Game clock

A chess clock is a clock with two time displays whose movements are so interconnected that at the same time can only run clockwork. This serves to measure a game of chess to the reflection of the players, so that they can limit agreed. Chess clocks were indeed designed for the game of chess, but also in other strategic board games for two players - used - for example, the checkers or Go.

3.1 Blindenschachuhr

5.1 Properties of chess clocks
5.2 use of chess clocks

Motivation

For a long time was played without a time limit check. The players were allowed for each train take as much time as they wanted. Chess games could last for many hours and had occasionally even be interrupted and resumed the next day, because the players were too exhausted to continue playing.

Finally, the desire prevailed to limit games in time. Simple timelines such as " x minutes per game " but are unfair because a player could take all your mind can claim. Therefore, each player is granted a separate fixed stock of your mind. Anyone who has used up his time, without being able to finish the game has lost. The cooling-off rules can vary widely: Standing at the tournament chess for each player several hours available, there are at rapid chess typically about 30 minutes at speed chess for about five minutes and the Bullet Chess even just one to three minutes.

To enforce the reflection scheme, a simple clock is not enough, because it is an instrument requires that measures the cooling-off periods for the two players independently. This was the trigger for a series of inventions which found its climax in the modern digital chess clock.

History

Until the second half of the 19th century there were at chess no limit to the cooling-off period. 1843 still reported, for example, the French chess champion Alexandre Deschapelles in a letter to lots of competition between Howard Staunton and Pierre Saint -Amant at the Café de la Regence in Paris would have taken an average of nine hours. Could a game not be completed in one day due to fatigue of both players, it was interrupted and resumed the adjourned game the next day.

Hourglasses

The first written records about the use of a device for limiting the reflection found in 1861 in reports of a competition between Adolf Anderssen and Ignaz von Kolisch. The apparatus consisted of two rotatable hourglass. Once a player had performed his train, he turned his own hourglass in the horizontal and in the vertical position of the opponent. Was the hourglass of a player expired, he had lost the game according to the rules. Because of the inconvenience of handling this device was only used in major tournaments. In addition, could be played with the standard on a fixed period of time watch only one game mode.

At that time exceeding the time limit was less rigorously than it is today, probably because the method of timekeeping was quite inaccurate. Cecil De Vere as it refused in 1870 from the International Chess Tournament in Baden -Baden to win a loss position by timed his opponent Louis Paulsen; the game was instead repeated by mutual consent of the players.

Stopwatches

In 1866, serviced by the referee stop watches were used to measure the reflection at the unofficial World Chess Championship in London ( competition against Anderssen, Steinitz ) for the first time. The stopwatches increased measurement accuracy, and the operation by the referee prevented manipulations. The loss of a match by forgetting the clock pressing was not possible in this way. Players could use this time to desire nor the previous hourglasses.

Mechanical Watches

The first purely mechanical chess clock was invented by English watchmaker Thomas Bright Wilson ( 1843-1915 ). Wilson, who was secretary of the chess club Manchester at the time, she built after a conversation with the chess grandmaster Joseph Henry Blackburne. It consisted of two pendulum clocks that could be stopped with a mutually movable bars. This type of clock was first used in 1883 at the International Tournament in London.

1899 suggested HDB Mejer, former secretary of the Dutch Chess Federation, before, the dial of the clock with a so-called falling leaves (see below) to equip in order to determine exactly can when a player passed up his time. Was used for the first time in Germany, such a chess clock with fall leaves in August 1908 the DSB Congress in Dusseldorf. It was not until around 1919, these watches have been the rule.

Gradually, the clocks were replaced by fine mechanical watch movements and the spring bar that connects the two movements together through a swing lever. This development culminated in the now common analog chess clocks that operate accurately and reliably.

Digital Watches

In the 1980s, private inventors developed the first prototypes of digital chess clocks, which were based on electronic circuits and were powered by batteries energy. 1985 built Ben Bulsink, then a student at the University of Enschede in the Netherlands, the first electronic chess clock, which has been found by many chess players and chess federations for good ( judged the magazine of the Dutch Chess Federation: " the perfect chess " ) - but it was by the single production by hand too expensive for a large-scale use.

1988 was built by the former world chess champion Robert James " Bobby" Fischer an electronic chess clock, enacted by the invented by him and named after him fishing game mode: Both players start with a fixed time limit, for each executed train they get a certain number of seconds to change your mind time. Fischer got in 1989, the U.S. Patent number 4,884,255 for the clock.

1992 Ben Bulsink supplied together with Albert Vasse and Paul Arentz the first Melody Amber chess tournament digital chess clocks and planned their mass production. The project was a success, the company DGT Projects, the three founded - " DGT " for digital game timer, " digital timepiece for games" - and become aware of the world chess federation Fédération Internationale des Échecs ( FIDE ) graduated in 1993 with them a 3-year from contract, according to the DGT Projects ", the first official FIDE chess clock " should produce. In 1994, DGT FIDE on the market, the first digital chess clock, which was supported by the official side by FIDE.

Although now almost exclusively digital chess clocks are used in high-class tournaments, they could up to now not fully prevail in all classes and in the private sector. Some chess players welcome that digital chess clocks unlike analog no tick noise on it's own, allow reflection -second setting, and offer new modes of play. The others reject the digital chess clocks because they are more expensive, be no usual tick noises, run on batteries and have a less original character.

The modern analog chess clock

A modern analog chess clock consists of a housing in which two fundamentally separate spring movements are accommodated. The winding watches are wound on separate Aufziehmechanismen at the back of the clock and can be fine-tuned over also separate adjustment lever on the back.

Each clock is set by a lever on the top of the chess clock in motion. Usually, the lever does have the appearance of a button or a button, but you generally speaks of leverage. If the lever is up, so runs the underlying clock, he is down, so the underlying clock is not running. When the lever is pressed down on one side, the lever on the other side is pressed by a rocking lever in the air. Thus, a player can simultaneously continue after the end of his turn with a single lever pressure on his side 's own clock and put the opponents in transition. If both levers at half height, so the movements are silent; this is the rest position of the clock, in which it is located before the batch start.

Each clock has on its dial the elapsed time. The flag has mounted movably above the center of the dial. Moves the minute hand on the twelve, he thereby lifting the case leaves gradually more and more, until finally he no longer supports it in twelve crossing and it falls back to the starting position. The chess clock is placed in front of a lot so that with the fall of the flag falls, is also accompanied by the excess of the reflection of a player. A timeout can be determined so accurately. Frequently reclaim the opposing player timed with the exclamation " time " or " flakes ".

A situation may arise that both players commit a timeout. This is exactly the case when it first contacts a player leaves the falls, his opponent this is not noticed. If now at the other player the leaflet, a specific situation has occurred, which is solved by all modern conveniences framework by bringing the game is a draw given.

Blindenschachuhr

A variant of the analog chess clock is the Blindenschachuhr that is used in games involving at least a visually impaired player is involved. Such a clock, unlike ordinary analogue clocks a larger dial, which is not covered by a sheet of glass. This allows the visually impaired players possible to feel by hand the position of the pointer and so read the elapsed time. A setting of time is thereby prevented by the particularly robust pointer suspension. The case papers are in this watch model when falling down a clearly audible noise, which enables the visually impaired players to claim the timeout immediately.

The modern digital chess

The digital chess clock is modeled in its structure and functions of the analog chess clock. The differences are as follows:

Instead of two spring clocks, digital chess clock uses a single digital electronic watch. The energy supply of the clock is therefore not by tensioning a clock spring on a wind-up but by batteries. The display of the elapsed time is done on a liquid crystal screen. The lever for the initiation of the two timepieces correspond in operation and function to those of the analog chess clock, usually a digital chess clock is however offset by an additional button in the resting state rather than by equating the lever. A case leaves there at a digital chess clock not, a timeout will instead by an additional icon appears on the screen ( in the model shown here, it is for example a flashing flags in front of the time) or depending on the model by an acoustic signal.

Digital chess clocks offer over analog chess clocks additional Bedenkzeitmodi. For example, there is the fishing mode, where each player initially has a fixed main time and after each train able to gain a time bonus. Often provide digital chess clocks and game modes for different games, such as the byo - yomi mode for Go, in which each player has a fixed predetermined time available for each train. These and similar modes are not possible with an analog chess clock.

Use of the chess clock chess

The conditions that must be met a chess clock in order to be admitted to official tournaments, and the rules for their use are set by FIDE in the FIDE handbook of rules of chess. Accordingly, the following guidelines apply:

Properties of the chess clocks

The section C.02.4 the official FIDE Laws of Chess sets the following exact rules that:

Use of chess clocks

The section sets EI01A.6 receive the following rules for use of a chess clock at an official game of chess that:

Maintenance. The chess clock is an instrument of the referee. The referee has therefore to ensure the correct operation of the clock and needs to perform time checks.
Sets the time. The watches are so placed that the timeout associated with the falling of the leaf. The timed to take place at the indicated time clock 6; so can the hour and minute hands are better distinguished in the time trouble phase than when the timeout at 12 clock would take place.
Position relative to the chessboard. The position of the chess clock is determined by the referee before the start of the game. Typically clocks are so posted that the referee may consult good. The referee must leave the choice of position and the players. In general, right-handed have a slight advantage when the chess clock is right and left-handed from them if it is left of them; the opportunity to be able to set the clock position, so it can be particularly at blitz games advantage. For less significant roles the watches choice usually is left to the player of the black pieces, as the white player in turn has the advantage suit.
Delayed start. At the designated start time of the game the clock of the white player is set in motion. If a player is absent and until one hour had not yet arrived after the start time, he has lost the game. If a player hits a late and ran in the meantime his clock, he must at the indicated, reduced cooling-off period to continue. As of July 1, 2009 shall apply according to FIDE for the delayed start of new rules. After that, a player who arrives after the start of the game on the board, lost this game immediately when Other is not agreed in the tender of the tournament.
Press the clock. The clock must be pressed with the same hand with which also the train was running. This prevents that player can be on the clock for pushing a hand constantly.
Late pressures. After each train the clock for both players must be running short. In particular, in blitz games, it may happen that a player carries out a train and his opponent this immediately answered with a return, without waiting for the clock has been pushed. In this case, the mutual pressing the clock must be made up. This ensures that a player is not completely copied to the reflection of the opponent.
Stopping the clock. As a rule, the referee or race director has the right to stop the clock. Exceptionally, a player may stop the clock when he asks the referee for help ( for example, if he claims to draw or if he wants to transform a peasant and the figure you want is not at hand. ( FIDE rule 6.13) )
Draw offer. A player should only make a draw offer if it has executed a train and has not yet pressed the clock. An offer at any other time is just as valid, but can be considered as a disturbance.
Timeout. Exceeding the time limit has usually the loss of the match result. Exceptions to this rule are only those positions in which the opponent can not win more against the weakest game. In such positions ( such as when a party has only a king and the opponent exceeds the time ) is given the game after the timeout draw. If a player believes that his opponent is not trying to win by normal means ( but only by timeout ), so he can claim to draw in a game with normal cooling-off period under Article 10.2 of the FIDE rules, if he is still more than two minutes left to change your mind has. On closing the referee of this view by observing the other game of course, so he can explain after the timeout draw the match even. A timeout may be claimed only by the opponent or the referee ( in rapid chess and blitz chess only by the opponent).
Bilateral timeout. In a tournament game of chess If both leaflets dropped and it is not possible to determine which is first dropped, it is decided depending on the time period of the reflection mode: Follow the Time control ( approximately on the 40th train ), a further period of time, then the game continues. If the timeout occurs on both sides in the last time period in which both players have complete all remaining moves must ( " final sprint phase " ), then the game is drawn. Such a case, both sides timeout must not be present in important games, as here, the referee is responsible for the control period and must claim the timeout. Digital chess clocks show today usually which player has exceeded first time. In the fast and blitz chess game ends in a draw in any case, if both players pass the time.

Furthermore, following rules, which affect the use of the clock, but are defined elsewhere in the regulations shall apply:

Time penalties. Arbitrator may issue against the rules of the game time penalties for violations of the players. A time penalty can both mean that the clock of the penalized player will be presented, so he will lose your mind as well that the opponent's clock is reset, so that it acquires reflection. Examples of triggers such time penalties are impossible trains or a player unsportsmanlike conduct. However, a penalty can never be so high that the penalized player immediately exceed the waiting period.
Blindfold chess. In a match against a partially sighted or blind player can for the game, a special clock (see above ) can be used. The blind man also has the ability to use a wizard that can set the clock of the opponent's clock, among others, after a running train.

Use of the chess clock at the Go

Go places different demands on the measurement of time as chess. So Go knows next to a fixed time limit for each player as in chess, various forms of extra times or extensions, called in Japanese Byo - Yomi. There are two basic variants:

In traditional Byo - Yomi is a specific time interval, eg 30 seconds for each train are available.
The so-called " Canadian Byo - Yomi " the time intervals for a certain number of stones are recognized, eg 15 stones in five minutes.

For analog chess clocks byo - yomi periods must be set after each interval by hand. Digital watches often have program functions that automatically do that.

Modes

→ Main article: reflection

In the various board games, a number of Bedenkzeitmodi have established.

In the ordinary reflection mode, each player receives a fixed time limit specified for the whole lot. Spreads are five minutes for lightning chess games, 30 minutes for rapid games and two hours plus time bonus for tournament games.
When guillotine mode, the game is divided into several phases. In the first phase a set number of moves must be made within a specified time limit. The final phase is a solid reflection quota for the rest of the game available. The case of the flag falls, according to one of the first phases here means the same as the case of the blade of a guillotine a premature end for a player. Common timings are 1 hr 45 min / 40 moves and 15 minutes / rest, 2 h / 40 moves and 1 h for the rest - the ordinary tournament - and 1 h / 40 moves, 1 h / 20 moves and 1 h for the rest of.
When fishing mode, players will not only get a solid reflection stock, but each time the clock a little thinking time credit. This is to prevent that a player once he has gained a significant time advantage, the enemy only " over time raises ", that is, through fast, completely ill- forcing trains to waste the rest of your mind. In the fishing mode, the time Weaker can be very fast trains provide through a series a saving reflection stock. Typical timelines are 3 min and 2 s / train, 25 min and 10 s / train and 90 min and 30 s / train.
When Bronstein mode, players receive a fixed reflection stock and for each train a small amount of free thinking time. Only when a train free thinking time is exceeded, the actual reflection stock is touched. One speaks here of " delay " since the start of the clock is delayed by a small amount of time. Common timings are 5 min and 3 s free / train and 25 min and 10 s free / train.
In the hourglass mode, the reflection of the player located at the train decreases, while that of the enemy increases to the same extent.

Fast chess Cecil Valentine De Vere Wilhelm Steinitz Chronograph Bobby Fischer Draw (chess)

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