Adding penalty minutes to a Chronos II Chess clock

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I have purchased a Chronos II (touch sensor) chess clock both for potential future use and also for learning how to set it when I help run scholastic tournaments (some children are using this).

One vexing problem I have is that I have not figured out how to add two penalty minutes to a player’s time once the game is in progress. You do a short press (center button) to stop the clock, but then I have no idea how to add the two minute penalty. The instruction book doesn’t give any help, and I didn’t see this topic on a quick search on this forum (so I apologize if it’s been posted somewhere).

Can someone help or point me in the right direction? Otherwise, the Chronos clock may not be as useful for tournaments.

Thank you in advance,
Chris Kim
Club TD - working towards Local TD
Baltimore, MD

2

Does this work?

  1. Hit center button to stop clock
  2. Long press center button to enter set mode
  3. Short press center button until the digit you want to change is flashing
  4. Hit either play switch until you get the number you want for that digit.
  5. Short press center button to move to any other digit you want to change.
  6. Long press center button to exit set mode
  7. Press play switch to start the clock again

I got this from the pdf of the manual at chronosdealer.com . I don’t have a chronos sitting here with me, but I will give it a try when I get home.

3

I’m pretty sure that’ll do it. The Chronos II differs from the Chronos I only in the touch-sensitive buttons. Otherwise, they operate identically, I’m quite sure.

Bill Smythe

4

In order for my steps to work it appears that you have to be in a certain mode. There is a table in the manual that shows the different modes. Column F is for the change running time option. If this is yes for the mode then my steps should work.

5

True, some modes (especially blitz modes) don’t have mid-game adjustment capability.

Bill Smythe

6

It appears to be related to whether that mode has quick reset enabled or not.

7

Yes, and quick reset is a feature not worth having. In fact, it’s dangerous. It makes it easy for a player to accidentally reset to the starting time.

I wish Chronos would get rid of the quick reset feature, and implement mid-game adjustment in all modes.

When resetting, it’s no big deal to press the center button 5 times (as in the non-quick-reset modes) rather than twice (as in the quick reset modes). For this reason, I prefer CH-F2 to either CH-F1 or CH-F3.

Bill Smythe

8

Thank you both for your quick replies. I’ll have to look at the manual again and try it on the Chronos clock at home. It’s just good to know this because most kids don’t know how set their clocks, and there is always a shortage of working clocks.

I agree that I hate the quick reset feature, and will look for modes that don’t have it - probably that was why I was having problems figuring out how to add penalty minutes.

Chris Kim

9

That may explain why on some Chronos Blitz clocks (the little ones) it resets to the starting time when you hold the button down to go into set up mode. I don’t have this problem on mine, but when I’ve attempted to add penalty time on others it’s reset to start time. I learned very quickly to write down both times before adding time.