The DGT 3000 can be purchased for $73.80, shipping included, today. The usual best-price online for this clock is a few cents less than $80. I had it pegged for possible purchase if it dropped below $75. Now here we are.
Problem is that I do not need another chess clock. My DGT NA works just fine and my Excalibur Game Time II is an acceptable back-up if you can stand the noisy plungers. And if the Chronos II ever goes into mass production again I might buy one, for both sentimental and practical reasons.
But I like what I hear about the 3000 and also like to get familiar with the major models of digital clocks in general. Plus it’s endorsed by FIDE, future-proofing for the days when all FIDE rules and standards take over local chess in the U.S.
I wisely refrained from spending cash to play in the US Open that would be better spent elsewhere. That’s my rationalization for spending some of that $$$ on this clock—even though I do not need it.
Would love to hear from anyone who owns a DGT 3000 and is not wealthy. Thanks.
Yes. For example it has a separate display for delay if “US Delay” is chosen. The longer the delay, the more important this is. With a two second delay, flashing colons or the display being entirely taken over by the delay is not too much of a problem. With five seconds, it is much worse, and don’t get me started on ten or more.
Yes, I think increment is vastly preferable, but this clock is superior to other DGT models when it comes to delay as well.
At under $75 the DGT 3000 is the best clock for the money spent.
The DGT NA is alright for what it is and costs. For a few dollars more the DGT 3000 has some characteristics that are better than the DGT NA. The display is bigger and better on the 3000. The 3000 is also easier to set and use.
The only reason the DGT clocks are FIDE approved is that the company pays FIDE thousands of dollars, or Euros , for that privilege. Other clocks are allowed in FIDE events. Of course the DGT 3000 is the one that hooks up to the DGT sensory boards that you see used in all the big FIDE events. So there is that.
In the chess clock industry you do pay for what you get. I certainly agree that we don’t need the highest quality, but that is certainly a matter of personal choice. There is a Wholesale Chess Clock, private label I believe, that has started to show itself on the market for under $40. And some of its characteristics look better than the DGT NA and other clocks in that lower price range.
I understand you have the DGT NA and an Excalibur GameTime II that both work well. Buying another clock, no matter what make or model does put you into the category of having more clocks than one player needs for himself. If I were in your position, I would buy the DGT 3000 and sell the Excalibur or donate it to someone more needy. The DGT 3000 would be your main clock and the DGT NA would become your back up clock.
Micah Smith has written a “how to set” document covering virtually all clocks on the market. You can find it referenced somewhere on these forums in one of the topics he has participated in. (I’m too lazy to look for it myself.)
Perhaps he could expand it a bit, or create an auxiliary document, listing clocks by feature. Under each feature he could list each clock and its method of implementing that feature.
For example:
Feature: Number of main-time digits displayed:
Clock A: h:mm:ss at all times. Clock B: Increment mode, h:mm:ss at all times. Delay mode, h:mm:ss after delay counts down to zero. When delay is 9 seconds or less (or when delay drops below 10 seconds), h:mm if h>0, mm:ss if h=0. When delay is 10 seconds or more, h:mm if h>0 or mm>9, m:ss if h=0 and mm<10.
One feature of the DGT 3000 that I think recommends the clock highly is that it shows the full time available instead of a “three and a half digit” display. At all times, the clock shows H:MM:SS for both players. A “three and a half digit” display shows H:MM until the remaining time is less than twenty minutes and then shows MM:SS (or MM.SS for the DGT NA and DGT 2010). This allows the clock display to use three full digits for H:MM or M:SS and a fixed “1” digit in the tens place to the left of the colon. (If this sounds like gibberish, it basically means the leftmost digit on each side of the display is either 1 or blank. If that still sounds like gibberish, I apologize.)
Yep. That is a good thing. That plus the ability to handle all forms of delay/Bronstein timing, for multiple controls and with or without a clock-press counter, as I understand it.
That flexibility or feature-richness is one reason I dearly miss my old Chronos II. Would be good to have a clock that supports the display of delay in some way other than blinking words or colons, as Alex Relyea noted upthread.
Still holding off for now but at some point I will likely splurge on one of these clocks. If it’s good enough for a world championship match and can be had for less than $75, clock geeks and amateur tournament players should check it out, I reckon.
There is a new clock on the market, Wholesale Chess Advanced Chess Clock, that also shows all the time left, all the time .
Of course the Chronos and V-Tek clocks also do this.
There is one argument for going with either the V-Tek or Chronos II clocks. That is the size, specifically the length of the units.
All others that we have talked about including all DGT models, WSC Advanced, and pretty much all others are smaller or shorter.
There is something to say about having the longer clock for a bit easier reach. I like the Chronos II in that is is long and still sleek, not so tall. The V-Tek is taller, much like the old Saitek clock with the little silver buttons. We used to call that one a doorstop.
Ron, this saves me starting a separate thread. I saw the Wholesale Chess clocks when they were on sale a few weeks ago; also saw the chess.com discussion thread that you took part in. I explored buying one of the super-cheap Leap clocks which are supposedly identical apart from the re-badging.
But the YouTube tutorial on the Wholesale Chess clock seems to show the delay time taking over the display completely as it ticks down, a la the Saitek.
That I do not like. To me, the two good methods to display delay are Bronstein mode and a separate delay countdown that is visible but does not obscure the amount of main clock time left.
Blinking or flashing colons, dashes or the word “delay” are less good. Having the delay countdown take over the display from the main clock time is also not good. A seizure-inducing flashing of the delay time countdown is perhaps worst of all, and the reason I will not buy a ZMF clock.
Clocks that handle the display of delay in one or both of the good ways include the Chronos II, the Excalibur Game Time II and from everything I hear the DGT 3000 and the V-Tek.
If I could stand the noise from the plungers I would use the Game Time II as my main clock. Since the noise bugs me more than it did back in the day, I use my DGT NA for tournament play, and deal with the less-than-ideal blinking “delay” display.
I might buy a Wholesale Chess/Leap clock someday if I find a really good deal, as the Leap is the least expensive clock I know that can be used in a delay- or increment-based time control for rated play.
But as someone keeps saying, with chess clocks you get what you pay for.
How many (if any) of these (or others) show all five main-time digits (h:mm:ss)ANDboth delay digits (dd)ANDboth move-count digits (cc), all at the same time?
By “digits” I mean actual digits, not flashing punctuation or flashing words.
You mean a player brought a clock to a chess camp without the user’s guide? Shocked, I tell you…
We might see more LEAP clocks soon if the budget-priced Wholesale Chess clocks prove reliable, and thrifty patzers figure out they are re-branded versions of LEAP clocks that can be had even cheaper. (If that is true, and it sure looks like it from appearances, descriptions and comments from a respected clock dealer. See: chess.com/forum/view/chess- … -clock-out)
If you only play single-time-control events and can wait a month to receive a clock shipped from China, you can buy a tournament-standard digital clock for $15. Go figure.
Here is the document you are referring to Bill, although it only explains the setting to use to set the clocks for a single time control with an increment (my preferred timing method, I’m not a fan of multiple time controls and I prefer increment to delay) pdxchess.org/wp-content/uploads/ … rement.pdf I do plan on adding a few things about the Chronos clocks when I get some time (how to manually add seconds to the short Chronos and warning against using certain settings. For example, if you use settings F1-F4 on the short Chronos, the maximum time is nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds so the clock will not increment above that!).
When I get some time, I am planning on writing a document on the features of various clocks (probably only the clocks that do both increment and delay and show the delay countdown in some form) and I plan on mentioning the features of each clock (how it does delay, when it shows seconds, does it have a move counter, does it automatically give the increment for move 1, how easy it is to set, some annoying things about the clock, price, etc.) so people can decide for themselves which features are most important to them and which clock they should get.
Hmm, interesting. So if you set it for 5 minutes with a 30-second increment, and enough increments have been added so that the clock is now at (say) 9:55, what happens next? Does it wrap around to 0:25 (in an attempt to display 10:25), or does it just go to 9:59, or does it not increment at all? Inquiring minds want to know.
It just goes to 9:59 (and it’s really only going to 9:59, it’s not going to 10:25 and only displaying 9:59). The same thing happens with the longer Chronos when using setting CH-P4.
, for that privilege. Other clocks are allowed in FIDE events. Of course the DGT 3000 is the one that hooks up to the DGT sensory boards that you see used in all the big FIDE events. So there is that.