I have an older model of the Chronos and was wondering if there was a way to program a single Sudden Death time control with added time. It seems it’s mostly designed for delay, or possibly FIDE controls with multiple time controls.
I bought this many years ago.
Do you mean increment? It is under the CH-P modes. Not sure for your particular clock, but that would be where to try.
Alex Relyea
Yes, increment. But the progressive modes don’t quite meet what I’m looking for. The all have multiple time controls. Is there a way to set it so that I’d start in the last control and skip the other time controls?
One problem is that there is an issue with the fact it only can show 6 digits. That seems to be the overriding factor of some of the time controls.
For example, the more traditional blitz time control on the Chronos allows a person to make 40 moves in X minutes, but the clock can’t be set for more than 9 minutes 59 seconds, then after a person makes 40 moves, it adds one minute to the players clock.
It’s kinda screwy if you just trying to recreate the common blitz time control on internet chess of sudden death X minutes with Y seconds added after each move.
I guess I’ll just use 10 minutes with a delay of 9 seconds for OTB blitz play.
I did have an Excaliber Gametime II, but it died. I gave it new batteries but it was still not working properly. So I chucked it. It would eventually turn on, but as soon as you hit the reset button, it wouldn’t come on again. Then randomly some minutes later, it would turn on. Heh.
I bought the Excaliber sometime when I was in College, so before 1996. I bought the Chronos some years later. Not sure when, but apparently the build quality is far better than the Gametime.
CH-P5 is quite likely the mode you want.
If this was the last Chronos model that had a switch on the bottom, circa 1996, then you’re in luck. The mode you want is CH-P3.
CH-P3 defaults to a main time of 20:00 with an increment of 0:06 (20 minutes main time, 6 seconds increment), but you can easily change it and then save it as one of the user presets. The main time can be anything up to 9:59:59, and the increment time anything up to 9:59.
For example, for G/90 inc/30 you would set it to 1:30:00 and 0:30.
Since the Chronos fails to add the extra time for move 1, technically you should add the increment time to the main time. In this example you would set it to 1:30:30 instead of 1:30:00, and you would still set the increment to 0:30.
Or, for the international standard of G/3 inc/2 for blitz, you should set it for 0:03:02 and 0:02.
This has been my only chess clock for decades, and it’s still going strong.
Bill Smythe
Thanks a bunch. I think an engineer wrote the user guide with no clue how normal people think.
If g/20+6 was a default setting, it wasn’t the manual that was at fault, it was the design.
Who uses G/20+6 for an event?
Sometimes I wonder if the people who design chess clocks actually play chess!
The Chronos is also designed for Shogi and Go tournaments.
I prefer this website for directions for how to set various clocks for FIDE time controls. If I understood the original question, then the answer is mode CH-P5. I still use the Chronos that I bought in 1998 (and I have a second, newer one).
Michael Aigner
On the other hand, I own two Chronos clocks which both died recently. One of them had a wire come loose from the circuit board; I have no idea where the connection was so that clock is dead. The second one has developed some sort of short: it usually starts (with a prolonged and unnatural beeping) but then the display will go blank at some random point during use.
So, since it is no longer possible to buy the “long” Chronos clocks, I bought one of the short ones. Then I did something that apparently very few players do - I spent 30 minutes with the manual making sure I knew how to operate it. I created pre-sets for all the controls I regularly use.
At the just-concluded US Open, starting about 15 minutes before each round, there was an announcement repeated several times that TDs were available in the central aisle to help players set their clocks. They got a lot of business. Disgraceful!
– Hal Terrie
Ahh, I didn’t realize they stopped making the long clock.
In any event, I decided to replace the Gametime with a DGT 3000 clock. It seemed rather similar to the Chronos long clock with a whole lot more information on the display.
I’m trying to find more OTB opportunities, which can crop up when I’m traveling. So I like to keep a separate “club” kit wit a small chess bag and roll up board and clock, etc. And use a tournament kit for when I start going to actual tournaments. Maybe I’ll be able to make the Murfreesboro tournament that’s coming up.
The other issue is that when I got the Chronos touch years ago, it seemed really good on paper, but in reality, over the years, most of my opponents that own a clock insist we use their clock and don’t like using a touch clock.
A touch clock is more silent, but there is a certain finality about hearing a clock button bang when it’s slapped down. Most chess players prefer that over a tiny beep.
When that model came out, mid-1990s, increment hadn’t yet made a foothold in the USA, and it probably wasn’t all that popular yet in FIDE either. It appears the manufacturer was assuming that increment would be used primarily for blitz-like controls.
Besides CH-P3, there were two other CH-Pn modes on that model. CH-P1 came with a move count, and defaulted to 40 moves in 6 minutes followed by 10 moves in each 1 minute thereafter. The 6-minute and 1-minute defaults could each be changed to anything up to 9:59.
CH-P2 defaulted to 2 minutes of main time and 12 seconds of increment time, with no move count, but the main time could be set only up to 9:59, and the increment time ditto.
Bill Smythe
Dr. Wayne Bell must have had a first edition model. He was the first person at MSU to get a digital clock and I’m almost certain the Gametime clock came out at least a few months later if not an even later date than that.
The Chronos is a great clock, but clearly they had no clue how to write a users manual that I’d consider easy to understand. Once you figure out the basics of the clock, which isn’t all that obvious, it’s actually a very streamlined system.
I have both long and short Chronos clocks, and can set them for every time control I’d need. I find that the short “Blitz” model (an earlier and in my opinion slightly better version of the GX) is simple enough that I can actually remember everything I’d need to set a totally new time control on the fly. With the long version, I could probably do that by now, but would feel more comfortable having the manual there.
That announcement at this year’s U.S. Open became more amusing as the tournament progressed. You’d think that 9 rounds would have given people time to learn, even on the four day schedule. I wouldn’t bet on being able to set an opponent’s Z-Mart or Saitek for him, but at least I know the clocks that I own.
I was also a bit surprised by the announcement on people using analog clocks. I didn’t notice anyone actually using them, but then, I didn’t walk all over the playing hall.
Some TDs have been around so long that they haven’t learned that nobody uses analog clocks anymore.
Bill Smythe
I did see a few in use.
The clocks that we sign out to players (who don’t have clocks) at our tournaments are all old analog clocks. Occasionally someone will come back and ask us how to set it and/or read it. Kids these days. :mrgreen:
I remember many years ago, someone quipped about a large tournament they went to, that organizers and refs didn’t know how to set some of the digital clocks. That was at least 20 years ago, and far fewer digital clocks on the market.
Nowadays, there should be no expectation that the organizers and refs should know how to set any particular digital clock regardless of make or model. Not to mention it would be a massive time sink that the refs and organizers don’t have time to mess with.
But ya, there are many more types of digital clocks on the market nowadays, not to mention older clocks that have been discontinued for whatever reason.
As a TD, I generally want no part of helping people set their clocks, and here’s why:
(1) With all the different clocks out there, the odds of me knowing how to set any specific one are fairly low.
(2) Even when I’m familiar with a specific clock, I usually need the manual to set it, and it takes a few minutes. When I’m playing, I always preset my clock the night before. I wouldn’t want to try to do it “on the fly” right before a round starts.
(3) Typically, when someone asks me how to set a clock, it’s right before the round starts. As a TD, I’m usually trying to do half a dozen other things at that point. I don’t have time to set one clock, let alone a bunch of them. In my opinion, when you buy a clock, it’s your responsibility to learn how to set it. It’s not rocket science. If you’re smart enough to play chess, you’re smart enough to learn how to set a digital clock.
(4) There are often several ways to set the same clock for the same control, especially if the clock is a Chronos. For example, in 40/120 SD/30 d5, do you set it so that it always shows h:mm:ss for the main time, and just a flashing colon for the delay? Or do you set it to show h:mm until the main time drops below 60 minutes, then switch to mm:ss, so that the delay can always be shown as a countdown digit? Or do you set it so that shows h:mm during the 5 second delay, then switch to mm:ss after the delay drops to 0? And do you set it to advance to the 2nd control at move 40, or to advance only when the first control expires? I’m pretty sure I’ve omitted a few more options, as well.
Bill Smythe
The TD has the right to direct the players which of these, or other, options should be used. I’ve never done so, but when my wife and assistant TD helps players set clocks, she always standardizes. I’d imagine it is also true when organizers provide the clocks.
Alex Relyea