerun, a player to be reinstated into a concluded bracket, or the award or restoration of hypothetical winnings, unachieved placings or prize-pool outcomes.

The applicable account, rating, Fair Play Score, publication, entry-fee and pass corrections remain available as specified in those policies. This section does not restrict formal retrospective integrity action against improperly obtained results or awards, or any non-excludable remedy under section 54.

37.3 We are not responsible for a third-party service failure.

37.4 Evolving integrity environment. Cheating and automation techniques evolve. We apply reasonable safeguards but do not warrant an interference-free event, and no marketing or broadcast statement is a warranty of immunity.

38.1 We may share User information, in accordance with the Privacy and Compliance Policy, with law enforcement (including the AFP, the ACSC, AUSTRAC and state and territory police), sports-integrity bodies (including ESIC and the International Centre for Sport Security), chess federations (including FIDE, the ACF and national federations), cross-platform integrity networks, our service providers, and courts and tribunals.

38.2 We may share information without prior notice where notification would compromise an investigation, where a tipping-off restriction applies, or where there is a risk of destruction of evidence.

38.3 Lawful disclosure and cooperation. On reasonable grounds and with limited scope, we may disclose identity, verification, supervision recordings and evidence to federations, partners, regulators, law enforcement and cybersecurity, threat-intelligence and abuse-reporting networks (see section 38.5), to investigate cheating, fraud, Match-Fixing, Collusion, Matchmaking Manipulation, Tournament Interference, cyber abuse or a safety incident, to enforce these Terms, to protect integrity, and to comply with the law.

38.4 Good-faith integrity and security communications are made on a qualified-privilege and common-interest basis.

38.5 SecOps, threat-intelligence and abuse reporting. Checkmate Live may, in its discretion and on a qualified-privilege and common-interest basis (see section 33.5), report, share or disclose abuse, security, integrity, fraud, automation, account-takeover, credential-stuffing, denial-of-service, spam, phishing, scraping, botnet, malware, exploit, intrusion or other security-relevant signals — including technical, behavioural and other threat-intelligence indicators of the categories reserved as confidential under section 15.1 — to:

(a) the relevant agency, authority, regulator, CERT, CSIRT or governmental body with jurisdiction over, or a legitimate interest in, the matter or the conduct, in any jurisdiction; and

(b) cybersecurity, threat-intelligence, anti-cheat, anti-fraud, anti-spam, anti-phishing, online-safety and integrity networks, sharing platforms, reputation services, abuse-handling channels, peer-platform SecOps teams and infrastructure operators with a legitimate interest in receiving the signal, including any published abuse-reporting channel of an infrastructure operator.

Where a report under this section 38.5 includes personal information, it is made in accordance with the Privacy and Compliance Policy and Applicable Law (including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and Australian Privacy Principle 6), and is scoped to the minimum data reasonably necessary for the recipient to act on the signal. Checkmate Live is not required to give prior notice to the User of a report made under this section 38.5 where notice would compromise the report, tip off a threat actor, prejudice an investigation, frustrate a containment action or breach a tipping-off restriction. Contribution to a reputation database, abuse list, threat-intel feed or abuse-reporting channel under this section 38.5 is not publication for the purposes of section 32 and does not require the procedural protections in sections 31 to 33 except to the extent those sections expressly apply.

39.1 We may suspend or terminate an Account for a violation of these Terms or a policy, for fraudulent, illegal or deceptive activity, where required by law, or where reasonably necessary to protect integrity or users. We act reasonably in doing so.

39.2 Termination not based on breach is given with reasonable notice; termination for a violation may be immediate and without notice.

39.3 Where a User is permanently banned, all Accounts linked to that User may be terminated without separate notice. A ban applies to the individual.

40.1 Termination for cause; holds and forfeiture separated. Termination for cause is imposed only where a breach has been established. On termination for cause, the licence to use the Platform is permanently revoked, and Crowns, items and pending prizes attributable to the established breach may be forfeited (subject to mandatory Applicable Law and section 54); no refund is provided in respect of those forfeited entitlements except where the Australian Consumer Law requires (see also section 40.1A for the express no-refund rule that applies on termination for cheating or other material breach). Forfeiture affects the identified entitlement to which the established breach relates, on the basis stated in the enforcement decision, and does not automatically confiscate unrelated purchased balances or accrued awards. A temporary hold (including a pre-emptive hold under sections 15.7, 15.7A, 17A, 24.3, 25.3 or 50A) is a proportionate, time-limited and reviewable protective measure pending decision, is not a final forfeiture, and is lifted where the underlying concern is not established. A ban is a permanent loss of access: any subsequent access is Unauthorised Access. Termination for cause does not extinguish any payment obligation owed by you to Checkmate Live, including outstanding pass fees, recovery amounts under Schedule A, indemnification amounts under section 36, or other liabilities accrued before termination; any amount that would otherwise have been refundable may, to the maximum extent permitted by law, be applied against outstanding amounts in accordance with section 36.3 and section A.8.2.

40.1A No refund on termination for cheating or serious breach. Where Checkmate Live terminates, restricts, cancels or removes your Account, features, benefits, entry, results, prizes, rewards, in-game items, virtual currency (including Crowns), progression, avatars or other purchased or earned entitlements because of cheating, coordinated conduct, Match-Fixing, Matchmaking Manipulation, Tournament Interference, fraud, misrepresentation, false identification, Unauthorised Access, External Adversarial Conduct, sanctions or AML breach, or any other material breach of these Terms by you, you are not entitled to a refund, credit, replacement, compensation or other payment in respect of the terminated, restricted, cancelled or removed entitlement. This reflects that the loss of access is a consequence of your own breach and not a failure by Checkmate Live to supply. This rule applies to Battle Pass subscriptions (including Pro Pass and Arcade Pass), Crown purchases, event entries, tournament entries, Derivative Items, Passes, and any other paid or earned entitlement affected by the breach.

This section 40.1A does not:

(a) apply to a temporary hold or precautionary restriction that is later lifted following review under section 16, in which case the affected entitlement is restored or, where restoration is not reasonably practicable, an appropriate remedy is provided;

(b) authorise the confiscation of purchased or earned entitlements from events, matches or activities that are unrelated to, and not implicated by, the breach found (subject to section 40);

(c) exclude, restrict or modify any non-excludable right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law for a Major Failure that is independent of your breach (see sections 26.6E and 54) — for example, a Platform-wide failure that would have entitled you to a remedy regardless of your conduct; or

(d) treat genuine inability, or an accepted bona-fide reason preventing completion, as cheating or deliberate non-cooperation. Checkmate Live may nevertheless restrict the affected function and apply the published consequences of unmet eligibility or supervision requirements, including inability to enter, continue, progress or receive an entitlement pending verification, subject to Applicable Law. Independently established breaches remain actionable.

40.1B Consequences of permanent termination — access, licences and monetary balances. Where your account is permanently terminated for a breach warranting termination under these Terms, your permission to access the Platform and use account-bound licences, rewards and other access-dependent benefits ends. Holding an item, reward or balance does not entitle you to reinstatement, continued access, transfer to another account or a cash substitute, except where required by Applicable Law or expressly provided by the applicable terms. Monetary balances and unpaid prizes remain subject to the applicable eligibility, forfeiture, repayment, lawful set-off and settlement provisions. Any required communication or settlement may occur through our verified alternative process and does not require restoration of Platform access.

40.2 Termination without breach. On a non-breach termination or voluntary closure, a refund of unused purchased Crowns may be available, earned prize entitlements are honoured, and data is handled under the Account Deletion Policy.

40.3 Account deletion does not remove tournament records, Fair Play records, competitive history, Participation Records, Platform Benefit records, Voucher or Ticket records, reward records, eligibility records, redemption records, Payment Method records, Delivery Cost records, audit records, integrity records, governance records or records committed to an Integrity Anchor, and does not end an ongoing investigation. Records are retained in accordance with the Privacy and Compliance Policy, the Account Deletion Policy, sections 17, 17.7 and 17A, and Applicable Law.

41.1 A permanently banned User must not create a new Account, access the Platform by any means, or have another person access it on their behalf.

41.2 Post-ban access may be a criminal offence under Australian law; the ban notification is clear notice, and a matter may be referred to law enforcement.

41.3 We may issue a cease-and-desist notice as an additional measure; the ban itself provides sufficient legal notice.

41.4 Cease-and-desist escalation. A continuing course of prohibited conduct after a cease-and-desist notice, and a new breach committed after such a notice, are each a separate and cumulative material breach. Continued access after a cease-and-desist notice — whether directly or through a proxy, a new Account or an intermediary — is an aggravating factor in enforcement and in the assessment of damages, and repeated non-compliance may be cited as evidence of deliberate and contumacious conduct in any proceeding. Section A.6 (no double-counting) applies: repeated notices or demands about the same completed act do not, of themselves, multiply compensation for that same act; where a continuing breach or a new breach after notice causes additional, separately evidenced loss, that additional loss is recoverable on ordinary principles.

42.1 These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia, and the applicable laws of the Commonwealth of Australia, including mandatory consumer protections.

42.2 CISG exclusion. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) does not apply to these Terms or to any transaction between you and Checkmate Live under them.

43.1 You submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the Federal Court of Australia sitting in New South Wales.

43.2 Enforcement flexibility. Checkmate Live may bring proceedings against you wherever you reside, wherever the relevant harm occurs, wherever relevant infrastructure or assets are located, or wherever a relevant third party is established. Non-excludable local consumer rights are preserved. Commencing proceedings or seeking interim relief in one jurisdiction does not prevent Checkmate Live, or any third-party beneficiary entitled to enforce these Terms, from seeking complementary, parallel or subsequent relief in any other jurisdiction where permitted by Applicable Law.

43.2A Choice of foreign forum for non-Australian, cross-border and commercial matters.

For Users ordinarily resident outside Australia, non-player third parties, commercial operators, External Adversarial Actors, and disputes involving cross-border conduct, overseas infrastructure, overseas assets, overseas counterparties, international events, non-Australian Designated Operators, intellectual-property enforcement, cyber-security enforcement, data scraping, unauthorised access, payment or payout enforcement, or urgent interim relief, nothing in these Terms requires Checkmate Live to commence or pursue proceedings in Australia or in the courts of New South Wales.

In those matters, Checkmate Live may commence proceedings in any jurisdiction permitted by section 43.2, including where it reasonably considers that forum appropriate for cost, speed, proximity, expertise, interim relief, consolidation, enforceability or other legitimate operational, evidentiary or commercial reasons.

For ordinary Australian consumer claims by Australian-resident Users against Checkmate Live Pty Ltd, the ordinary forum remains New South Wales, subject to any non-excludable rights under Applicable Law.

The governing law in section 42 continues to apply to the substantive interpretation of these Terms, and a foreign court applying these Terms may do so under its own conflict-of-laws rules.

43.3 User claims — forum. Any claim you bring against Checkmate Live must be commenced exclusively in the courts of New South Wales (including, for a matter within its jurisdiction, the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal), except where mandatory local consumer law requires otherwise.

43.4 Anti-suit. Where you breach section 43.3, Checkmate Live may seek a stay, dismissal, transfer or anti-suit relief and may recover its reasonable legal costs. For a US Resident User (as defined in Schedule B), the forum for excluded matters and opt-out mechanics are set out in Schedule B section B.11.

For a User who is a US Resident User (as defined in Schedule B), Schedule B applies to US Disputes in place of this section and section 45, save for injunctive relief which remains available to Checkmate Live under section 44.2A and Schedule B section B.9.

44.1 One consumer pathway; commercial arbitration is scoped. For a User bringing an ordinary Australian consumer claim against Checkmate Live Pty Ltd (an "AU Consumer Claim"), the pathway is: written notice through the legal contact address displayed on the Platform with a detailed description of the dispute; a good-faith resolution period of 30 days; mediation if the dispute is unresolved; and, failing resolution, court proceedings in the courts of New South Wales (including the Federal Court of Australia sitting in New South Wales, the Local Court of New South Wales where applicable, or NCAT where it has jurisdiction), subject to section 54. Where mediation does not resolve the dispute, Checkmate Live may elect arbitration under section 44.3 or 44.3A only for a dispute that falls within the scope of section 44.3A (commercial, cross-border and non-consumer matters); an AU Consumer Claim is not within that scope. Nothing in section 43 or section 44 requires an AU Consumer Claim to be arbitrated, and nothing in those sections displaces a User's right to seek urgent relief or a mandatory statutory right (see section 44.2 and section 54).

Before commencing legal action in any other case, a party must contact the other in writing with a detailed description of the dispute — to Checkmate Live through the legal contact address displayed on the Platform — and the parties must attempt good-faith resolution for 30 days, followed by mediation if the dispute is unresolved.

44.2 This section does not apply to an application for urgent or injunctive relief.

44.2A Equitable remedies for Checkmate Live. You acknowledge that a breach of these Terms — including a breach of sections 5A (Platform Licence), 12 (Prohibited Conduct), 14 (Substance Over Form and Anti-Circumvention), 14A (Unauthorised Access), 18 (Third-Party Prohibited Activities), 22 (Broadcast Rights), 26B (Trade Mode), 29 to 30 (Intellectual Property and Data) or 34 (Confidentiality) — would cause Checkmate Live and the other Protected Persons (as defined in section 35.1) irreparable harm for which damages alone would not be an adequate remedy. Accordingly, in addition to any other right or remedy available to Checkmate Live, Checkmate Live is entitled, to the maximum extent permitted by law, to seek interim, interlocutory and final injunctive and other equitable relief in respect of such a breach, without the requirement to post a bond or other security or to prove actual damage or quantum of loss. The right to seek equitable relief under this section may be exercised in any court of competent jurisdiction worldwide, including any court in any jurisdiction in which the User resides, conducts business, holds assets, has infrastructure, or in which the harm is occurring or likely to occur; nothing in sections 42 (Governing Law) or 43.3 (User claims — forum) restricts Checkmate Live's right to seek equitable relief in any such jurisdiction. This section does not exclude or limit any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54) and does not displace the court's discretion.

44.2B Recognition, enforcement and ancillary relief abroad. Checkmate Live may seek recognition, registration and enforcement of any judgment, order, decree, arbitral award or other determination obtained against you in any other jurisdiction, including under any applicable reciprocal-enforcement scheme, the Foreign Judgments Act 1991 (Cth), the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, the Hague Service Convention and the Hague Evidence Convention. Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) and INTERPOL channels are state-to-state law-enforcement cooperation mechanisms and are not private civil-enforcement mechanisms; the state authorities' use of those mechanisms is a matter for those authorities (see section 14A.6). Checkmate Live may also seek ancillary, interim, interlocutory or supporting relief — including asset preservation, freezing orders, Mareva-type or worldwide-freezing relief, search orders, evidence preservation, document production, witness examination, third-party discovery, pre-action discovery and Norwich Pharmacal-type relief — in any jurisdiction, including in aid of proceedings (or contemplated proceedings) in any other jurisdiction.

44.3 Where mediation does not resolve a dispute, Checkmate Live may elect binding arbitration (through the Australian Disputes Centre, the International Games and Esports Tribunal (IGET — iget.gg), or the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center — see also section 44.3A) or court proceedings; arbitration is conducted online by default. Checkmate Live elects the forum having regard to the nature of the dispute, the location of the parties, and the expertise of the forum.

44.3A Commercial and cross-border arbitration. For a dispute of a commercial, cross-border, intellectual-property, technology, cyber-security, unauthorised-access, External Adversarial Conduct, data-scraping, broadcast, licensing, payment-enforcement, payout-enforcement, non-player third-party, non-Australian Designated Operator, international-event or non-Australian-user nature, Checkmate Live may elect binding arbitration administered by any of the following:

(a) the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA), seated in Sydney, New South Wales, and conducted in English;

(b) arbitration administered by an arbitral institution nominated by Checkmate Live under its published rules, seated in a seat nominated by Checkmate Live, with the hearing venue at the ADGM Arbitration Centre in Abu Dhabi, conducted in English, where the dispute has a genuine international, UAE, non-Australian operator, regional event, overseas asset, overseas infrastructure, overseas counterparty or cross-border enforcement connection. The ADGM Arbitration Centre is identified in this paragraph (b) as the hearing venue only, and is not the administering institution; or

(c) the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, including its arbitration, expedited-arbitration, expert-determination and mediation procedures, and its specific-sector services for video games and esports, with the seat to be determined by Checkmate Live and proceedings conducted in English.

The WIPO Center is the preferred forum for disputes principally concerning intellectual property, licensing, broadcast or interactive content rights, technical protection measures, data scraping, anti-circumvention, or the development, distribution or use of integrity-affecting software.

For ordinary Australian consumer claims by Australian-resident Users against Checkmate Live Pty Ltd, the ordinary forum remains New South Wales, including the courts of New South Wales, the Federal Court of Australia sitting in New South Wales, the Local Court of New South Wales where applicable, and NCAT where it has jurisdiction, subject to any non-excludable rights under Applicable Law.

Nothing in this section excludes, restricts or modifies any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law or any mandatory local consumer law.

44.4 Either party may bring an individual claim within the jurisdiction of the Local Court of New South Wales (Small Claims Division) or the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

44.5 A dispute arising solely under the FairPlay Policy or the Community Code of Conduct (including a supervised-play technical issue) is resolved through the appeals process in section 16; judicial review is preserved only as required by law.

44.6 Sovereignty over decisions; election of forum; voluntary cooperation.

(a) Sovereignty. Checkmate Live retains sovereignty over its integrity, Fair Play, operational, enforcement, tournament-administration and platform decisions. Those decisions are not surrendered to, and are not subject to mandatory determination by, any federation, integrity body, regulator, arbitral forum or third party, except to the extent expressly required by Applicable Law that cannot be excluded.

(b) Election of forum. Checkmate Live's participation in any arbitration, expert-determination or other elective dispute-resolution forum or service identified in this section 44 — including the Australian Disputes Centre, the International Games and Esports Tribunal (IGET), the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA), and the ADGM Arbitration Centre — is at Checkmate Live's own election. No party may compel Checkmate Live to arbitrate or submit a matter to any particular arbitral or elective forum, or to any such forum at all, except where Checkmate Live has expressly elected in writing to do so, and except where mandatory Applicable Law requires submission to a particular court or forum. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph (b) does not displace the mandatory mediation step in section 44.1 for a dispute that has entered the section 44.1 pathway: where both parties are required by section 44.1 to attempt mediation following the 30-day good-faith resolution period, each party will engage in that mediation in good faith. This paragraph (b) preserves Checkmate Live's election of arbitral or other elective forum after mediation, and preserves the ordinary court pathway in section 44.1 where mediation does not resolve the dispute.

(c) Voluntary cooperation; advisory findings. Cooperation with any integrity body, federation, regulator or other external body (see section 18.6) is voluntary and is not a submission of Checkmate Live's operational, integrity or Fair Play decisions to that body's jurisdiction. A finding, recommendation or opinion of an integrity body, federation, regulator or arbitral panel in a matter that Checkmate Live has not elected to submit to that body is advisory and does not bind Checkmate Live's own determinations.

(d) No reduction of user rights. This section does not exclude, restrict or modify any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law or any other mandatory Applicable Law; non-excludable rights are preserved (see section 54).

45.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to resolve a dispute with Checkmate Live on an individual basis and not as part of a class or representative proceeding. This waiver may not be enforceable in every jurisdiction, and does not limit a non-excludable right. For a User who is a US Resident User (as defined in Schedule B), the class action, representative action and consolidation waiver in Schedule B section B.6 applies in place of this section in respect of a US Dispute (see Schedule B).

46.1 These Terms, together with the incorporated documents, are the entire agreement between you and Checkmate Live as to use of the Platform.

46.2 Notice and commencement. We will publish amendments with an effective date and give at least 14 days' notice of material changes, unless an earlier change is reasonably necessary for law, safety or security. The notice will explain affected services, steps required, support and applicable cancellation/refund options. Where express acceptance or consent is required, publication or continued use alone is not a substitute. Changing these Terms does not establish that a future technical control is already operational.

46.3 Accrued rights, prospective changes and preserved retrospective remedies. A change to the age or authentication requirements in these Terms does not by itself turn previously permitted conduct into a breach of these Terms in respect of the age or authentication requirements themselves. This clause does not affect, and Checkmate Live expressly reserves, all rights and remedies for conduct that was a breach under the ToS in force at the time it occurred, including without limitation Collusion, Match-Fixing, Matchmaking Manipulation and Tournament Interference (Part C), fraud, misrepresentation, false identification, sanctions or AML breaches, and any other conduct not solely made a breach by a new age or authentication rule. Changes to these Terms otherwise apply prospectively from their applicable commencement, and we will preserve accrued rights and any remedy required by law. For the avoidance of doubt, section 10.5 (reasonable reliance) and the recovery and forfeiture framework in Schedule A continue to apply retrospectively in accordance with their terms. Necessary protective restrictions may be applied while a User's eligibility is reviewed, with proportionate notice and review arrangements.

46A.1 Authorised Signatories. Only an Authorised Signatory of Checkmate Live Pty Ltd may approve, execute, amend, waive or authorise an exception to these Terms or any incorporated document. An "Authorised Signatory" is a director, the company secretary, or an officer expressly delegated signing authority by the board.

46A.2 No informal authority. No employee, contractor, agent, community manager, moderator, volunteer or other representative has authority to waive, modify, vary or authorise an exception to these Terms or any incorporated document through informal communication — including email, WhatsApp, Discord, Telegram, social media, telephone, video call, in-person conversation or any channel other than a formal published amendment under section 46.2. Permissions expressly delegated elsewhere in these Terms — including approved security testing, use of an authorised API, published accessibility accommodations, authorised streaming and the competitive-access exception in section 13.4 (see section 46A.6) — remain available strictly within their express scope, authorised issuer and required channel, and do not waive any unrelated rule. General support commentary does not become a waiver.

46A.3 Reliance at your own risk. If you rely on an informal communication, a verbal assurance, perceived acquiescence, or apparent approval by any person other than an Authorised Signatory, you do so entirely at your own risk. No informal communication creates an estoppel, waiver, variation, licence, authorisation or defence to enforcement.

46A.4 No ratification by silence. A failure by Platform personnel to object to, correct or challenge conduct described in an informal communication is not approval, authorisation, ratification or waiver. Section 17.5 applies.

46A.5 Staff communications are operational only. Communications from Platform staff — including support, community, moderation and development personnel — are operational guidance only. They do not bind Checkmate Live, create contractual obligations or vary these Terms, and may be corrected, withdrawn or superseded at any time.

46A.6 Delegated authority for competitive-access exceptions (Pro and Echess Tournaments). Notwithstanding, and expressly prevailing over, sections 46A.1 to 46A.5 for these approvals, the Fair Play team acting within documented delegation from an Authorised Signatory may issue, vary or withdraw a competitive-access exception under section 13.4 for a Pro Tournament or an Echess Tournament, through logged in-app chat with the Fair Play team, which is the sole authorised approval channel. The approval must be assessed against the User's circumstances at the relevant time, and the approval record must identify the Account, the covered tournament or tournaments, the duration and any conditions. Any such exception may be varied or withdrawn by Checkmate Live at any time, is subject to Applicable Law, sanctions regimes and restrictions imposed by an infrastructure, payment or connectivity provider, and does not operate as a general waiver, precedent or ratification. An exception issued under this section 46A.6 is confined to its written terms and does not amend, waive or vary these Terms or any incorporated document. The Authorised Signatory reservation in section 46A.1 continues to apply to any actual amendment to, or general waiver of, these Terms. No separate signed instrument or board approval is required for each individual exception issued under this section 46A.6.

46A.7 Expressly delegated operational permissions. Notwithstanding sections 46A.1 to 46A.5, a person expressly authorised under these Terms to grant a specified operational permission may grant, vary or withdraw that permission within the scope of that authority and through the channel and process required by the relevant provision. A permission validly issued on that basis is not invalid merely because it was issued by someone other than an Authorised Signatory.

This section does not itself delegate authority, create a new exception or authorise a general amendment or waiver. Informal advice, silence, apparent approval and communications outside the required process do not constitute permission. Each permission is limited to its express scope, conditions and duration and does not waive unrelated requirements.

Competitive-access exceptions remain governed exclusively by sections 13.4 and 46A.6, including their Pro/Echess limitation and sole approval channel of logged in-app chat with the Fair Play team.

47.1 If a provision is invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue, and the invalid provision is read down to the minimum extent necessary.

47.2 A specific provision prevails over a general one. Where two provisions appear to conflict, the reading most consistent with Platform integrity and with compliance with Applicable Law is preferred. The statement that an item or currency has "no monetary value" means it is not redeemable for cash and is not legal tender, currency or a financial instrument; it does not mean the item has no in-Platform utility. Where a feature is both a bonus entitlement under section 4.1C and a separately-purchased item under section 26B.1, the section 26B.1 characterisation governs the purchased item itself, and the section 4.1C characterisation governs any pass-aligned bonus access to, or enhancement of, that item; the two provisions are read together, not as alternatives.

48.1 A failure or delay in enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it.

49.1 You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our written consent.

49.2 The Designated Operator may assign, novate or transfer its rights and obligations under these Terms, in whole or in part, to a CML Group Company or successor entity, including:

(a) in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation, change of control, or sale of business or assets; and

(b) as part of a genuine regional launch, expansion or restructuring of the Platform's operations and services.

The Designated Operator may transfer information collected from Users as part of such a transaction, including during due diligence, in accordance with the Privacy and Compliance Policy.

49.3 Where an assignment or novation transfers a User's contractual relationship, or part of it, to another entity, the Designated Operator will give reasonable notice, the receiving entity will assume the corresponding obligations, and the transfer will not reduce the User's accrued rights or any non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law. Where a specific service migrates to a separate entity that operates under its own terms (see sections 25 and 28), that entity's terms are accepted separately at the point the service is accessed.

49.4 The appointment of a new Designated Operator does not itself transfer or sublicense technology belonging to VADR Media or another licensor. Any such use remains subject to separate authorisation from the applicable owner or licensor.

50.1 Checkmate Live is not liable for a failure or delay in performing an obligation that is caused by an event outside its reasonable control (a "Force Majeure Event").

50.2 A Force Majeure Event includes, without limitation: acts of God and natural disasters (including fire, flood, earthquake and storm); war, hostilities and acts of terrorism; cyber-warfare and state-sponsored hacking; a Cyberattack (as defined in section 3.1); civil unrest; regional conflict, sanctions, or government, regulatory, military or state direction or action; strikes and labour disputes; epidemics, pandemics and public-health orders; failure of the public electricity grid or telecommunications infrastructure; the damage, degradation or severance of international submarine fibre-optic cables; ISP, hosting, CDN, cloud or other essential infrastructure outage, degradation or unavailability caused by an external event; and a force majeure event declared by a contracted supplier, infrastructure operator, cloud or hosting provider, payment processor or other essential service provider of Checkmate Live, where that event materially affects Checkmate Live's ability to perform under these Terms.

50.3 Where a Force Majeure Event prevents or delays performance, Checkmate Live's affected obligations are suspended for the duration of the event. This section discloses these conditions; it does not exclude, restrict or modify a non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54).

50A.1 Checkmate Live operates a structured risk-management framework — a Risk Assessment and Management Plan ("RAMP") — to protect the security, integrity, financial stability and continuity of the Platform.

50A.2 Where reasonably necessary to protect competitive integrity, cyber-security, platform stability or compliance, Checkmate Live may take immediate operational action under the RAMP framework, including suspending servers or events, pausing matches, freezing in-Platform economies or currency transactions, rolling back server data to an earlier state, removing or locking items, and requiring additional monitoring or verification — in each case where reasonably necessary and, where the situation allows, with notice. Integrity and security take precedence over event scheduling, format, prize timelines and broadcast commitments.

50A.3 An action taken under this section is an operational integrity decision. Where a RAMP decision affects identified participants, Checkmate Live issues those participants a direct notification, except where such notification would compromise an ongoing technical or fair-play investigation, blind or disable an anti-cheat mechanism, interfere with a silent, delayed or automated security countermeasure (see section 14A.4), tip off a suspected actor in an Unauthorised Access matter (see section 14A), prejudice a retrospective-reporting process (see section 14A.5), or disrupt a referral to or co-operation with a federation, integrity body, regulator or law-enforcement agency, in which case notification may be deferred, abbreviated, withheld or omitted for as long as reasonably necessary, and resumed (in whole, in part or in summary form) when the operational-security reason for the delay has materially abated.

50A.4 RAMP documents, and the internal triggers, thresholds and methodologies they contain, are confidential internal records and are not published. This section describes the framework and the power to act under it; it does not require disclosure of RAMP contents (see sections 15.1 and 34). A user-facing summary of automated and integrity decision-making (including this RAMP framework, the matchmaking-pool framework in sections 11.1C and 11.1D, and the silent-countermeasure framework in section 14A.4) is provided in the Automated Decision-Making and Integrity Systems Disclosure.

51.1 We give notice to you by email or in-Platform message. You give notice to us through the contact addresses displayed on the Platform for legal, privacy, fair-play and support matters, as applicable. Where a notice or request concerns an Account, gameplay, payment, refund, technical issue, privacy request, appeal or other player-support matter, Checkmate Live may require the User to submit or continue the request through authenticated in-Platform support or in-app chat so that Account ownership can be verified before action is taken.

51.2 Staff safety and disengagement. Checkmate Live may limit, consolidate or cease direct communications with any person or representative where, acting reasonably, it considers that continued engagement poses a risk to staff safety, staff wellbeing, investigation integrity, operational continuity or legal process integrity.

51.3 Disengagement not waiver. A decision to disengage from direct communication for staff safety or process integrity reasons does not waive any rights, does not resolve any underlying matter, and does not prevent future enforcement, referrals or legal action.

51.4 No duty to continue correspondence. Except where required by Applicable Law, Checkmate Live is not required to continue correspondence, debate or provide repeated explanations after notices or enforcement decisions have been issued.

52.1 The following survive termination: intellectual property and data rights (sections 29–30), liability and indemnification (sections 35–37), confidentiality (section 34), Fair Play publication (sections 31–33), dispute resolution (sections 42–45), substance over form and anti-circumvention (section 14), Unauthorised Access (section 14A), integrity, verification, participation-record, reward, eligibility and finality controls (section 17A), anti-benchmarking (section 17B), Integrity Anchor (section 17.7), Voucher or Ticket records, Voucher or Ticket terms, Payment Method records, Delivery Cost records, Participation Records, Platform Benefits and External Services, to the extent required for audit, integrity, compliance, payment administration, reward administration, Voucher or Ticket administration, governance, dispute resolution, accounting, tax or legal purposes, evidence and data retention (section 17), third-party enforcement (section 18), competition-integrity reporting, preservation, cooperation and enforcement obligations (section 18A), to the extent relevant to conduct occurring before termination or a continuing investigation, broadcast rights (section 22.1A), event archiving and Schedule A recovery, Trade Mode settlement records (section 26B.8), no apparent authority (section 46A), the standalone prize-repayment obligation and associated evidence retention and enforcement (section 25.4B), the Australian Consumer Law guarantees (section 54), Schedule B — US Residents Binding Individual Arbitration and Class Action Waiver Addendum (which survives termination in respect of any US Dispute that arose before termination), and any provision that survives by its nature.

53.1 Checkmate Live Pty Ltd (ACN 694 727 743) is the Designated Operator unless another CML Group Company is expressly identified to a User as the contracting operator for a particular country or service.

53.2 Future international operator. A separately governed regional operator may in future run international events using shared CML infrastructure. That arrangement is not activated by this clause and no specific destination or launch date is committed to by these Terms. Before you contract with any such operator, its full legal identity, event responsibilities, applicable terms, privacy arrangements and payment/payout providers will be disclosed to you. Identity and payment workflows may be separate; a verification, pass or payment record for one operator or jurisdiction is not automatic approval for another. Technology providers do not become the organiser solely by supplying infrastructure. Lawful changes to providers, operators or verification arrangements may be made from time to time as provided in these Terms.

53.3 CML Group Companies and authorised service providers may support the Designated Operator. Providing support, technology, integrity analysis, payment processing or administration does not by itself make that person the contracting operator or responsible for tournament decisions.

53.4 Where Applicable Law requires consent or fresh acceptance for a change of Designated Operator, the change will not take effect for that User until the requirement has been satisfied. The transfer will not materially reduce the User's accrued rights.

54.1 Nothing in these Terms or any incorporated document excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) or by New South Wales fair-trading legislation that cannot lawfully be excluded. Where a provision of these Terms would otherwise do so, it is read down to the extent necessary, and these guarantees prevail over any inconsistent provision.

54.2 If a service or digital product supplied by Checkmate Live suffers a major failure, you are entitled to a remedy in accordance with your statutory rights, which may include a replacement or a refund. For a failure that is not a major failure, Checkmate Live will provide a remedy within a reasonable time, which may include repairing, patching or restoring the affected service or digital asset.

54.3 Whether a consumer guarantee applies, and whether a failure is a major failure, is determined under the Australian Consumer Law. These Terms do not determine that question. Disclosures in these Terms — including those relating to Alpha and Test Software status (section 4), network and infrastructure conditions (section 21.9), Force Majeure (section 50) and Cyberattacks (section 23.7) — are provided so that you are informed of the nature and conditions of the Platform; they are relevant to what amounts to acceptable quality and reasonable expectations, but they do not exclude or override any non-excludable right.

55.1 Checkmate Live Pty Ltd (ACN 694 727 743), 81–83 Campbell Street, Surry Hills, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia. Contact addresses for support, legal, privacy and fair-play matters are displayed on the Platform. Please login and message us via chat.

55.2 Authenticated channels for support, account and privacy requests. All player support — including account, gameplay, payment, refund, technical, integrity, appeal and general support — is provided through authenticated channels accessed by logging in to the User's Account. The contact email addresses in section 55.1 are published for statutory, regulatory, legal, official, partner, federation and law-enforcement purposes. To protect User accounts and to prevent social engineering, account spoofing, identity fraud, account takeover and unauthorised disclosure of personal information, a request submitted by email — including a privacy, access, correction, deletion, objection or other data-subject request — will be acknowledged but actioned only after the requester has authenticated through the User's logged-in Account, or, where login is not reasonably possible, through an alternative identity-verification pathway proportionate to the request and consistent with Applicable Law. Nothing in this section 55.2 excludes, restricts or modifies any non-excludable right under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, the Australian Consumer Law (see section 54) or other mandatory Applicable Law; this section governs the operational pathway by which requests are verified and actioned, not the underlying right.

56.1 Creating an Account or using the Platform is your acknowledgement that you have read, understood and agreed to these Terms and all incorporated documents.

56.2 You acknowledge that a violation may carry serious consequences, including permanent ban, public disclosure, reporting to authorities and federations, and civil or criminal liability.

56.3 It is your responsibility to read and understand these Terms before using the Platform.

A.1.1 Purpose and primary target. This Schedule is intended primarily to support investigation, containment, enforcement and cost recovery against External Adversarial Actors whose conduct targets, exploits, attacks, interferes with or commercially misuses the Platform, its tournaments, systems, data, integrity controls, business or users. It is directed principally to cheat-tool developers and distributors, hostile or unauthorised competitive-intelligence operators, hackers and other threat actors, malicious scraping or data-harvesting operators, account and boosting businesses, and persons who commission, fund, host, supply, facilitate or knowingly benefit from that conduct. It is not the ordinary player-sanctions schedule; ordinary player Fair Play matters are addressed under Parts C and D unless the connection and conduct thresholds below are met.

External Adversarial Actor means a person engaged in External Adversarial Conduct, whether or not the person holds an Account or has accepted these Terms. It may include a cheat-tool developer, distributor, reseller, licensor, promoter or hosting provider; integrity-evasion-tool author; competitor, rival platform, rival tournament organiser or their contractor; hacker or other threat actor; malware, DDoS, ransomware or extortion operator; unauthorised scraper, data miner, aggregator or commercial benchmarking operator; account-farming, smurf-account, boosting or account-trading business; unlicensed betting operator; or any principal, affiliate, employee, contractor, funder, agent or facilitator of such a person. A person's status as a competitor, researcher, security professional, developer or service provider does not by itself constitute External Adversarial Conduct; the conduct and lack of authorisation are determinative.

External Adversarial Conduct means conduct of the following kind, undertaken directly or indirectly and without current written authorisation:

(a) developing, testing against the Platform, supplying, licensing, marketing, distributing, hosting, financing or monetising cheats, bots, circumvention tools, integrity-evasion tools or services designed to defeat, degrade, probe or avoid Platform controls;

(b) Unauthorised Access, Cyberattack, infrastructure probing, credential attack, malware, ransomware, denial-of-service activity, interference with communications, or impairment of Platform systems, data, telemetry or security;

(c) scraping, harvesting, extracting, reconstructing or commercially exploiting Platform code, data, telemetry, schemas, models, interfaces or response patterns, including unauthorised competitive benchmarking or training of an imitation or competing system;

(d) procuring, inducing or facilitating a breach of these Terms, including by creating, supplying, acquiring, operating or controlling Accounts, credentials, access, infrastructure, information or services for an External Adversarial Actor;

(e) deliberate Tournament Interference, including match-fixing, collusion, coordinated outcome manipulation, interference with pairings, results, prizes or tournament administration, or attacks timed to affect an event; or

(f) infringement, misappropriation, circumvention of technological protection measures, breach of confidence or other deliberate commercial interference affecting the Platform or an applicable owner or licensor.

Connected Users. A User falls within this Schedule only where the User engages in External Adversarial Conduct or knowingly supplies, funds, hosts, coordinates, conceals, launders, facilitates or provides Account access, credentials, data or operational assistance to an External Adversarial Actor. A User who commissions, instructs, acts for, acts with, or knowingly benefits from an External Adversarial Actor is treated as connected to that actor for this Schedule (see sections 8.3A and 14A.3).

Non-User actors and legal basis. A person who has not accepted these Terms is not made a contractual party merely because this Schedule describes that person's conduct. For such a person, this Schedule records the categories of loss, evidence, investigation and enforcement that Checkmate Live may rely on when pursuing rights otherwise available under Applicable Law, including rights relating to computer misuse, intellectual-property infringement, breach of confidence, inducement of breach, interference with business, unjust enrichment, account of profits, injunctions and damages. Checkmate Live must establish the applicable cause of action and remedy; this Schedule does not dispense with that requirement. Any independent rights of VADR Media or another affected owner or licensor under Applicable Law are preserved.

A.1.2 Compensatory intent; not a penalty. Where this Schedule applies contractually to a person who accepted these Terms, any agreed recovery amount under section A.8.1(a) is intended to compensate for the loss reasonably anticipated in respect of the relevant categories of breach, having regard to the representative cleanup-cost methodology in section A.9, and not to operate as a penalty. They are not imposed as a penalty, deterrent or punishment, and are not intended to operate in terrorem. For a person who did not accept these Terms, recovery is limited to remedies established under Applicable Law, and the Schedule may be used only as evidence of claimed loss and methodology to the extent permitted by the applicable court, tribunal or process.

A.1.3 Status. This Schedule is incorporated into these Terms under section 2.4 and forms part of the contract between Checkmate Live and each person who accepts these Terms. A reference in these Terms to "these Terms" includes this Schedule. It does not purport to create contractual obligations for a person who has not accepted these Terms.

A.1.4 Interaction with sections 35 and 36 and non-contracting actors. For a User or other person who accepted these Terms, this Schedule operates within section 36 (Indemnification) and provides a calibrated amount that may be recovered as part of that person's indemnification obligation. It does not increase any limit on Checkmate Live's liability under section 35. Checkmate Live may elect, for any single head of loss, to recover under (i) this Schedule or (ii) the actual-loss indemnity in section 36, but not both for the same head of loss (see A.6). For an External Adversarial Actor who did not accept these Terms, sections 35 and 36 do not create a contractual indemnity; Checkmate Live may instead pursue the remedies and loss otherwise recoverable under Applicable Law.

A.1.5 ACL preservation. Nothing in this Schedule excludes, restricts or modifies a non-excludable right under the Australian Consumer Law (section 54). Where a court of competent jurisdiction finds any amount or rule in this Schedule unenforceable, it is severed and Checkmate Live's actual-loss recovery under section 36 is preserved without modification.

A.1.6 Application threshold. This Schedule applies where Checkmate Live determines, reasonably and in good faith under section 15.3A, that a person has engaged in External Adversarial Conduct. Relevant conduct includes Unauthorised Access (section 14A), Cyberattack, infrastructure attack, DDoS or denial-of-service activity, deliberate commercial interference, deliberate Tournament Interference (including match-fixing, collusion or coordinated outcome manipulation under section 19.8(i)), cheat-tool development or supply, systematic or commercial multi-account operation, systematic identity fraud, infrastructure impersonation, or another external or coordinated threat to Platform integrity, security or operations. The classification is assessed by the substance, connection and nature of the conduct. A single serious instance may be sufficient; no minimum duration or demonstrated financial loss is required before Checkmate Live may investigate, contain, preserve evidence, terminate access or seek an available remedy.

Exclusion of ordinary player matters. Schedule A does not apply merely because a player commits an ordinary gameplay breach, disputes an outcome, receives an account sanction, or commits an isolated first-instance, non-commercial Fair Play violation. Those matters remain subject to the ordinary investigation, appeal, forfeiture and sanction provisions in Parts C and D. This exclusion does not apply where the player develops, distributes or tests a cheat tool; acts commercially or systematically; assists or is connected with an External Adversarial Actor; engages in Unauthorised Access or deliberate Tournament Interference; or otherwise meets the External Adversarial Conduct definition.

Lawful competition and authorised activity. Lawful competition, independent product development, ordinary public observation, journalism, and security research conducted within the written authorisation and safe harbour in section 14.4 do not fall within this Schedule merely because the person is a competitor, journalist, researcher or security professional. The Schedule applies only where the conduct itself is unauthorised and falls within the defined adversarial categories.

Checkmate Live may apply this Schedule where, having regard to the totality of the circumstances, including the actor's role, connection, authorisation, purpose and conduct, it reasonably determines that the conduct falls within the defined adversarial categories and is of a kind likely to cause, or reasonably requiring Checkmate Live to incur, investigation, containment, remediation, integrity, event, legal, reporting, operational or commercial response costs, whether or not the full amount of those costs is immediately measurable at the time of classification.

Nothing in this section limits Checkmate Live's right to recover actual loss under section 36 from a person bound by these Terms, or to pursue loss and other remedies available under Applicable Law against any External Adversarial Actor.

Account tier is not the test (see section 15.3A(h)). Application of this Schedule is assessed by the substance, connection and nature of the conduct, regardless of Account tier, subscription status, identity-verification level, account age, engagement level or other commercial attribute. A free, unverified, newly created or low-engagement Account does not avoid this Schedule where it is used for or connected with External Adversarial Conduct.

A.2.1 Zero tolerance. Checkmate Live applies a zero-tolerance approach to Unauthorised Access (sections 3.1 and 14A), Cyberattack (section 3.1) and other serious conduct to which this Schedule applies. Every such incident may be treated as a serious enforcement matter requiring investigation, containment, evidence preservation and pursuit of the contractual or legal remedies available in the circumstances.

A.2.2 No published security taxonomy. Checkmate Live does not publish the detection taxonomy, security scoring methodology, internal threshold matrix or technical indicators used to identify and classify External Adversarial Conduct. Those materials form part of the confidential Cost Recovery Calibration Record and related integrity, security and SecOps methodology (sections 15.1, 34, 50A.4 and A.9.1). This confidentiality does not relieve Checkmate Live from giving any notice of a claimed amount required by section A.3.2 or from establishing contractual entitlement, a cause of action and recoverable loss where required by Applicable Law.

A.2.3 Severity and calibration factors. Without limiting section A.2.1, Checkmate Live may have regard to the duration, scope, deliberateness and impact of the conduct; the actor's role, commercial purpose, prior conduct and cooperation; the number of Accounts or Users affected; the integrity-system or infrastructure impact; the cost categories in section A.4; the actual loss incurred or reasonably expected; and the methodology in section A.9. Any contractual recovery is calibrated reasonably and in good faith, subject to Applicable Law. Any non-contractual recovery remains subject to the remedy and measure of loss available under the applicable cause of action.

A.3.1 Where recovery is contractually or legally available, the claimed amount is calibrated by reference to (i) the cost categories in section A.4 at prevailing industry rates, (ii) the actual loss, cost and impact incurred or reasonably expected to be incurred, and (iii) the internal Cost Recovery Calibration Record maintained under section A.9.1. The Calibration Record supports the calculation but does not create a remedy or make an amount recoverable where it would not otherwise be recoverable under these Terms or Applicable Law. The claim may be calculated at the time of enforcement using the evidence and cost information then available. An agreed recovery amount or formula is determined under the applicable contractual terms identified in section A.8.1(a), and is not retrospectively increased by a later amendment to the Calibration Record. A claim for recoverable loss or costs may include amounts incurred and reasonably supported future loss or costs to the extent recoverable under the applicable legal basis. The applicable legal basis for each remedy (contractual forfeiture, calibrated contractual recovery under section A.8.1(a), actual-loss recovery, tracing, set-off, urgent relief) is stated in the enforcement decision and in the notification of amount under section A.3.2, together with the calculation, interest position (if any) and dispute pathway under section A.10, and is read subject to section A.6 (no double-recovery) and to the confidentiality of security evidence under section 15.1.

A.3.2 Notification of amount; sufficient particulars. Where Checkmate Live seeks monetary recovery, it will notify the person from whom recovery is sought of the claimed amount, the conduct relied on, the material cost categories in section A.4 on which it relies, and sufficient particulars of the calculation to enable the person to raise a genuine, particularised dispute — including the categories of cost, the rate assumptions and the connection between the conduct and the loss — subject to lawful confidentiality, privilege, security and evidence-preservation restrictions. Confidential integrity, security and detection records remain protected under section 15.1; Checkmate Live is not required to disclose detection logic, security thresholds, source code, protected telemetry, legal advice or privileged work product. Ordinary-player and non-contracting-actor safeguards elsewhere in this Schedule (including the ordinary-player exclusion in section A.1.6 and the non-User rules in section A.1.1) continue to apply.

A.4.1 Where Checkmate Live claims recovery under section 36, this Schedule or Applicable Law, the claimed loss may be assessed by reference to prevailing industry rates for the cost categories below. Each category remains subject to causation, mitigation, remoteness, proof and any other limitation imposed by the applicable contract, cause of action or law:

(a) Forensic investigation — internal SecOps time and third-party forensic-vendor day rates, charged at prevailing industry rates for incident response and digital-forensics services;

(b) Engineering remediation — developer and engineering hours, charged at Checkmate Live's standard internal rates (section A.4.2) or, where Checkmate Live engages an external firm, at prevailing industry rates for that firm's services;

(c) Cloud-infrastructure surge — compute, bandwidth, storage and adjacent services, charged at the prevailing pass-through rates of the relevant cloud or hosting provider, plus reasonable handling;

(d) Anti-cheat re-baselining and re-tuning — integrity system remediation and recalibration, charged at the prevailing industry or internal engineering rate applicable;

(e) Legal, dispute-resolution and enforcement costs — on a full-indemnity (solicitor-and-own-client) basis at prevailing industry rates, including: preparation of referral packages to integrity bodies, federations, regulators or law enforcement; preparation of civil-recovery materials; legal and counsel fees, barrister and expert-witness fees; court and filing fees; arbitration and arbitrator fees and tribunal-seat costs (including under section 44.3A — ACICA, ADGM and WIPO Videogames forums); mediation, conciliation and expert-determination costs; e-discovery, evidence-preservation, forensic-expert and process-server costs; security-for-costs, freezing-order, search-order and Mareva-type relief costs; costs of obtaining and enforcing judgments (including in foreign jurisdictions, through civil-enforcement instruments — see section 44.2B); and collection and recovery costs;

(f) Business interruption and lost revenue — lost gameplay, subscription, pass, store, prize-pool, broadcast, streaming, sponsor, advertising, ticket and entry-fee revenue, calculated by reference to the affected period and ordinary-course revenue benchmarks;

(g) Event cancellation, postponement and re-run costs — refunds to entrants, re-funding of prize pools, venue, arbiter, supervision, broadcast and production re-engagement costs, and sponsor and broadcaster make-goods, in each case at prevailing industry rates and at the contractual rates of the relevant third-party counterparties;

(h) Third-party contractual liability — contractual penalties and damages payable to federations, governing bodies, integrity bodies, broadcasters, streaming partners, sponsors, advertising counterparties, venues, host-city and host-federation counterparties, prize-pool funders and other commercial counterparties, calculated at the contractual rate or measure of loss owed to that counterparty;

(i) Regulator engagement and breach-notification costs — external-reporting, data-breach-notification, compliance-engagement and regulator-liaison costs, charged at prevailing industry rates for the relevant advisory services;

(j) Insurance excess, deductible, premium uplift and related insurance costs — incremental insurance and risk-transfer costs attributable to the breach, including: the relevant insurance deductible, excess or self-insured retention; insurer-imposed premium uplifts on the relevant policy and on any related, adjacent or successor policy (including cyber, professional indemnity, directors-and-officers, crime, business interruption, sponsor-liability or other affected policy), over the current and each subsequent renewal cycle where the claim is a rated factor; erosion or loss of no-claims bonus, sub-limit, aggregate-limit availability, retention rate or other premium-affecting policy feature; insurer-imposed re-underwriting, audit, security-assessment, surveying or additional-information costs; policy non-renewal, cancellation or restriction by the insurer attributable to the claim, and the incremental cost of obtaining replacement coverage in the open market (including broker placement fees, higher premiums and any uninsured exposure); and broker, advisory and consultant fees incurred in connection with insurer engagement, claim notification, claim-management or replacement-policy placement; and

(k) Reputational repair and stakeholder communications — public-relations, crisis-communications, customer-communications and player-retention costs charged at prevailing industry rates for the relevant advisory and communications services; and

(l) Any other reasonably attributable impact on the Platform or business — any other loss, cost, expense or adverse impact on the Platform, on Checkmate Live's business, on a Protected Person, or on a tournament, event, broadcast, partner relationship, federation relationship, sponsor relationship or regulatory standing, that is reasonably attributable to the conduct, whether direct or consequential and whether or not specifically enumerated above. The presence of this catch-all does not narrow any of the enumerated categories;

(m) Statutory damages and remedies under intellectual-property law — damages, additional damages, account of profits and statutory remedies available under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (including sections 115, 116, 116AN and 116AO), the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth), the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) and equivalent intellectual-property statutes in any jurisdiction in which Checkmate Live, VADR Media or another applicable owner or licensor enforces — including statutory damages for circumvention of technical protection measures (see section 14.2) and for trafficking in circumvention devices, services or tools, and additional damages under section 115(4) of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) for flagrant infringement; and

(n) Wrongfully obtained prize money and recovery — the full amount of any prize money, reward, ranking points, rating gains, items, currency or competitive benefit wrongfully obtained, retained or sought by an External Adversarial Actor or connected Account, plus the costs of recovering, re-allocating or re-funding that amount (see sections A.5.1 and A.5.2), subject to the prohibition on double-counting in section A.6; and

(o) Regulatory, administrative and pass-through penalties, fines, awards and orders — civil or administrative penalties, infringement notices, court-ordered awards, settlement payments, enforceable undertakings, remediation orders, compliance directions, payment-network or scheme-imposed fines, and federation- or integrity-body-imposed sanctions imposed on, or paid by, Checkmate Live or a Protected Person, to the extent the amount is lawfully recoverable and was caused by the External Adversarial Conduct, together with the reasonable cost of complying with, contesting, defending or settling the matter.

A.4.2 Standard internal rates. Checkmate Live's standard internal engineering and SecOps rates are set by Checkmate Live by reference to prevailing industry rates for comparable roles in the Australian technology, security and esports sectors, are maintained as part of the Cost Recovery Calibration Record (section A.9.1), and are reviewed annually under section A.9.4.

A.5.1 Affected event prize forfeiture. Where External Adversarial Conduct uses or is connected with an Account and affects a prize-eligible match, tournament stage, qualifier or season:

(a) 100% of awarded prizes for the affected event are forfeit by the User and by every Account in any network attributed to the User under section 8.3A;

(b) the retrospective clawback rights in section 15.6A apply concurrently; and

(c) Checkmate Live may recover from the User a per-participant integrity-investigation fee calibrated under section A.9 at prevailing industry rates for fair-play investigation, victim notification and prize-rerun administration.

A.5.2 Crown, Credit and item clawback. Where External Adversarial Conduct uses or is connected with an Account during a defined breach window, the following applies. The forfeitures in this section A.5.2 are directed at entitlements attributable to the established breach (assessed on reliable evidence of an identified course of conduct, not on simple timing or unsupported association alone), read consistently with section 40.1, which protects unrelated purchased balances and accrued awards from automatic confiscation; the applicable legal basis for each remedy is stated in the enforcement decision and in this Schedule (contractual forfeiture, retrospective clawback under section 15.6A, set-off under section A.8.2, and, where independently established, actual-loss remedies under section 36):

(a) 100% of Crowns, Credits, drops, items, currency, ratings, achievements and rewards attributable to the established breach during the breach window are forfeit;

(b) Crowns purchased with fiat during the breach window may, at Checkmate Live's election, be refunded, withheld pending investigation, or applied against the User's outstanding amounts under this Schedule, subject to non-excludable rights under section 54;

(c) Pro Pass, Echess Pass, Battle Pass and other subscription or pass benefits are forfeit where the breach justifies termination, and accrued or unused pass entitlements expire on termination; and

(d) any token payouts that were sponsored or claimed during the breach window may be reversed or recovered to the extent operationally possible.

A.6.1 A person is not charged twice for the same head of loss. Any amount paid or recovered under this Schedule is credited against the same head of loss recovered under section 36 or Applicable Law, and vice versa. The election in sections A.1.4 and A.8.1 governs.

A.7.1 Aggregation across categories. Where a single course of conduct spans multiple categories under this Schedule, a single calibrated recovery applies for that course of conduct, determined under section A.9.

A.7.2 Multi-event conduct. Where conduct spans multiple discrete events (each on a different date, against a different system, or involving a distinct actor), a separate calibrated recovery applies for each event.

A.7.3 Network and cluster attribution. Where a person who accepted these Terms operates, directs or controls a network or cluster under section 8.3A or section 14A.3, contractual attribution may apply across every Account or sub-actor in the network. For a person who did not accept these Terms, joint, several, accessorial, vicarious or other liability exists only to the extent established under Applicable Law.

A.7.4 Commissioned third-party rule. A User who commissions, instructs, funds, ratifies or knowingly benefits from an External Adversarial Actor's conduct is contractually responsible under section 14A.3 to the extent permitted by Applicable Law. Checkmate Live may also pursue the External Adversarial Actor and any principal, accessorial participant or beneficiary under the causes of action and remedies available under Applicable Law, without double-counting the same loss.

A.7.5 No artificial aggregate cap. This Schedule does not impose an artificial aggregate cap on loss otherwise recoverable under section 36 or Applicable Law. It does not enlarge the loss or remedy legally recoverable. Non-excludable rights under section 54 are preserved.

A.8.1 Available recovery bases. For a person bound by these Terms, Checkmate Live may claim:

(a) an agreed recovery amount, where an enforceable amount or objectively ascertainable calculation formula was incorporated into the applicable contractual terms before the relevant conduct occurred; or

(b) loss, costs and expenses recoverable under section 36 or another applicable legal basis, supported by the calculation and particulars required by section A.3.

The internal Calibration Record may support either calculation but does not, by itself, establish that an amount was agreed or is legally recoverable. Different heads of loss may be pursued under different available bases, without double recovery under section A.6. For a person not bound by these Terms, the available remedy and measure of recovery are determined by Applicable Law.

A.8.2 Account recovery sequence; set-off as residual backstop. Where External Adversarial Conduct uses or is connected with an Account, the recovery sequence operates as follows:

(a) Forfeiture and clawback first. Upon classification of the conduct under section 15.3A(c) or (d), and prior to any cash demand under section A.8.3, Checkmate Live applies the forfeiture and clawback consequences under sections 15.6A (retrospective clawback), A.5.1 (prize-pool forfeiture) and A.5.2 (Crown, Credit, item, drops, ratings and rewards clawback) in respect of any balances, entitlements or items held by, or attributed to, the User (including across any Account network attributed under section 8.3A). In a typical enforcement scenario by the time recovery under this Schedule is enforced, these forfeitures and clawbacks will already have substantially or wholly eliminated any User-side balance otherwise available for set-off.

(b) Set-off as residual backstop. To the extent any residual balance, prize entitlement, Crown wallet balance, Credit balance, withheld payout, escrow balance, future earnings or other amount otherwise payable by Checkmate Live to the User remains after the application of paragraph (a), Checkmate Live may set off the amount payable under this Schedule against that residual. Set-off under this paragraph is a backstop mechanism and not the primary recovery mechanism; the User remains liable under section A.8.3 for any unpaid balance not satisfied by forfeiture, clawback or set-off.

(c) Cross-Account set-off. Where the User is the operator of, or is attributed under section 8.3A or section 14A.3 to, a network of Accounts, set-off under paragraph (b) may be exercised against balances, entitlements and payouts held on any Account in that network, calculated on a network-wide basis.

(d) No estoppel or election. Application of forfeiture, clawback or set-off under this section is not an election of remedies and does not preclude or limit Checkmate Live's right to pursue the residual unpaid balance under sections A.8.1, A.8.3, 36 or 44.2A, or under any other available remedy.

A.8.3 Payment by a contracting person. An amount contractually payable by a person who accepted these Terms is payable within 30 days after a written demand that complies with section A.3.2, subject to non-excludable rights under Applicable Law and Checkmate Live's discretion to suspend collection, agree a payment plan or defer enforcement while a genuine appeal under section A.10 is considered. An amount claimed from an External Adversarial Actor who did not accept these Terms becomes payable only under an enforceable settlement, judgment, order or other legal basis recognised by Applicable Law.

Interest accrues on overdue amounts at the Reserve Bank of Australia cash-rate target plus 4% per annum, compounded monthly, unless Checkmate Live has agreed in writing to suspend collection during an appeal or payment plan.

Cost-recovery for collection and enforcement — on a full-indemnity basis where recoverable by law — is recoverable in addition, including legal and counsel fees, barrister and expert-witness fees, court and tribunal costs, arbitration and arbitrator costs (including under section 44.3A), mediation and expert-determination costs, agency and collection fees, and the cost of obtaining and enforcing judgments (including in foreign jurisdictions, through civil-enforcement instruments — see section 44.2B).

A.8.4 Currency. All amounts in this Schedule are in Australian dollars (AUD).

A.9.1 Industry-rate methodology and calibration record. The Calibration Record supports the assessment of amounts claimed under section A.8.1 by reference to the relevant cost categories in section A.4 and appropriate industry-rate benchmarks. The methodology is maintained as an internal calibration record (the Cost Recovery Calibration Record), is confidential (section 50A.4), and is reviewed annually. The Calibration Record supports consistent assessment of rates, work, loss and costs. It is not independently authoritative as to contractual entitlement or legal recoverability. The applicable recovery basis and calculation are identified under sections A.3 and A.8.1. Updates to the Record do not retrospectively alter an agreed recovery amount or formula. Industry-rate benchmarks may be drawn from published incident-response, digital-forensics, cloud-provider, legal and esports-integrity rate guides, and from Checkmate Live's own engagement history.

A.9.2 Agreed amounts and compensatory recovery. An agreed recovery amount under section A.8.1(a) is intended to compensate for the loss reasonably anticipated from the relevant conduct, rather than punish the person responsible. Its enforceability depends on the applicable agreement and law. Where no enforceable agreed amount applies, Checkmate Live retains its rights to recover loss, costs and expenses under section 36 and Applicable Law. Against a person not bound by these Terms, the Calibration Record is evidentiary only and does not replace the applicable legal measure of recovery.

A.9.3 Severability and court adjustment. If a court of competent jurisdiction finds any amount or rule in this Schedule unenforceable as a penalty or otherwise, that amount or rule is severed. Checkmate Live's right to recover actual loss under section 36 from a contracting person, and its rights under Applicable Law against any External Adversarial Actor, are preserved. A court is invited to read down rather than strike out a contractual amount to the extent the law permits.

A.9.4 Annual review. Checkmate Live reviews the amounts in this Schedule and the underlying standard internal rates annually, and may update them with reasonable notice for material changes (see section 46).

A.10.1 A User or other person bound by these Terms may appeal the classification of the conduct and the quantum of a contractual recovery under section 16, including by submitting a quantum-only appeal within 28 days after notice. Checkmate Live is not required to disclose detection logic, source code, security thresholds, protected telemetry, legal advice or privileged work product. A person who did not accept these Terms is not required to use the contractual appeal process and retains the procedural rights available under Applicable Law.

A.10.2 Effect of contractual appeal on payment. An appeal by a person bound by these Terms does not automatically suspend a contractual payment obligation under A.8.3. However, Checkmate Live may, acting reasonably and in good faith, suspend collection, defer enforcement, agree a payment plan or otherwise manage recovery while a genuine appeal is considered.

A.10.3 Nothing in this Schedule restricts a non-excludable procedural right, defence, counterclaim or other right that a person has under Applicable Law. Any contractual requirement to bring a separate claim under section 44 applies only to the extent enforceable.

B.1 Scope and application. This Schedule B applies only to Users who are resident in the United States at the time a dispute, claim or controversy arises between the User and Checkmate Live Pty Ltd or a CML Group Company arising out of or relating to the Platform, these Terms, any transaction on the Platform, any communication with Checkmate Live, or any related product, service or interaction (each, a US Resident User, and each such dispute, claim or controversy, a US Dispute).

For a US Resident User, this Schedule B supplements and, where inconsistent, modifies sections 42, 43, 44 and 45 in respect of a US Dispute only. For a User who is not a US Resident User, this Schedule B does not apply and sections 42–45 continue to govern.

Nothing in this Schedule B is a general submission by Checkmate Live Pty Ltd to the jurisdiction of any United States court.

B.2 Federal Arbitration Act. For a US Resident User, the parties agree that the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq., governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Schedule B, including the arbitration agreement in section B.4.

B.3 Informal dispute resolution — Notice of Dispute. Before a US Resident User or Checkmate Live may commence arbitration or any court proceeding permitted by this Schedule B in respect of a US Dispute, the party raising the dispute must send the other a written Notice of Dispute identifying:

(a) the User's name, Account identifier, contact address and email;

(b) the nature and basis of the US Dispute; and

(c) the specific relief sought.

A Notice of Dispute from a US Resident User must be sent to Checkmate Live through the legal contact address published on the Platform. A Notice of Dispute from Checkmate Live is sent to the email address on record for the User's Account.

The parties will attempt to resolve the US Dispute in good faith for 60 days from receipt of the Notice of Dispute. Neither party may commence arbitration or any court proceeding permitted by this Schedule B before this 60-day period has expired, unless required to preserve a claim, compel arbitration, stay court proceedings pending arbitration, enforce an arbitration agreement, seek urgent interim or injunctive relief, or comply with mandatory Applicable Law.

B.4 Binding individual arbitration. Subject to sections B.5, B.7, B.9, B.10 and B.11, any US Dispute that is not resolved through the process in section B.3 must be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under the JAMS rules applicable to the dispute, including the JAMS Consumer Arbitration Minimum Standards where JAMS determines those standards apply.

The arbitration is individual only. No class arbitration, collective arbitration, representative arbitration, private attorney general arbitration or consolidated arbitration is permitted unless Checkmate Live expressly agrees in writing.

The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator, in English. Unless the parties otherwise agree in writing, the arbitration will be conducted remotely, on the documents, by video conference, or in another manner determined by the arbitrator that is fair and reasonably convenient for the parties.

The arbitrator's award is final and binding, subject only to the limited grounds for review under the Federal Arbitration Act.

B.5 Small-claims carve-out. A US Resident User or Checkmate Live may bring an individual claim in a small-claims court with jurisdiction over the parties and the claim, in place of arbitration under section B.4, provided the claim is within that court's jurisdictional limit and remains in that court on an individual basis.

If a claim filed in small-claims court is transferred, removed, appealed, consolidated, asserted on a representative basis, or otherwise ceases to proceed on an individual basis in small-claims court, either party may require the claim to proceed in arbitration under this Schedule B.

B.6 Class action, representative action and consolidation waiver. To the maximum extent permitted by Applicable Law, a US Resident User and Checkmate Live each agree that they will only bring US Disputes in an individual capacity. Neither party may:

(a) commence, participate in, be a member of, or seek relief as a member of any class action, class-wide arbitration, representative action, collective arbitration, private attorney general action, or other proceeding in which any person acts or purports to act in a representative capacity in respect of a US Dispute; or

(b) consolidate, coordinate, combine or aggregate an arbitration or proceeding under this Schedule B with any other arbitration or proceeding, or permit any other person to do so, without the express written consent of all parties involved.

The arbitrator may award relief, including injunctive relief, only in favour of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by that party's individual claim.

B.7 Mass Arbitration Cases. Where multiple substantially similar individual arbitration demands are filed against Checkmate Live by or through the same or coordinated counsel, or otherwise qualify for treatment as mass arbitration under the applicable JAMS procedures (a Mass Arbitration Case), the demands must be administered under the JAMS Mass Arbitration Procedures and Guidelines, including any applicable JAMS mass-arbitration fee schedule, to the extent JAMS accepts administration of those matters under those procedures.

No mass filing, coordinated filing, bellwether process, batching process, administrative process or fee process may be used to create a class arbitration, collective arbitration, representative arbitration, private attorney general arbitration or consolidated arbitration, unless Checkmate Live expressly agrees in writing.

If JAMS declines, is unable or is unwilling to administer a Mass Arbitration Case under the applicable JAMS mass-arbitration procedures, the parties must meet and confer in good faith to select an alternative arbitration administrator with comparable mass-arbitration procedures. If the parties cannot agree, either party may ask a court of competent jurisdiction to appoint an arbitration administrator or arbitrator solely for that purpose, without waiving the agreement to arbitrate or the class, representative and consolidation waivers in this Schedule B.

B.8 Arbitration carve-outs. The arbitration requirement in section B.4 does not apply to:

(a) individual claims properly brought in small-claims court under section B.5;

(b) a complaint, report or enforcement request submitted to a government agency where Applicable Law preserves that right;

(c) an action to compel arbitration, stay court proceedings pending arbitration, confirm, modify, vacate or enforce an arbitration award, or determine whether a claim is subject to arbitration;

(d) Checkmate Live's right to seek urgent, interim, interlocutory, provisional or final injunctive or equitable relief under section B.9;

(e) claims involving intellectual-property infringement, piracy, cheat creation, cheat distribution, cheat promotion, anti-cheat circumvention, Platform Integrity System circumvention, Unauthorised Access, account theft, account transfer, security compromise, social engineering, data scraping, unauthorised monitoring, or misuse of Platform Integrity Systems;

(f) disputes about the enforceability, validity or scope of the class-action, representative-action or consolidation waiver in section B.6; and

(g) any matter that mandatory Applicable Law requires to be heard in court.

B.9 Injunctive and equitable relief carve-out. Nothing in this Schedule B prevents Checkmate Live from seeking, in any court of competent jurisdiction, interim, interlocutory, provisional or final injunctive or other equitable relief to protect its intellectual property, confidential information, integrity systems, Platform operations, user safety, tournament integrity, evidence, accounts, payment systems, or to enforce or protect rights under Parts C, F, H or Schedule A.

A US Resident User may seek interim or injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction where mandatory Applicable Law preserves that right. The commencement of a court proceeding for injunctive or equitable relief does not waive the parties' agreement to arbitrate other US Disputes or the class, representative and consolidation waivers in this Schedule B.

B.10 Severability. If any provision of this Schedule B is found unenforceable, the remainder continues in effect to the maximum extent permitted by Applicable Law.

If the class-action, representative-action or consolidation waiver in section B.6 is found by a court or arbitrator to be unenforceable in respect of a particular US Dispute, then the affected claim may not proceed in arbitration under section B.4 unless Checkmate Live expressly agrees in writing. In that case, the affected claim may proceed only in a court of competent jurisdiction that is legally able to hear the matter, subject to section B.11 and all rights of Checkmate Live to contest jurisdiction, venue, service, standing, forum, arbitrability and the enforceability or scope of any asserted claim.

B.11 Court proceedings limited; no general US submission. Nothing in this Schedule B is a general submission by Checkmate Live Pty Ltd to the jurisdiction of any United States court.

For any US Dispute excluded from arbitration under sections B.5, B.8, B.9 or B.10, or in respect of which a US Resident User has validly opted out under this section, any court proceeding must be brought only in a court of competent jurisdiction that is legally able to hear the matter. Checkmate Live reserves all rights to contest jurisdiction, venue, service, forum, arbitrability, standing and the enforceability or scope of any asserted claim, except to the extent Checkmate Live expressly waives a specific objection in writing.

A US Resident User may opt out of the arbitration agreement in section B.4 and the class-action waiver in section B.6 by sending Checkmate Live written notice of opt-out through the legal contact address published on the Platform within 30 days after first accepting these Terms, or, where these Terms are materially amended, within 30 days after the User's first acceptance of the amended Terms in respect of the amended provisions.

The opt-out notice must identify the User's name, Account identifier and email address. An effective opt-out does not affect any other provision of these Terms.

Nothing in this Schedule B excludes, restricts or modifies any right of a US Resident User that cannot be excluded, restricted or modified under mandatory US federal or state consumer-protection Applicable Law.