Hi all,
After a 30 year absence I am returning to chess (as my youngest daughter goes off to college).
My 35 year old analog clock is no longer working and I am in the market for a new one. Is there a digital clock that people can recommend for using for both tournament chess and speed chess?
Also, what online stores are recommended for getting chess supplies?
Thank you,
Scott
Welcome to the forums (and back to chess!)
If I may, rather than repeat what I’ve already written, I’ll reference you to my blog post on clocks. (But I just found out that all the links in that blogpost now seem to be broken. One can see all the clocks I referenced here at USCF sales.. There are lots of good places to buy, but I personally buy USCF whenever feasible…
(Oh, and in that blog post the DGT North American hadn’t been released yet… I’m still not sure how I feel about the red-white-blue color scheme of it, but I’d seriously consider it as well.)
The Saitek clocks, IMO, give you the best bang for the buck. The only real differences between the Competition and the Competition Pro, besides price, are the colors and the number of presets. Oh, and I think that the Competition only gives you one user-defined setting, while the C-Pro gives you three. As expensive as they are, I’d consider a Chronos clock only if I were still playing competitive go on a regular basis and wanted the byo-yomi settings (which the Saiteks don’t have).
But perhaps your criteria are different from mine, in which case I recommend this doohickey.
As for online chess stores, I started a whole topic about it here.
Just don’t ask a tournament director to set one for you. I hate them!
The easiest clock to set as far as I’m concerned is the Chronos, although it’s also the most expensive (something like $100 vs. $35 for a Saitek).
Its a bit on the pricey side, has a bit of a learning curve to use, but Chronos is hands down the best digital clock. They’re built like a tank, and there are very few clock settings that you can’t achieve. (And a whole mess of presets.)
In any event, the Chronos has gotten a lot of posts over the years, and other than the learning curve, there is little to be dissatisfied with.
The Chronos manual has a very good tutorial that makes it pretty easy to understand. (I have a touch Chronos for playing serious games, and when chess friends come over to my house.)
I actually use the Excaliber Game Timer II for most of my club playing, and its a fairly intuitive clock, with plenty of presets. It was the official digital timer of the USCF, although last I heard, the company went bankrupt, so not sure if the clock is even made still.
I think I paid about $24 for the Excaliber, when I bought to give as a gift a couple Xmas’ ago. -Online price btw, not including S/H, can’t remember what webstore I got it from though, but it wasn’t the USCF store. A lot of people like to talk down about the Excaliber chess clock, but its actually a fairly decent item, and especially a good buy when you take into account the price.
True, but don’t buy an old one; the early specimens had problems.
I remain a fan of the Chronos, but it’s also the most expensive.
Bill Smythe
Seriously? To me, the process of setting a Saitek clock is totally intuitive, starting with pressing the button labeled “Edit.” I can do it in a matter of seconds. With a Chronos, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
The rumors I heard were that the bankruptcy was an investment issue that had nothing to do with the manufacture or profitability of the clock, and that the clock is still being made (I recently purchased another half-dozen for my club).
Thank you all for the recommendations. This forum is extremely valuable.
Should I be getting as clock with a five second delay? I have seen that mentioned in other threads. If so, do all of the clocks mentioned in this thread have that feature?
Can someone please explain what the five second delay is, and when and why one would want to use it?
Thanks again!
Yes. Increasingly, it’s required.
Five-second delay simply means that when it’s your turn, the clock counts down five seconds before deducting from your total time. It’s similar to, but not exactly the same as, incremental time, which is added to your total time at the end of your turn.
Games with no delay or increment are being phased out by USCF TDs. Delay is the norm now, but there seems to be some movement toward increment. You might as well get a clock with both.
Both the Saiteks and the Chronoses have both features. I don’t know about the Excalibur.
I’m not sure about increment for the older Excaliburs, but the new one have it.
The Excalibur definitely supports increment with one, two, or three time controls. When increment is enabled, the delay counter (the single digit in the bottom center of the display) instead shows “F” (for “Fischer mode”). (I can’t speak for the earlier Excalibur, though.)
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Bad learning curve = bad clock. It is a huge problem with Chronos.
Plus with Chronos, I would add that: bad learning curve = bad re-learning curve.
Saitek is simple to set.
With Chronos, you need to carry around its book of codes (or memorize the ones you use). Saitek is more self-documenting.
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As you can tell, the “best” clock is a matter of personal preference. I like the tactile feel of a Chronos with buttons. My son prefers the touch sensor which I hate.
Since it’s such an individual choice, my suggestion would be attend a few club meetings (tournaments if there’s no active club near you) and use other people’s clocks until you get a feel for what you like. As long as it has delay, you should be fine.
The Chronos is easy to set: hand it to your opponent, the TD (who will rightfully complain), or a small child. My son the home entertainment system programmer is going to college shortly: we are traumatized.
The DGT North American is great for tournament play (FIDE 30-second increments are becoming popular in Chicago), but I’m not sure I’d recommend it for blitz.
That certainly hasn’t been my experience. I’ve often been asked to set Saitek clocks at tournaments, and it’s a nightmare trying to set them for, say, 40/1:55, SD/60 with a 5 second delay throughout. I can’t figure out how to switch from one mode to another. I especially hate the older Saitek clocks (gray, with a triangle shape). The newer blue plastic ones aren’t quite as bad, although I have trouble setting them as well.
With the Chronos, it helps that I have a Chronos clock of my own which I used when I was playing in tournaments. Maybe if I had a Saitek clock instead of a Chronos I’d like the Saitek clock and hate the Chronoses.
I don’t like those either. They might be better for FIDE events (increment) than USCF with time delay.
The Excalibur is O.K., easier to set in some ways than the Chronos because of the presets. If the time delay you’re trying to set isn’t one of the presets you have to set one of the five user-programmable settings, U1 to U5. Essentially, with the Chronos there are no useful presets and you’re always setting a “user-programmable” setting - but that’s O.K. if you know how to do it. I just wish the Chronos wouldn’t beep so much when you’re setting it.
Agree that the DGT North American is not as user-friendly than the Saitek. It’s support of increment settings plus cheap price that I like.
The beep can be turned off.
Well, jeez, if you want it to be simple to set, you need to choose a simple time control. However, I think even the control you describe isn’t that difficult to program in: Start with setting 3A (Tournament – Delay), press Edit, use the right and down cursor buttons to change “2:00” to “1:55,” keep hitting the right cursor button until the display says “Secondary,” change the moves to “00,” then hit the right cursor button until the display says “Tertiary” and change the time to “0:00.” That should do it, I think. Press Edit again to return to clock mode – or, before you do that, use the Store button to save it as one of your user-defined settings so that you never have to go through the rigmarole again.