Chess Timer

A clock for the game in front of you

A chess clock is two clocks that never run at the same time. Yours counts down while it is your move; the moment you press it, it stops and your opponent's starts. If yours reaches zero first, you lose - however good your position was. That single rule is what makes chess a game you can finish, and it is the reason a serious game has never been played without one.

This one is a real clock, not a countdown timer with a chess label on it. Each side has its own face and its own tap target, so two people can share one phone lying flat between them and the gesture is the same as reaching over a wooden clock. It counts real elapsed time rather than counting interval ticks, which means it stays honest when the screen sleeps, the tab goes to the background, or the browser throttles a slow page - the three ways a free online clock usually goes wrong.

It also answers the question the presets quietly raise. Setting 3+2 tells you nothing about whether you are about to play blitz or rapid; the clock here says which, and shows the arithmetic it used. That matters more than it sounds, because the answer decides which rules apply, which rating your result would go to, and whether you are about to spend ten minutes or an hour.

What a chess clock is actually doing

• Only one clock runs at a time, and it is always the clock of the player to move. Pressing your side is part of your move - a move you have not pressed for is a move you are still spending time on.
• A Fischer increment adds a fixed number of seconds AFTER each move you complete, whether or not you used them. On 3+2 your clock can end the game with more time than it started with, which is exactly what the increment is for: it makes the last phase of a game playable rather than a race.
• A simple delay waits instead of adding. On 5 d3 the clock sits still for three seconds every move, and only then starts counting down. Unused delay is lost - your total can never grow - so the same numbers give you noticeably less time than an increment would.
• A Bronstein delay ends up in the same place as a simple delay by a different route: your clock counts down at once and then gives back exactly what you spent, up to the delay. Same time left, different thing to watch, which is why players have a firm preference for one or the other.
• FIDE decides the category by arithmetic, not by feel: base time plus sixty times the increment - the length of a nominal 60-move game. Ten minutes or less is blitz, more than ten and under sixty is rapid, sixty or more is classical. Bullet is not a FIDE category at all; it is the online word for anything under about three minutes.

How to use the clock

1. 1

   Pick a time control

   Open Time control and choose a preset, or type your own minutes per player and seconds per move. The card above tells you what you have chosen: 3+2 is blitz, 15+10 is rapid, and the note shows the arithmetic behind the label.

2. 2

   Choose how the bonus works

   Increment, simple delay, or Bronstein delay. If you are not sure, take the increment: it is what almost every online game uses, and it is the one that lets a good position survive a shortage of time.

3. 3

   Start, then tap after each move

   White's clock runs first. Each player taps their OWN half after moving - tapping the other half does nothing, because handing your opponent free time is precisely what a clock is there to prevent. On a laptop the space bar does the same job.

4. 4

   Play until a flag falls

   When a clock reaches zero it stops, both sides stop, and that player has lost on time. Wrong side moved undoes an accidental press without giving back the seconds it cost, which is what an arbiter would do; Reset starts the same control again.

Common time controls, and what they are

The category comes from FIDE's own formula - base plus sixty times the increment - and the last column is roughly how long a real game takes when both players use their time.

Choosing a control

Common mistakes

• Forgetting to press. Your clock keeps running after a move you have not pressed for, and there is no rule that gives that time back. Make the press part of the move, not a thing you remember afterwards.
• Pressing with the wrong hand, or before the move is finished. Under FIDE rules a move is made with one hand and the clock is pressed with the same hand; a move is not complete until the piece is released and the clock pressed.
• Treating delay as increment. On 5 d3 you never accumulate anything - the three seconds are use-them-or-lose-them - so the same numbers give you materially less time than 5+3 does.
• Assuming the preset name is the category. Online servers and FIDE draw their lines in different places: 10+0 is rapid on most sites and blitz by FIDE's formula. If the result is going to a rating, the rating's own definition is the one that counts.
• Playing an increment control on a device that sleeps. A clock that stops when the screen does is worse than no clock. This one keeps real time either way, and asks the browser to keep the screen awake where it can.
• Choosing a control shorter than the players. A beginner at 3+0 is not playing fast chess, they are playing a different game - one where the winner is whoever hangs fewer pieces in the last thirty seconds.
• Changing the time control mid-game. It rebuilds the clock from scratch, which is why this page locks the settings once a game has started - the alternative was a dropdown that silently ended the game behind you.

Chess timer FAQ