Chess clocks for a tournament: mechanical, digital or a phone

Without clocks a tournament has no schedule: one long game halts the whole round while everybody else sits and waits. Clocks solve three problems at once - they cap the length of a game, equalize the conditions and let you plan the evening.

The second, less obvious effect: time changes the game itself. A game with no clock means ten minutes of thought per move; a game at ten minutes is a fast contest where decisions get made. For an amateur event that matters more than formal correctness.

The classic pair of dials with a flag that drops as the time runs out. That is where the expression «the flag fell» comes from.

The decisive limitation is the increment. Almost every modern control is written as «minutes plus seconds per move»: 3+2, 10+5, 90+30. On a mechanical clock you can only play controls without one, like 5+0 or 15+0 - which in blitz means the endgame turns into a race of hands.

The modern tournament standard. They do everything needed: Fischer increment, Bronstein delay, multiple controls in one game, a move counter, an audible signal.

What to look for:

• Increment support. The minimum requirement is Fischer mode with a configurable number of seconds per move.
• Stored presets. Good models remember the popular controls, so you are not setting them from scratch each time.
• A large display. Readable across the table and in poor light.
• Big rocker buttons. In blitz they get hit rather than pressed.
• A clear flag indicator. An obvious symbol showing who ran out - it removes arguments.
• Power. Ordinary batteries beat a built-in cell: when they die you replace them on the spot.

A separate class connects to electronic boards and feeds moves into a broadcast. Overkill for an amateur event, but if you plan to stream the top tables, look in that direction from the start - electronic boards.

A full set of digital clocks for ten boards is a serious sum. Meanwhile every participant has a device in their pocket that does all the same things.

How it works: the phone lies between the players face up, and touching your half of the screen switches the time. One catch - it has to sit where both players can reach it, and the screen must not go dark. Turn the auto-lock off for the duration of the game.

A free timer that opens in a browser with nothing to install lives at vibechess.ru/clock, and the format is covered in detail in a chess clock on your phone.

In the Vibe Chess app the clock is built into the event: the control is set when the tournament is created and the player opens the timer from their own game card. Nothing to configure - the app already knows who is at which table and at what control.

When phones will not do: official rated events need real clocks, and phones in the playing area are usually prohibited outright.

One pair per board: twenty players, ten sets. Prices vary by country, but the ordering holds - a basic digital clock is the cheapest option, tournament models from the known brands cost roughly twice as much, and new mechanical clocks sit in the same range as the latter.

What organizers actually do:

• Mix them. Real clocks on the top tables where the leaders play and the spectators look, phones on the rest.
• Ask the players. Club players usually own one.
• Hire from a club or federation. Cheaper than buying for a one-off event.
• Buy gradually. First event on phones, then a pair of clocks with each subsequent one.

1. 1. Set one clock and check the mode matches the announced control.
2. 2. Copy that setting to every other clock. Different settings on adjacent boards is the classic round-one problem.
3. 3. Check the batteries. A clock dying mid-round means an argument about how much time was left.
4. 4. Place them identically - to Black's left, by convention - so nobody has to hunt for the button.
5. 5. Before the round starts, walk the hall and confirm every clock is running. That is the arbiter's job.

The rest of the setup - seating and setup.