Chess Clock & Dual Timezone Clock

Get this fully functional chess clock for quick chess games and tournaments. It is suitable for any two-player table game. Check them out in the ads below.

The TBF Chess Clock has two modes of operation: (i) functioning as a chess or game clock to keep track of the total play time of each player in a two-person game like chess, and (ii) functioning as a dual timezone clock to keep the current time for two timezones simultaneously. The paragraphs below explain how to switch between these functions and how to operate them and change their respective settings.

- Switching between chess clock dual clock modes -

The clock has four clickable areas: (i) and (ii) two areas on and around the metal push buttons at the top, (iii) the empty area between the two push buttons at the top and (iv) the lower part of the clock. Clicking the lower part of the clock will bring up a drop-down menu with options. In Chess Clock mode, the menu will include the option 'Dual Clock'. When selected, Dual Clock mode is engaged. In Dual Clock mode, the drop down menu will show the option 'Chess Clock', which will switch the clock to Chess Mode.

- Setting Play Time, Time-Out Time and Increment -

In Chess Clock mode, the drop-down menu also presents the options to change Play Time, Time-Out Time and Increment. Play Time represents the TOTAL amount of time that is given to each player. These are the official times observed by the different types of chess—e.g. five-minutes of play time is associated with the chess game variant called 'Blitz'.

Time-Out Time represents the maximum amount of time given to each player PER TURN. This is not a specific chess game feature, but rather a feature relevant to multi-player virtual worlds. The clock is accessible to anyone, when placed on public land. Once the chess clock is activated, it can only be operated by the one or two players engaged in the corresponding chess game. A time limit for each turn ensures that the clock cannot be rendered inoperative by a user indefinitely (e.g. by leaving the game without ending it), unless the time limits are set to infinite.

Increment is a chess clock feature introduced by former chess world champion Bobby Fisher in the 1990s and later adopted in world-wide chess tournaments. An increment set to 10 seconds means that for each turn, 10 seconds are added to the remaining Play Time. The default setting is 0 seconds, which is the classical setting for a chess clock.

- Taking turns -

In chess, the black player initiates the game by pressing their time button, resulting the 'white' clock to run the count-down. After white's first move, they press their time button and the 'black' clock starts counting down instead. If the game is interrupted (e.g. by a disturbance, or a sim restart), the clock can be paused by pressing the area between the buttons at the top of the clock. Note that not only the buttons themselves are clickable. The direct area around them can also result in the time button being pressed.

A little red flag at the top of each clock face indicates when the time is up. When someone's flag drops, they lose the game. In games lasting longer than an hour, the flags can drop several times, since it is mechanically triggered by the large hand on the clock face. Only in the last hour of the game, such a flag drop will count as a game ending. When a flag drop corresponds to an actual a game ending, an announcement will also be made in Local Chat.

- Setting Timezones -

In Dual Clock mode, both clocks run simultaneously to indicate the current time. Each clock can be set to a diferent timzone. The timezones can be set by repeatedly clicking the corresponding buttons at the top. Only the owner of the clock can set these timezones.

- Some technical remarks -

Observant users may notice that the clock hands are updated only every 10 seconds. This does not mean that the time-keeping is accurate to a 10-second interval. Internally, time-keeping is done with millisecond-precision. For the sake of lag reduction, the visual time-representation is updated only every 10 seconds thoughout the game, every 2 seconds in the last remaining 20 seconds of the game and every 0.2 seconds during the last 2 seconds.

* The script is No Mod.