Hello:
I am taking part in a tournament in Oklahoma during President’s day weekend where the time control is G/120 with 10 second increment. Can anybody advise how to set Chronos clock for that time control.
Regards,
Assuming you really mean “increment” (cumulative addback) rather than “delay” (non-cumulative addback), you can try one of the CH-Pn (progressive) modes. On my older model with the switch on the bottom, it’s CH-P3.
Or, you can even try something like CH-1, which (on my model) is intended for a repeating control, like 40/120 followed by 20/60 indefinitely. You can set it for 1 move in 2:00:00, followed by 1 move in 0:00:10 indefinitely.
But if you actually mean “delay”, then try DL-1. Or, on the newer models, AN-1.
Bill Smythe
The web TLA for that tournament (if you’re talking about the 3-day one) just says “G120+10”. I don’t know whether that means increment or delay. In the USA, delay is more common, although increment is used in some New York area masters tournaments.
Bill Smythe
Since the tournament is to be FIDE rated, the increment is preferred. I think that the TD (or his twin brother, not sure which one) figured out how to set the Chronos for that time control, so all you have to do is ask when you get there.
Delay is acceptable, but increment is preferred.
Alex Relyea
I’ve always thought the best way to set a Chronos clock was with a five pound sledge hammer. 
I don’t trust any clock I can’t hear tick!
Tsk, tsk. You really DO go back, don’t you? But not as far as I do – and I don’t feel that way.
Used to be, the sound of a gazillion clocks ticking, not quite in sync, was standard at tournaments. Nowadays, even one clock ticking borders on a significant annoyance – or at least an anomaly.
Bill Smythe
Hear, hear!
My chess club students recently requested that the club buy the Chronos clocks. Never having owned a digital clock, I told them they would be responsible for learning how to set them.
I really wanted them to buy they quartz analog clocks I’ve still got sitting on the shelf, but they wanted these. Next thing you know, they’ll be telling me to stop using descriptive notation in my handouts! 
Radishes
The Chronos uses a confusing terminology: “Adagio,” “Andante,” and “Delay.” By “Adagio,” they mean what is usually known as Bronstein mode: “After each move you make your time is adjusted up to
the time you had at the beginning of the move, or to your current
time plus the delay time, whichever is smaller.” As far as I can tell, “Andante” and “Delay” both mean time-delay in the USCF sense, differing only in the way the time is displayed. There does not appear to be a “Fischer” mode (time accumulates without limit), though it is possible one of the innumerable Go or Shogi modes will do this.
To answer your specific question, I think what you want is mode AD-1, Bronstein addback, with the time set for 120 and the “delay time” at 10 seconds. (Note that you want the beep turned off.)
I don’t think so. He says the event is FIDE-rated, which probably means he wants increment (cumulative addback) rather than delay or Bronstein (non-cumulative addback). All those modes you mention are delay or Bronstein.
It’s a good thing there is only one time control. Then you can fudge things by using one of the repeating, non-terminating, move-counting controls – those intended for something like 40/120, then 20/60 etc indefinitely. Just change “40” to “1”, change “120” to the main time, change “20” to “1”, and change “60” to the increment time – sort of like an old-fashioned “traditional” control of 1 move in 2:00:00 followed by 1 move in 0:00:10 indefinitely.
On my older model CH-1, CH-P3, FD-1, FD-3 all seem adaptable to the desired end, although the display can be confusing for the first move or two.
Plus, I suspect that the newer Chronos models have modes specifically designed for increment, even with 2 or 3 main controls.
Bill Smythe
I agree, but the Chronos does not seem to have such a mode. If there is one, I would be interested in hearing about it.
FIDE rated tournaments do not require use of cumulative addback (c.f. the World Open), though it is commonly used in international events these days.
If its’ a FIDE-rated event, would be strange seeing a time control of G/120. If its’ a rapid, G/120 is not even a rapid. If its’ a FIDE-rated, it should have more then one time control. Wish we can get information from the author of this subject.
When they come up with the next Chronos, they could change the beep to ticking. It would be nice, you could hook up “speakers”, so you can hear that beeping or ticking.
According to FIDE, G/90 + 30 seconds per move is ratable
fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=B0101
so I don’t see why this is a strange time control. I’m trying to remember, but I think that two hours for the first move, then repeated ten seconds per move was how they did it in September, but I’m not sure.
FWIW they tried to do this as a G/90 + 30 but people complained that this control was too fast, so they went to this one.
Alex Relyea
Alex Relyea:
FIDE and the USCF have been going for faster time controls for a number of years. This is not the right forum, going from use of a Chronos to time controls. If FIDE gets faster with time controls, could see some time in the middle of the 21st century, a World Championship match at G/30 with six games per day.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, any mode intended for traditional repeating controls, where the second, third, fourth, etc controls are all the same but the first is different (and there is no delay), will do nicely. For example, instead of setting the clock for 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour indefinitely, just change the numbers so that you are playing at 1 move in 2 hours, followed by 1 move in 10 seconds indefinitely.
As I also said, on my older model, modes CH-1, FD-1, FD-3 all perform this function quite nicely (try them!), or you can use CH-P3 directly.
Bill Smythe
I’ll take your word for it that this works, but I find it awfully hard to believe that anyone would do it. Reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon in which a programmer is seen muttering “I’ll make the command something easy to remember, like ctrl-alt-F4-del … and if they forget that, they can just edit the source code in command.com.”
People will do it, if it’s the only way to do it. And after they do it once, they can save it in a user mode, so they won’t have to remember the logic that led to it – all they would have to do is change the specifics (e.g. change 120 moves to 90 moves, and 10 seconds to 30 seconds) for each tournament.
To see that it works, just note that a single control with increment is, technically, just a special case of a traditional repeating double control, with the number of moves set to 1 in each case. For example, game/120 with a 10-second increment is simply 1 move in 120 minutes, followed by 1 move in 10 seconds indefinitely.
Besides, mode CH-P3 works directly. And I’ll bet dollars to donuts (which is about an even bet these days) that newer Chronos models have all kinds of increment modes where you don’t have to “trick” the clock. Maybe some owners of newer models can speak up here.
That’s good. My favorite Dilbert cartoon is one in which he is being taught how to listen to a stupid person without rolling his eyes. The stupid person is brought in, and says, “My computer says ‘Press any key to continue.’ May I borrow your key? I locked mine in my Yugo.” Dilbert cringes and mutters under his breath “Must focus, must focus.” The stupid person continues, “Of course, I could break the driver side window, but it’s bad enough the windshield is already gone.”
Bill Smythe
There is a new Chronos that came onto the market. Its’ called the Chronos Blitz. It only has one LCD then the two LCD in the older models, its’ the push button type. It does have delay and increment time controls. Have come to terms with time delay in blitz, G/5 (t/d 2). Having increment time on a blitz clock is just wrong.
There are a number of things that can be done, but which most people regard as more trouble than they are worth. It is possible to slice open your optical mouse znd replace the red LED with a green one. There are poeple who do it. Most of us regard them as … odd. I’d put setting a Chronos this way in the same category.
A more interesting question here (which ought to have another thread if anyone wants to follow up on it) is why organizers want tournaments with “difficult” time controls. We’re not talking about international round-robins with equipment supplied here. A fair number of players are going to show up with clocks that cannot be set to the organizer’s pet time control. Others will waste an inordinate amount of TD time arguing about how to set any one of a half-dozen digitals. Is there really any benefit to all this?
Similar arguments were used against straight delay, but almost everyone now accepts delay as normal.
Internationally, increment is more popular than delay, and most clocks made abroad support increment better than they support delay. It’s partly a question of which one popped up first in different parts of the world.
Meanwhile, where are you owners of newer Chronos models? We need your input.
Bill Smythe