At a recent CCA tournament, just before round 2 started, a young man was wandering around the area where I was playing, asking if anyone could set his Chronos GX for him. With a suppressed eye-roll, I told him to hand it over, and set it for him, storing it as time control #1. That’s usually saved for five minute blitz, but that way he wouldn’t have any trouble getting it back once the clock was turned off. Just press the red button. And it gave him an added incentive to get hold of the #!!! instructions and learn how to set it himself. The GX is actually quite simple once you learn a few basics.
In the meantime, the director told people to start their games, my opponent started my clock, and I lost about a minute off my time. No big deal, but you know what, new resolution for 2020. I’m not helping anyone to set his clock unless it’s a personal friend of mine, and even then I’ll use a friend’s privilege to give him a hard time about it. I know how to set the long and short versions of a Chronos (at least for any chess time control I’d encounter), a DGT 3000, and a Leap KK9908. I know this because I actually read manuals to the point where I don’t need to consult them every time, and I do keep the manuals. It continues to baffle me that so many chess players can’t seem to master the basics for at least the one model that they own.
The above sounds angrier than it is. I’ve seen this topic come up before, and it will doubtless come up again. But, one pro tip. If the reason you don’t know how to set your clock is because you bought it from the tournament’s equipment vendor two minutes ago and haven’t had time to absorb the manual, the vendor will probably set it for you. Then you can read the manual before the next round, and you’ll never have a problem again.
The Chronos is a clock I do not own and do not know how to set (I can handle mid-game adjustments for penalties).
One good thing that comes from the complexity of the Chronos is that usually anybody who knows how to set it had to learn enough to really-and-truly know how to set it. With a lot of other clocks people casually glean enough information to get to the point where they think they know how to set it and problems occur when situations arise because they didn’t actually know how to set it (setting a clock with five extra seconds instead of a five-second delay and not noticing until somebody flags due to lack of delay or setting the delay but not activating it or setting it for only the first time control or setting it with the move counter turned off and then thinking that time has to be added when the move number of the first time control is reached, etc.).
Back when delay was deducted from the base time there was confusion when a person looked at a nearby clock displaying hours and minutes and set their minutes-only clock, or vice versa. At the national scholastics I would have to check the clocks and ask some of the Excalibur users to change their setting from 155 minutes to 115 minutes and ask some of the Chronos users to change their settings from 1:15 to 1:55.
PS One more thing to note about being a nice guy. The person you were setting the clock for did NOT lose a minute because the clock wouldn’t have been started until after he got back to his board with it.
After the CCA director announces the “two minute warning” to start the round, shouldn’t you be seated at your board and ready to begin play? The other player’s clock is their problem, not yours. I guess I’m not Mr. Nice Guy while in “game” mode.
I have had a Chronos since they first came out, and it’s still my favorite clock – but I could not set one “on the fly” without using the instruction book. Mine allows four presets, and those are enough to cover all the tournaments I play in. I set these up years ago (using the instruction book), and when I’m going to play a tournament, I tweak the applicable preset the night before the tournament begins, so I don’t have to mess with it at the actual tournament.
Even as a TD, I don’t like to set clocks right before a round starts – there are too many other things to do. If one person needs a clock set, and it’s one that I know how to do, I’ll do it, but if there are ten people lined up, sorry – they’re on their own.
I noticed a great idea in the USAT-N bookstore last weekend (run by Rochester). A clock setting tip jar. TDs, arm yourselves. Even if you earn nothing, the message it sends is perfect.
!! instructions and learn how to set it himself. The GX is actually quite simple once you learn a few basics.
