Effective 11 January 2027 · last updated 2 November 2026.
Shuinlar has no luck in it: every outcome is earned on the board. That only means something if the player across from you earned theirs too. These are the rules of play that are not on the board. They are part of the terms of service; the rules of the game itself are at shuinlar.com/rules.
Three rules
Play your own moves. In a rated game, no engine, no bot, no second app, no analysis board in another window, no one whispering over your shoulder. The in-game Hint is allowed, because it makes the game unrated and both players can see that it was used. Analysing a game after it ends is allowed and encouraged.
One player, one account. No second account to pad a rating, to dodge a loss, to lose on purpose and drop your rating, to play yourself, or to come back from a ban. Deleting an account and making a fresh one later is fine; holding two at once is not.
Be decent in chat. No harassment, no slurs, no threats, no spam, no asking for the other player's personal details. Say good game or say nothing.
Also against the rules
Arranged results: throwing a game, trading wins, or agreeing a result before it is played.
Escaping a loss: deliberately letting a rated game time out, or closing the app so the game is forfeited rather than resigned.
Exploiting a bug to win or to move a rating. Report it to support@shuinlar.com instead; we thank people who do.
Ratings manipulation of any kind, including farming games against an account that is set up to lose.
What counts as outside help
Allowed in a rated game: the rules page, the record of the game so far, your own memory and your own notes from earlier games. Not allowed: anything that looks at the current position and suggests a move, whether it is software, a website or a person. If you are unsure whether something is allowed, it is not; ask us before the game, not after.
Unrated games, games against the bots, puzzles and the tutorial have no such restriction: use any tool you like to learn.
How we check
Reports. Report a player from the game screen, or send the game code (Game → Share → Copy code) to support@shuinlar.com. Every report is read by a person.
Review. We compare a player's moves with our own engine across many games, and look at how accounts are used: when they play, whom they play and how they win. One strong game proves nothing; a pattern does.
Privacy. We tell you whether a report was acted on, but not what happened to the other player.
Penalties
Depending on what was done and whether it was done before:
Games annulled, with the opponent's rating put back to what it was.
A rating reset to its starting value.
Chat turned off for the account.
A temporary ban from rated or online play.
A permanent ban. Bans apply to the person, not the account; a new account made to get round one is closed when found.
We say which rule was broken when we act, unless saying so would help someone else break it.
If you think we got it wrong
Write to support@shuinlar.com within 30 days of the penalty and say why. A person who was not involved in the first decision reads it, and we answer within 14 days.
Disconnections are not cheating
When a connection drops in a live game the player has sixty seconds to come back; after that the game is recorded as a resignation so the opponent is not left waiting. That is a rule of the game, not a penalty, and losing a game that way is not a fair play breach. If the fault was on our side, say a server outage, we say so and rerate the game.