Rules
Last updated: 1 November 2026
Woodpusher is a free chess website run by Oscar Kok in the Netherlands, as a hobby. You can reach me at contact@woodpusher.org. These rules are the agreement between you and Woodpusher when you make an account. How your data is handled is in the privacy statement.
Who can have an account
Accounts are for people aged 16 and over. Without an account you can still play Stockfish, solve puzzles, practise openings and review games.
The rules
- Fair play. In online games you play on your own. No chess engines, apps, websites, books or other people helping you during a game. Reviewing a game with Stockfish afterwards is fine.
- Behaviour. Play in good faith: no deliberately stalling or leaving a game you are losing, no losing on purpose, and no harassing other players.
- Usernames. No offensive usernames, and none that pretend to be someone else (such as a well-known player or Woodpusher itself) or that contain someone's personal details.
- One account to play rated games. Don't use a second account to play yourself, to raise or lower ratings, or to get around a closed account.
- Leave the site working. No attempts to break into accounts or the server, and no scripts or bots that play, flood the site with requests or copy it wholesale.
How the rules are kept
Players can report others from a profile or after a game. Every finished rated game is also checked in the background by Stockfish, which counts how often a player's moves were its own first choice and how much they lost on average. Players whose games look like computer play are flagged. A flag or a report never closes an account by itself: the admin looks at the games and the reports, and decides.
If you break the rules, your account can be closed for online play. You can still log in, play Stockfish, solve puzzles and review games. If an account is closed for fair play, its public profile says so; for the other reasons it only says the account is closed. Ratings of a closed account no longer appear on the leaderboard. Normally the closure has no end date.
When your account is closed, you see why the next time you log in: which rule, what it is based on, and whether the automatic check played a part.
If you disagree
Email contact@woodpusher.org from any address, with your username and why you think the decision is wrong. The decision is then looked at again, and you get an answer, normally within two weeks. You can also take the matter to court.
Reporting something illegal
If you find something on Woodpusher that you believe is illegal, such as a username, email contact@woodpusher.org. Say where it is (a link or the username), why you think it is illegal, and give your name and email address so I can answer. You don't need an account for this.
The bots in the style of top players
The opponents named after the world's top players are bots: Stockfish with an opening book and style built from those players' published over-the-board games. They are not made with, approved by or connected to these players.
The service
Woodpusher is free and comes as it is. I do my best to keep it running and your data safe, but I can't promise it is always available or free of mistakes, and I may change features or stop the site. If I stop it, I will say so on the site in advance where I can. You can delete your account at any time under Play online → Delete account.
Dutch law applies to these rules. If you live in another EU country, the protection your own country's law gives you as a consumer still applies.
Changes
When these rules change, the date at the top changes with it, and important changes are mentioned on the site.