FAQ: What about false positives? Do innocent people get banned?

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Avatar of Richard

We appreciate that people may query false positives and claim that there friend is innocent if they have been banned for violating fair play policy. Ultimately Chess.com will decide and bear all responsibilities of our members and their play on our site.

Unfortunately, people do make mistakes - sometimes even really nice people. Again, we only close accounts when we are absolutely certain of our findings and have gathered enough statistics that we would stand by under public scrutiny and a court of law.

In response to valid appeals, we overturn approximately 0.03% of closures. That means that, based on figures as of August 2020, we would anticipate that about 5-6 cases out of 18,000 closures may be overturned in light of a compelling appeal backed by sound evidence of clean, if exceptional, play.

Chess.com is always willing to defend its decisions in court and to our members. We receive numerous threats of legal action each month; we are not intimidated by these threats.

No accounts are ever closed "on suspicion".

Avatar of MGleason

Slight edit to wording for grammar/clarity.

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