Sounds like the name of a droid in Star Wars, but it’s the new-to-me chess clock I plan to try out at USATE this weekend. Got it for next to nothing from a well-known website, partly because I was intrigued by its FIDE approval at that price point. It’s not mass-marketed in the USA as far as I can see.
Will see what happens tomorrow but the clock looks good from playing with its settings. Nice and compact—as much as I like the heft of the Chronos Classic, if you are gonna go small, go big on going small—the display is clear and bright and setting it is fairly intuitive, plus there are pre-sets listed on the bottom of the clock.
Other upsides: It can be set to halt-at-end or not, the switch on the bottom makes it almost impossible to turn off the clock by accident, it has a low-battery indicator and it does not show a clock-press counter unless you push the right (and left) buttons.
One big downside, for me, is the way it displays delay. The delay countdown takes over the screen, same as with Saitek clocks, so a player does not know how much main time is left until the display time counts down, after which the display shows the main time.
You can debate whether that is better or worse than flashing “delay” a la the DGT NA. Bronstein mode is better than either (though I almost never see that used) and best is for the display to show both the delay countdown and the main time, as the Chronos Classic does in some modes.
Let’s see if I make it through six rounds without pulling the Chronos from the chess bag.
I don’t think any of the Leap clocks have been heavily marketed in the US. I bought a dozen of the LEAP PS9907S on Amazon directly from the manufacturer in China 2 years back [to provide players at tournaments I run]. It came with a really nice cloth carry bag at no additional cost, but it could have just been because I was a first time buyer. The PS9907S is FIDE approved, but it will only do 1 time control. I do like that after you set 1 side the other side will copy it, and it does both delay and increment.
The Leap PQ9907S is NOT FIDE approved (The clocks that are FIDE approved are listed at fide.com/FIDE/handbook/Stan … _venue.pdf). It couldn’t be FIDE approved for at least two reasons: 1) It does increment in the awful “add-before” method and thus doesn’t meet the following FIDE requirement for increment time controls: “The display at all times should show the time available to complete a player’s next move”. 2) The clock does not “freeze” and thus doesn’t meet the FIDE requirements that “when one clock reaches zero in an increment mode time control, the other clock does not run further and retains its last display.” and “In case of accumulative or delay timing systems, the clock should not add any additional time if a player passed the last time control.” I also doubt a clock that doesn’t support multiple time controls would get FIDE certification.
To which side of the clock??ALLclocks, in increment mode, add time after each player’s move. Some clocks (“add-after”) add the increment to the clock of the player who has just moved. Other clocks (“add-before”) add the increment to the clock of the opponent of the player who has just moved.
If your examination is just a bit too casual, you might overlook this distinction.
Used the clock in five of six games. No problems; no questions or complaints from opponents. If you can deal with the method it uses to display the delay countdown, it’s a good option on the budget end of the spectrum. Though finding it for sale might not be easy.
Interesting. It looks like the “light” version of the Leap clocks which aren’t good for much more than basic usage, but has all the features of the better Leap clock (also rebranded as the Wholesale Chess Clock). Personally I like the larger Wholesale Chess version better for other reasons. In a pinch, though, this looks to be a decent clock.
I saw a lot of the PQ9907S at the Virginia State Scholastic Championships last weekend. So many, in fact, there were two left over after the tournament.
It is the LEAP KK9908 which is FIDE-approved, not the PQ9077S, which has much less functionality.
Interesting. Did you get your LEAP PQ9907S recently? Perhaps the company realized that doing increment in the “add-after” method is a lot better than doing increment in the “add-before” method and changed the clock, although it would have been much better if the increment was automatically given for move one since a lot of players aren’t aware that you get the increment for move one under US Chess and FIDE rules and won’t know to manually add the increment time to the base time to get the increment time for move one. The advantage of the version of the clock that did increment in the “add-before” method is that it automatically gives the increment for move one.