Cookie policy
A short list, because there is not much to list.
What play-chess.io stores in your browser
play-chess.io sets no advertising cookies and no cross-site trackers. It does set analytics cookies, because Google Analytics runs on every page, and it stores one marker of its own so that the feedback form appears only once. A game itself stores nothing: the position lives in the memory of the tab and is gone when that tab closes.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Type | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Google Analytics | Tells one visitor apart from another so visits can be counted | Analytics | 2 years |
| _ga_QSNZBQFZD5 | Google Analytics | Keeps the state of the current session | Analytics | 2 years |
| pcio_feedback_v1 | play-chess.io | Records that the feedback form has been shown, so it is not shown again | Functional | Until you clear site data |
play-chess.io sets no cookies of its own at all. The two analytics cookies belong to Google, and the third entry is not a cookie but a single marker in the browser’s local storage. None of the three is strictly necessary: the site works identically without any of them.
Consent, and where this site currently stands
Under the ePrivacy rules, storage that is strictly necessary to deliver what the user asked for does not need consent. Analytics cookies fall outside that: measuring how a site is used is not necessary to serve a chess board, so under EU rules they should be set only after the visitor agrees.
play-chess.io does not show a consent banner at present, so the analytics cookies are set before you have been asked. That is the honest position rather than a claim of compliance, and a consent step is the intended fix.
Whatever is decided, blocking analytics on your side always works and always will: any tracker-blocking browser or extension stops it, and the game is unaffected. The section below explains how to clear what has already been stored.
How to remove what is stored
Clearing site data for play-chess.io in your browser settings removes everything in the table, and the site keeps working afterwards — an online game in progress will drop, and a new one can be started immediately from the chess board. Clearing it also resets the feedback marker, so that form may appear once more. Browsers set to block all cookies can still use the computer levels and pass-and-play, because neither touches storage.
Last reviewed 2026-07-24. Changes to this page are listed by date at the bottom of about play-chess.io.