History of Digital Clocks

All Things Chess
1

Can anybody fill me in on the history of digital clocks?

I remember that the clocks came out just about the time I went to college (early 90’s), but was wondering about several items.

  1. When were digital clocks first used in tournaments.

  2. What where the first rules concerning digital clocks usage.
    A. The dates when digital clocks became optional if both players agreed
    B. The dates when digital clocks became the prefered clock in tournament.

  3. When was the 5 second delay standardized, or at least, became the expected norm. (Is it an actual rule, or a rule of thumb?)

  4. Other important dates:
    A. When did Quick Time rating start.
    B. When did Duel Rating time controls start.

Please don’t use this thread to debate the Duel Rating time controls with games that are 30 to 59 min long, since its been hashed out plenty in other threads.

Feel free to add any other important information that might be interesting to know about the advent of digital chess clocks, and any interesting insights/stories about the first games/tournaments you played with a digital chess clock.

James

2

The first digital clocks (for chess) came out in the early 80s – the Kaisha 1000.

It was rather clumsy. The buttons weren’t really reliable, for one thing – sometimes you had to press REALLY hard (like PAINFULLY hard) to get them to work and the material they were covered with would wear out. At that time, players didn’t HAVE to accept a digital clock, as I recall. The only thing digital clocks had going for them back then was their accuracy compared to mechanical clocks.

As I recall this was basically a single time control clock with no delay features or or other “stuff” you see on a modern clock. It would have to be reset after the first time control.

By the way, the first electronic chess clock seems to have been patented in 1977.

3

The Fischer clock was patented August 5, 1988 and was the first to havea compensation means for incrementing or decrementing each clock means by a time interval.

4

I wonder where the Chronos fits in all this. The Chronos was certainly the first digital clock I had ever encountered. Did it come out before, or after the Excaliber?

The Chronos certainly set the standard for timing options.

5

The Chronos came later, but I can’t say by how much.

By the way, the earliest editions of the rules of chess didn’t say anything about digital clocks and the first digital clocks were (for a very short while, anyway) treated the same as analog clocks by the rules. The problems (several problems in addition to my pet peeve about the buttons) with the Kaisha resulted in the “only if both players agree” rule. I don’t remember if this happened in the 2nd or 3rd edition of the rule book (though I assume the rule passed some time before the publication of the rule book – maybe old ratings supplements or something like that will have the rule in them).

The current 5 second delay is the standard, but a tournament organizer can specify a non-standard delay as long as he announces it (or he can use a cumulative increment, if he wants, as long as it’s announced).

6

When was the first Chronos and who made it?

7

The digital clocks that did not feature a delay or increment function did exist as early as the 1970’s.

I came into chess in 1988. At the time the technical “best” was the Master Quartz which was an analog clock with Quartz precision. It was an electronic clock versus a mechanical one. I did see a Kaisha clock at a tournament, but it was more of a novelty than the standard.

It was in 1996 when the first delay clock came on the market here in the United States. This was the Excalibur GameTime. I know this because I was one of the very first to buy one. I remember calling the USCF number and trying to order one, just before they were available. Also, it was identified as the USCF GameTime clock and the Excalibur name was on the box but certainly not prominent in the advertising or marketing.

I recall the DGT clock coming available next and then the Saitek, but I am aware of the Chronos most likely also being available in the last half of that decade also. Oh yes, I did own each of these clocks as well.

I did own one of the Saitek clocks that had the Bronstein feature. It added the delay time to the clock after you would hit your button rather than a true delaying of your clock starting, which is now known as the USCF Delay style.

I believe it was in about 1999 or so that I bought my first Chronos. I sold my GameTime to buy it.

Today, I own 3 Chronos clocks, 2 Excalibur GameTime II clocks and one DGT XL Clock that goes along with my DGT board.

In my opinion, the Chronos is the standard of the chess clock of today with its durability and quality display. The Excalibur is the best buy for the money. It functions very well and its display is great. The only things I prefer about the Chronos over the Excalibur is the body of the Chronos is aluminum versus plastic and the Chronos has an option to see the minutes and seconds when the time is above 20 minutes, where the GameTime II only shows this under 20 minutes. But seeing that you could by 2 or 3 Excalibur clocks for every one Chronos, the Excalibur is the best for the money spent.

I also like the Saitek Competition Pro III. While it doesn’t have the time set options of the Excalibur, the green led lights in the buttons are a very nice touch. I owned one of these and sold it with some other chess equipment. I then bought the Excalibur clocks about 8 months later because they were a lot less expensive ($25 for the Excalibur versus $39 for the Saitek).

I have seen the new DGT clock that is portable and find the display to be a bit small and there is no way to see which side is to move by the buttons, led lights or anything except to look closely at the display to see the numbers changing.

So, in the market and history of Digital Clocks, I feel the delay clocks to be the most prominent. It started with the Excalibur/USCF clock in this country. 13 years later, we see a vast number of companies and different clocks available and at very reasonable prices as well.

8

As I remember the USCF GameTime came out prior to the Chronos. As I have been told, the USCF held the patent on delay clocks. The patent was allowed to expire at some point. I thought the Chronos was available prior to the patent expiring, and this is why the USCF never carried the clock. The USCF’s new store is now advertising the clock for sale.

Ron remembers 1996 as the year the Excalibur came out, I thought it was more like 1986, but I can be wrong.

Another non-delay clock was one made by Novag. The clock could be used as a stand alone or with a Novag computer. One unique feature of the Novag clock was that the buttons could be removed from the base of the clock and placed in front of the player at the board.

9

I remember Bill Goichberg receiving 3 GameTime clocks from somebody of Excalibur at the World Open. I was on the directing staff at the time so it would have been 1996.

Looking back at my old score sheets from 1996-1997 I can tell I bought a Saitek clock in March of 1997. Time notations go from 5:15 (analog) to 45:00 (digital) I know the first generation Chronos was already out by the time I bought my Saitek. I got the Saitek because it was much cheaper then the Chronos.

10

From the November 1995 Chess Life including the Holiday Catalog, page C5:
“Coming Soon in 1996!
USCF GameTimer…It’s patented delay feature…Look for GameTimer in March.”

11

You keep those?

12

I graduated in 1996, and Dr. Bell had a Chronos clock, so it had to have been available at least by either late 1995 to early 1996.

13

Maybe it was 1995 World Open that he got the clocks. I believe they were a prototype of what was released in the following year.

14

Here is some info that might help. It perhaps will lead others down the path of discovery.

15

Anybody have this issue and can verify the above?

16

While the Excalibur (originally called the GameTime) may have been announced before the Chronos came out, my recollection is that the GameTime did not actually become available (except, perhaps, in a few prototypes that didn’t work very well) until many players already owned the Chronos.

The Excalibur of today is a fine clock, and a decent affordable alternative to the far more expensive Chronos.

Bill Smythe

17

??? On my Excalibur, I see minutes and seconds on every move of the game, even on the first move of a G/120. I believe there’s a setting to turn off the seconds display, but I never understood why anyone would do that.

18

I Ron may be thinking of the Saitek which doesn’t display minutes and seconds until you get under 20 minutes. The seconds display on the Excaliber is tiny until you get under 10 minutes, which is why I much prefer the Chronos.

19

Yep, Polly has it right.

I really never notice the tiny seconds. It is the large display that shows seconds after 20 minutes, like the Saitek does.

This is also why I prefer the Chronos. With that though, I can buy 3 Excalibur clocks for the cost of one Chronos, and that ain’t bad.

The Excalibur is the most clock for the money spent, while the Chronos is the best clock period.

20

Personally, I like the feel of the Saitek Pro the best. If it had a byo-yomi time feature for go, I’d snap one up in a heartbeat. Sadly, as far as I can tell, it doesn’t.