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DGT 2010 Digital Game Timer - Overview |
PAGE DATE: 20-Jan-2009 |
The County has invested in a stock of DGT 2010 digital clocks (illustrated on the right).
Some of you may already be familiar with using digital clocks, but for those who sit down at the board to use one for the first time, this can be a source of confusion and distraction, which is not what you need at the start of a game.
This page will help you prepare for the change.
BASIC INSTRUCTIONS
To turn the clock on and off, press the button underneath. (Please TURN OFF when your game is finished.)
Players are not expected to set the clocks, the clocks should already be programmed with the applicable time control at the start of their game. If a clock is not set, please refer to one of the controllers.
To start the clock, depress the white bar on BLACK'S side of the board, so that the bar is UP on White's side. Note a white king is showing in the display on White's side of the board, a black king showing on the other display. Before the clock is started, pressing the white bar will cause these symbols to switch sides. When the clock is properly set, press the PLAY button in the centre, below the main display (which looks like >|| with a clock symbol).
To stop or pause the clock at any time, press the PLAY button.
To restart, press the PLAY button again.
DISPLAY
The clock displays hours and minutes for any time above 20 minutes (h:mm) - see above illustration.
For 20 minutes and less it shows minutes and seconds (m.ss) - see figure 1 below.
Note: the clock display shows either "HRS/MIN" or "MIN/SEC" to show what it is displaying. The two faces will act independently.
HOW IT ACTS
For time controls employing a quickplay finish, the additional time for the QPF is added automatically. However, this done WHEN ONE PLAYER HAS USED ALL OF THE INITIAL TIME PERIOD. At that point, the additional time is added to BOTH clocks. (Note: this is NOT when the prescribed number of moves have been made, only when the primary time period has expired on one clock.)
A static BLACK FLAG is displayed on the clock which first reaches the end of the first time period and is displayed for the next five minutes. This is equivalent to the flag fall on an analogue clock. It does not of itself indicate a loss on time, merely that the time has expired. The clock will instantly add the QPF additional time and carry on running. Therefore, at this point, the players should check that the requisite number of moves have been made, just as you would when using an analogue clock. If the player whose clock is showing the BLACK FLAG has NOT made the required number of moves when this happens, the opponent may claim the game for a LOSS ON TIME.
When the final time has expired for either side, a FLASHING BLACK FLAG is shown on that clock, which does indicate a loss on time.
The clock counts the move numbers, incrementing the counter after each move by Black, however, the program does NOT include the number of moves required for a given time control.
You can check the move number at any time by pressing the +/# key (second from the left below the main display) - see illustration 3 below. Be aware, however, that the counter is not infallible because a player may have forgotten to operate the clock, so the counter may be out of step. Best advice is to rely on the scoresheets at all times.
The full instruction manual for the DGT 2010 clock (pdf) is available here (3.02MB).
Refer: FIDE Laws of Chess Article 6 - The Chess Clock.
To illustrate the above points, here is an example of the process of adding QPF time:
1 - In the illustration to the right, both clocks are displaying minutes and seconds. Note the symbol between the minutes and the seconds is a full stop - compare with hours and minutes shown above which are separated by a colon. Click on the link to enlarge the picture and note that both clocks show the "min/sec" symbol. (This timer is paused for the photo; note the >|| symbol in the middle.)
In this example, the left clock face (White) is showing 11 seconds left (0.11), while Black has six minutes.
2 - Just 12 seconds later and it's all change! In the picture on the left, White's clock has reached the end of its primary time allotment and 30 minutes quickplay finish time has been added to BOTH clocks. Note the black flag on the left to signify that this clock was first to expire the first time period allowance. At this point the players will check their scoresheets to see that the required number of moves have been made; if not, in this example, Black can claim a win on time.
But why do the clocks look so different from the above view? The answer is that, with the addition of the extra 30 minutes, the clocks have switched back to displaying hours and minutes (note the legend "hrs/min" on each clock). White's clock is therefore showing 29 minutes (seconds no longer displayed, so the actual time might be 29 minutes and between 0 and 59 seconds). Black's clock is showing 30 minutes plus the six minutes carried forward = 36 minutes.
3 - Finally, the clock does have a move counter, which is incremented after each move by Black (i.e. it doesn't count "half" moves). The move counter can be viewed at any time by pressing and holding the +/# button (see picture right). In this illustration, 22 moves have been made by both players and it is White's move (note the clock was paused at the time of taking this picture, but it is not necessary to pause the clock to show the move counter). If it were Black's move at this point, White will have made his/her 23rd move, but the counter will not increment to 23 until Black has also made 23 moves.
However, the clock's program does not record the number of moves required for the time control. This point is made to underline the fact that the BLACK FLAG only indicates the expiry of time.
