🚀 go-pugleaf

David Ward Rusnak (dwr9025@glaxo.com) wrote:
: In article <Pine.SUN.3.91.950620083148.2564B-100000@access2.digex.net>,
: Mutsuura <mutsuura@access2.digex.net> wrote:

: > All,
: > 
: > I was given a chess clock as a present but I've never played chess with a 
: > clock before. Can someone tell me the rules for playing with clocks?
: > 
: > Thanks
: > 
: > Attila

: Me too!  I see them on television, but cannot figure the rational.  I
: guess that means I'm not ready for competition, huh?


: Rusnak

Both of you should be posting to rec.games.chess.misc, where you would find
many people willing to answer your question.  But here is the basic idea:

There is one clock for each player.  An increment of time is provided to
each player to complete a specified number of moves (say 45 moves in 90
minutes) or to complete the entire game (say game in 30 minutes). 
The buttons on top control the two clocks.  When one button is pushed, the
clock on the opposite side starts, and when the other button is pushed,
that clock stops and the other starts.  To stop both clocks, push on both
buttons at the same time until they are in a "neutral" position.  Near the
eleven-o'clock position there is a small flag anchored to the face of each
clock.  It is designed to be caught by the minute hand, and when the minute
hand reaches precisely twelve, the flag falls, indicating the player has
run out of time.

Say you and a friend want to play a game during lunch, and you have about
45 minutes available.
Set each clock (counting backwards from 12:00) to
allow 20 minutes each, for a total of 40 minutes for the whole game.  So
both clocks would  read 11:40.  Place the clock on one side of the table
near the board, with the clocks facing towards the board (so the two players
can see both clocks).  The clock nearest White is White's clock.

The above applies to analog clocks.  If you have a digital clock, you just
set the number of minutes to play, and the clock counts backwards to zero.
Some really moronic clocks have alarm bells or syntesized voices that call
out time or otherwise signal that a player has run out of time.  If you
have one of that kind, either find a way to disable those features or just
don't bring it to a tournament.  The other players will appreciate it. :)

Now to start the game, Black pushes the
button nearest to him, which starts White's clock.  After White completes a
move on the board, he uses the same hand that made the move to press the
clock button, stopping his clock and starting Black's.  This continues in
like manner until the game is completed or until one player runs out of
time.  This strictly regulates the amount of time a player gets to think
on.  The player that runs out of time loses.

Of course, you could also set the clock to five minutes each and play four
games or more during lunch.  This is an especially fun pastime called
"blitz" chess.  (Careful -- it's addictive.)

And by all means come on over to rec.games.chess.*, where all sorts of
discussions and news are underway.  Leave gnu.chess for the discussion of
that particular programming project.

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