Which digital chess clock do you prefer?

All Things Chess
21

I see these Excaliburs dropped all the time at tournaments. Easily recognizable by the sound and the small explosion as the batter door pops off and the four batteries go flying. However, you just pop the batteries back in and it keeps on going. I own two. Oddly, though they are easy to set, I had to set them for at least three other players at a tourney this weekend. Preset 59, clearly identified on the bottom of the clock, was all that was needed, but people who owned them continually tried to use something else and it baffles sometimes that the intellect of some chessplayers can be so easily stymied by the setting of the clock (any clock).

  • Virgil
22

If you are going with the Chronos, I, too, prefer the ones with the buttons versus the ones with the metal sensors. With the buttons you can hear the buttons clicking after you make your move so you know that your move has registered on the clock. With the metal sensors no sound is made.

23

I have one heads-up about the Excalibur. On the side there is a dial that you can use to set the contrast between the display and the background. If you dial it too much one way then it looks like all of the segments on the display are lit and you cannot tell what the clock says. If you don’t know about the dial you may incorrectly think the clock is broken.

24

Or, you might road test some of these clocks in the skittles room next time you go to a tournament.

If we get 12 people at a tournament or at chess club, that means there will be at least six different clocks on the premises, ranging from an ancient plastic analog clock all the way up to $100+ digital clocks.

25

I prefer my touch-pad Blitz-es for the opposite reason. I dislike the trend (among younger players) to tap the button 3-5 times after a move, especially in blitz. So, they can tap all they like, it won’t make a difference and I don’t have to hear it. :sunglasses:

  • Enrique
26

Just as JonH said, I too was irritated by the lack of auditory feedback from my touch-only Chronos buttons, it was a pain to have to visually confirm.
However, I solved that by trusting the touch-only buttons. I have never visually checked and found my touch went unrecognized. In fact, the touch-only buttons are more reliable than their mechanical counterparts. My Saitek buttons fail to register a couple of times every game! Anyway, I no longer check my Chronos, I trust.

As Enrique noted, some kids and even some adults behave in an inconsiderate manner by repeatedly re-tapping their button to ensure registration. It is excessively noisey. The touch-only buttons eliminate that problem.

Terry noted that some players press their clock button with the felted bottom on the chess piece that they have just captured; and I have seen other players do that too. This cannot be done with the touch-only buttons that require skin contact: Good.
I took my nicest chess set to a tournament once, and one of my opponents pressed his clock with a piece. Valid or not, I worried this was slowly damaging the felt, or possibly risking a scratch on the piece if he mis-pressed.

27

I saw someone once with one of these clocks that had the sound turned down so that the sound was more of a click. It didn’t make any more noise than a mechanical clock yet gave audible feedback when pressed.

28

I began to feel old decades ago, when the word “nostalgia” began to be applied to rock music of the 1950’s.

Unless, of course, you move quickly and they are still tapping after you press your clock. In that case, their last tap will restart your clock when it is still their move.

Bill Smythe

29

I’m with you about the compulsive tappers. The touch sensor takes care of people like that. I will say that with the new Excaliburs the compulsive tapping is bad because once the button is down, it can’t go any further down so there will not be the annoying click, click, click you get when some taps a regular chronos three or four times.

30

Why not buy one of the old [gray] Siatek clocks? When it eventually breaks down it will still be useful as a door stop. :slight_smile:

31

It is interesting the different perceptions of why kids hit the clocks more than once. I asked my son why he thinks there are “multiple tappers” (of which he HAS been guilty in the past) he said something like the following - those Chronos clocks that don’t have a plunger give no feedback to the player so they tap it more than once to make sure it activated the clock. He also remembered the Excaliburs that didn’t activate when the plunger was depressed. Hmmm.

32

He’s right. Also, when moving quickly it’s possible to hit the buttons on the Chronos in such a way that it doesn’t actually stop your clock even though it sounds and feels like it should (this is the old-style black buttons, not the touch sensor buttons, of course). I have lost a tournament game because of that, and now when I’m in time-pressure, I often tap the button at least twice. (This also keeps my hand from hovering over the board–and if my opponent is moving so fast that he can hit the clock between my taps, he’s hovering.) If only there were a setting where it just ‘clicks’ quietly when the move is registered, but alas the ‘beep on move’ settings are too annoying.

That’s really my only complaint about the Chronos. I’d get a touch-sensor model if I had to buy another one. It’s not a big enough deal to make me sell my old “black-button” one, though.

33

My friend Wayne told me about this thread and I just have to weigh in.

I have owned or presently own pretty much all the models discussed on this thread. With that here is my opinion:

I presently own and use the Chronos clocks. They are my workhorses. I didn’t like the beige color so my friend Wayne and I sanded the paint off and painted 2 of them black. This was before they were available in black. I got red buttons from a dealer that is now out of business and I really like these clocks. The third clock has the paint taken off and is a nice brushed aluminum with the original black buttons. Yes, I own 3 of these. Understand, I bought one, painted it, a year later bought another and painted both again. About a year and a half later I bought the third clock at a great deal, and when we stripped it to paint, we decided we liked the aluminum look. This is my blitz and skittles clock.

At first, I did as Gene has done and taped a cheat sheet to the bottom. I then realized there was a much easier way to set these clocks and now pretty much everyone in the Peoria or Central Illinois area uses my set-up style.

I save the “AN - 1A” control in the number “1” memory slot. When you turn on the clock by pressing the center, red button once, this time control is there. This is a single digit, minute time with a delay. It is standardly set at 5 minutes with a 3 second delay. If I want to play up to 9 minutes, all I need do is press the center button until the display starts blinking and reset the control.

In the number “2” memory slot I save “CH - A1”. This is a 2 digit, minute time control with delay. This second time control is used for all sudden death time controls, with a delay. I use this for all times from 10 minutes to 90 minutes. Starting with the clock off, all you need do is press the center red button twice to get to this time control. Once again, it is very easy to change the time.

In the number “3” slot I save “AN - 1” which starts at one hour, sudden death, with a delay. I have this one set for Game 120 (2 hours) with a delay. As with the above, all I need do is press the center button 3 times to get to this time control. I like this setting as I can see both the minutes and seconds left when there is over one hour of play to go.

The number “4” slot I actually use for a multiple time control slot. But I really don’t use that one much and have changed its settings to other things for convenience. With some FIDE tournaments now in our area, this would be a good slot to save an increment time control.

While I do keep the manual handy, I really never need to refer to it as the above 3 settings cover over 99% of the timing controls I will need to play chess. Slot one is for blitz. Slot 2 is for Game in 10 to Game 90. And Slot 3 is for Game 120.

One guy bought a touch sensor model and I set it up for him as above. I have played games with it and it’s OK. I do think the sound use for the move is a good thing with it. I prefer the button models though as I get that tactile feel when the clocks have been activated.

On all models, we use the LEDs to indicate who is on move, so I never have had a problem with it not working on the button push. I have had to tell a number of kids they only need to hit the button once, though. Now that is annoying.

I own a DGT to go along with my DGT board and set. It’s alright, but I feel there are easier to use ones on the market that cost a lot less. And the Chronos, in the same price range, is a much better clock than this one.

We recently got into the Saitek Competition Pro or III. I bought one of the black models when it first came out. Setting it was not so bad and is actually easy once you learn how to do it. I really like the LED in the buttons to indicate who is on the move. We have recently bought a number of the scholastic models, the blue ones, and they work the same with less pre-sets. I have to say that for the money, I like this clock the best. The buttons work well with no sign that they will wear out or break easily. I did sell my black clock as I cut back on the chess stuff I own and I use the Chronos a lot. If I were to do it over though, I would buy the black Competition Pro model. I think it is the best for the money spent. You know, at a discount, I can buy about 3 of these for one Chronos.

I have owned 2 of the Excaliburs. The clock is alright and 2 or 3 of the fellows in my club have these clocks. The price is about the same as the black Saitek Competition Pro. The only problem I have is with the plastic plungers. They seem to wear down or out a bit with a lot of use. Yes, the plastic battery door popping open can also be a problem, but not so much in the newer models of the last few years. I guess that either this one or the Saitek are similar choices for the money, while I prefer the Saitek for its buttons that light up and aren’t so structurally designed to wear.

So, my opinion is that if you don’t mind spending more money, I would buy a Chronos in black. I would probably get the touch sensor model because I like the silver button idea, and I would set it so that there would be a low, audible sound when the clock was activated, button “pushed”. Of course I would set the first three memory slots as I have described earlier.

If I wanted to spend less and didn’t care about getting plastic, I would buy the black/silver Saitek Competition Pro. This clock will give you all you want at a very affordable price.

If you just want to try out the digitals or something, I would buy the blue scholastic model of the Saitek, but for a few more dollars the black model gives more preset and user preset options and I would still suggest getting the black model.

34

Thanks everyone for your input. I ordered a Saitek (blue) a couple days ago; after looking at the features and the price, I figured it was worth it to try out and if I don’t like it I could donate it to a school club or some such without feeling like I wasted my money.

I held off on buying a Chronos as a way to motivate me to go 6-0 at USATE next year and get one for free. :smiley:

35

I had a Master Quartz and over the years noticed more and more digital LCD clocks. A couple of years ago when all the pieces were set up I noticed EVERY SINGLE CLOCK in my section was a Chronos except mine. Next thing I did was sell my clock and buy a Chronos Blitz with the touch-pad ‘buttons’.

It works well and I love the availability of different modes and quiet running (no button noises).

It’s funny someone said it was ugly since one of the main reasons I got it instead of the Excalibur is because I think the Excalibur is irretreivably ugly.

One thing I’ve noticed since using it in a couple of tournaments is a problem all digital clocks have. How do they know when to go to the secondary time control? The move-counter is unofficial and could really mess up a game if it’s used. With an old-fashioned analog clock we set 'em to end the first time control at 6 o’clock and they just went on from there. The digitals don’t have that. I just let the clock run out the first time control and go from there, regardless of whether that matches the actual game situation. So far no problem.

36

I like the move counter. It’s really neat (for example in 40/120, SD/60) to see an hour added automatically when the button is pressed on move 40. You do have to be careful, though. If the game starts by white moving and then pressing the clock, rather than by black starting the clock, the move counter will be off by a half-move. Or, if an illegal move is completed and retracted, or if somebody forgets to press the clock, the counter will be off by a full move. If you want to use the move counter, you should keep an eye on it throughout the game, and you should become familiar (in advance) with how to make mid-game adjustments.

If you don’t want to deal with these complications, you can still set the clock for 2 time controls, without using the move counter. In that case each clock side will add an hour (and indicate in some way that it’s in the 2nd control) when that side’s initial 2 hours expires. It then becomes each player’s responsibility to claim a time forfeit, if appropriate, at the point where the clock enters the 2nd control.

The Chronos (some models, at least) also have a count-up option (I think it’s called DL-UP or something). For example, you could have it start at 4:00:00 (simulating an analog clock) and move forward. Then it’s up to each player to call a time forfeit (just as with an analog clock), as the clock will simply continue moving forward when it reaches 6:00:00. If you want to use this mode, tell your opponent in advance, to avoid surprises. You can still set the clock for a 5-second delay in this mode.

Bill Smythe

37

… or if the players hit the clock out of order in time trouble, or if someone hits the clock button a glancing blow and doesn’t notice it hasn’t stopped, or, or, or…

I hate the move counter. In the games where Black has forced me to use it on his clock, I have never seen it arrive at the first time control with the right number of moves on it.

…and you should!

I’ve never had the nerve to try this, because I’m afraid it would freak my opponent out.

38

I’m surprised by this. I loathe the move counter, especially as a tournament director. With a time control of 40/2 SD/1, I would use mode DL-SD2. The first time control is two hours with a delay of five seconds; the second, one hour. Each player has to complete forty moves before the clock starts the second time control. There’s no fussing with counting moves; either the player has time left in the first control after move 40 or not. There’s no need to add the hour after move 40 (though players often do); the player just continues using the leftover time from the first control and then starts in on the second control. It may feel strange, but it’s very similar to using an analog clock. The players have to reach 40 moves before the clock reaches 6:00. There’s no need to adjust the clock after 40 moves; the players keep playing, using the time left over from the first control until the clock passes 6:00.

On the other hand, I also know from personal experience that if the opponent has never encountered this mode before, it can be confusing.

39

That works fine, but AN-2 (if your clock has it) or DL-2B (on older models with a switch on the bottom) are preferable. Those modes don’t have a move counter, and show the delay as a digit (at least when the main time is under 1 hour) rather than as flashing colons or flashing hyphens.

As a player, I’ve had a lot less trouble with the move counter than many of you have reported. Maybe I’m just more diligent about keeping an eye on it. For example, if the opponent forgets to press his clock, and I don’t feel like reminding him (because it’s the third time he’s forgotten), I will simply play my move (at my leisure), and then press first his clock and then mine, to keep the move counter current. Whenever I have done this, I have never had an opponent even notice I did it (or least, they never said anything).

As a tournament director, I’ve always felt I was there for the players, not the other way around. Whether the players want the move counter on or off is their business.

Bill Smythe

40

I just recently bought an Excaliber clock. I"m happy with it, but after I started going to the local chess club, I noticed I was the only one NOT using a Chronos clock.

Sadly, some of the other players (teenage players), really acted like the official USCF clock was inferior.

Obviously the Chronos clock is more durable, but I have a more recent version of the Excaliber, which from what I’ve been reading… has mostly fixed the issues inherient with the earlier production models.

Personally, since I don’t heavily use the clock. (most of my play is online), its more than adaquate for my needs. Sure I might still get a Chronos clock, but I certainly don’t feel compelled to buy one.

Kids of course… they have a propensity to be a lot harder on stuff including chess clocks. :stuck_out_tongue:

There is no denying the a Chronos clock is much more durable… which is very helpful for a kid that plays a lot at school and goes to more tournaments (in which the chess set/clock is probably being thrown into luggage and stuff).

Bottem line… if your really using a clock often, the Chronos is very very durable. For more casual play, the Excaliber is more than sufficiant.

I can’t comment on other clocks though. I"m sure other clocks out there are also very durable.