How to set a chess clock
The short answer to how to set a chess clock: decide the time control first, then enter it — base time per player, then the bonus type (increment, delay, or none), then the bonus size. On a digital clock that means picking a mode number from the manual, keying in the minutes, and keying in the seconds. On an analog clock it means turning the hands so that the minute hand reaches 12 at the exact moment a player’s time runs out. Move counters, sound and the side of the board are detail for afterwards.
No two digital clocks agree on how to reach those settings. A DGT, a ZMF, a Chronos and a supermarket clock bury the same three numbers behind different mode lists. This guide covers the logic they share, and points you at the one place with the button sequence for your model: the manual.
Decide the control before you touch a button
Three questions, in this order.
- Base time. How long each player gets at the start: 3 or 5 minutes for blitz, 15 or 25 for rapid, 60 or 90 for a long game. FIDE sorts games by base time plus 60 times the increment — 10 minutes or less is blitz, more than 10 but under 60 is rapid, 60 or more is standard play.
- Bonus type. Increment adds seconds to your clock after every move you complete. Delay counts down a fixed pause before your main time starts draining, and unused delay is not banked. Bronstein delay gives the same net result as simple delay — it hands back what you actually used, up to the delay length — but the display falls and then jumps back rather than pausing first.
- Bonus size. Usually 2, 3, 5, 10 or 30 seconds. As a rough rule it should cover making a legal move and pressing the clock without thinking: 2–5 seconds for blitz, 10 for rapid, 30 for classical.
Sudden death means the whole game must finish inside the time on the clock, with no further block awarded at a move count; it can still carry an increment or a delay. If you are not sure which control suits the session, the guide to chess time controls walks through what each one does to the last ten moves of a game.
| Control | Base time | Bonus type | Bonus size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blitz 3|2 | 3 min each | Fischer increment | 2 sec |
| Blitz 5|0 | 5 min each | None | — |
| US club quick (G/30 d5) | 30 min each | Simple (US) delay | 5 sec |
| Rapid 15|10 | 15 min each | Fischer increment | 10 sec |
| FIDE classical | 90 min for 40 moves, then +30 min | Fischer increment | 30 sec from move 1 |
To fit a control to a session, the ceiling is (base + increment × moves) × 2, since the increment is paid once per move to each side. A 40-move game on 15|10 tops out at (15 min + 400 sec) × 2, or 43 minutes 20 seconds; on 3|2 it is 8 minutes 40 seconds. Move 40 of the FIDE classical control costs at most 110 minutes a side — 3 hours 40 minutes before the second block of time arrives.
How to set a chess clock that is digital
Every digital clock follows the same three-step shape.
- Choose the mode. Digital clocks ship with a numbered list of presets and modes — some a handful, some dozens — usually grouped into sudden death without a bonus, Fischer increment, delay, and multi-stage tournament controls. Scroll to a number and confirm it.
- Enter the base time. Hours and minutes, usually digit by digit, with one button stepping the value and another moving to the next field.
- Enter the increment or delay. Seconds, entered the same way. Modes with no bonus skip this step.
Confirm, and both halves should show the same figure. Press the lever or button on Black’s side to begin: pressing your own side stops your clock and starts your opponent’s, and White moves first, so White’s clock must be the one running.
Button sequences differ by brand and firmware revision, so keep your model’s PDF manual on your phone. If you inherited a clock without one, work through the mode list a number at a time with a two-minute test control until the display behaves as you expect.
Check the bonus before the game, not during it. Set 30 seconds each with a 5-second increment, press a few times, and watch the numbers. If the display gains time when you press, increment is live. If it pauses for a few seconds and then falls, that is delay. If your clock is counting the wrong way entirely, the count-up explainer covers why.
How to set time on a chess clock that is analog
A mechanical clock has no modes, no increment and no delay. It has two dials and a small flag that sits on the 12. Time expires when the minute hand pushes that flag off and it drops.
So the rule for setting a chess clock of this kind is: position the hands so the minute hand arrives at 12 when the allotted time is gone. For a 30-minute game, set both faces half an hour short of an hour mark. Many clubs use 5:30, so both flags fall at six o’clock and an arbiter can read every board against the same finish, but 11:30 works identically.
- 15 minutes each → 5:45
- 30 minutes each → 5:30
- 60 minutes each → 5:00
- 90 minutes each → 4:30
Turn the hands with the setting knobs or wheels on the back or underside rather than pushing them round from the front, and set both faces before you start. Mechanical movements are sensitive to how they sit, so use a flat, level surface rather than propping the clock on a book.
A fallen flag normally loses, but under the FIDE laws it is a draw if the opponent could not checkmate by any possible series of legal moves — a test of what is reachable, not what can be forced. US Chess applies a narrower, material-based test instead, so the two rulebooks can disagree on the same position.
Which face goes on which side
Each player presses the button on their own side, and the face nearest a player counts down that player’s time. Place the clock so both players can read both faces without leaning.
In a rated event the decision is not yours: FIDE Article 6.5 says that before the start of the game the arbiter decides where the clock is placed. In casual play the usual custom is that Black chooses the side, and many clubs default to placing it on Black’s right. If you swap the clock to the other side, remember to swap which face is set as White. Our piece on using a chess clock during a game covers pressing with the same hand you moved with, which the laws require, and the other habits that prevent time-trouble accidents.
Handicap and multi-stage settings
An asymmetric or handicap control gives the two players different base times — say 10 minutes for the stronger player against 3 for the weaker one. On a digital clock this is usually a separate mode where you enter White’s time and Black’s time as two figures instead of one. Set the larger time on the face belonging to the player who should have it, and check before starting: the two figures are easy to enter the wrong way round.
A two-stage tournament control adds a fresh block of time once a move count is reached. The FIDE classical control is the standard example: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes added for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment throughout. On a digital clock you enter stage one’s time, the move number that ends it, and stage two’s time. The second block is added to whatever is still on the clock, so a player who reaches move 40 with 8 minutes left continues with 38.
Or skip the mode list entirely
The chess clock on the front page of this site runs in your browser: tap a preset such as 3|2 or 15|10 and it is set, or open the custom builder, type the minutes and the bonus seconds, choose increment, simple delay, Bronstein or hourglass, and press start. Multi-stage and handicap controls are two fields each rather than a mode number, and seven ready-made tournament presets sit alongside the eleven quick ones, including the FIDE 90+30 control. It is free, needs no account, and keeps working once the page has loaded.
For a clock in your pocket, the same eleven presets, custom time with Fischer increment, 16 themes and per-side ±10-second arbiter corrections are in the Chess Timer app on the App Store and Google Play, offline. It runs Fischer increment only — delay, Bronstein and multi-stage play stay on the web clock, and the app’s editor can author a staged control without playing it. It is free to download, with a premium unlock after three start or pause actions.