US Chess News has posted this month’s column at: https://new.uschess.org/news/just-rules-whose-clock-anyway/
I still get questions from players asking about the hierarchy of digital chess clocks. They always think their clock trumps another digital if both players show up to the board with differing digital clocks.
I hope the column made clear that as long as the digital clock can be set properly for the announced time control, then the player of the Black pieces gets the nod if they are at the board at the start of the game. Practically speaking analog clocks are at the bottom of the list for delay and increment time controls–period. Plus increment clocks for increment time controls are at the top of the list.
It’s not just practically speaking, it’s the law!
They are also at the bottom of the list for time controls without increment or delay as well.
The statement in the article that says “Because chess law says that the preferred clock to use in any game is the one that can be set for the announced time controls” makes it seem like an analog clock is just as standard as a digital clock for time controls without increment or delay but it’s not.
The statement in the article that says “delay clocks reign supreme in games with any sudden death time control, while increment-capable timers are the clocks of choice in games with any increment time control” makes it seem like there is no sudden death with an increment time control but there is.
The statement in the article that says “If sudden death time controls are used to play, then set your clock with delay” is not entirely accurate since you are not allowed to set your clock with delay if the sudden death time control is, for example, G/30;d0.
Perhaps what Tim should have written is this:
If the time control for the event specifies an increment time control, then any clock capable of handling that time control is acceptable.
If the time control for the event specifies a delay time control, then any clock capable of handling that time control is acceptable.
If the time control for the event does not utilize either an increment or delay time control, eg, the advertised time control specifies d0 to indicate that neither an increment or delay time control is in effect, then a digit clock is still preferable to an analog clock.
I agree this would have been better but instead of “acceptable” I’d use “preferred”. I don’t know why Tim mentions sudden death at all. Whether the time control includes a sudden death phase or not makes no difference in what clock is preferred.
I intentionally used ‘acceptable’, because ‘preferred’ implies an ordering. IMHO, the only ordering needed is that a digital clock is always preferred over an analog clock and a (generally digital) clock that can handle the increment or delay time control setting specified for the event is always preferred over one that cannot.
But if both players have access to fully acceptable clocks, then the specifics of the clocks is not relevant to the question of which clock to use.
It is only when the available clock cannot handle the time control setting that issues like sudden death may become relevant.