djama

THE DUFF CHESS CLOCK Relative Time

this chess clock measures time
relative to the other player

by keeping track
of the single dynamic differential
between the players times

so in a difficult game
where both players need time
neither is penalized

however if one player
is moving quickly and decisively
and the other procrastinating or stalling
they are overcome
quite quickly

this particular version
allows a maximum
of 3 minutes differential
to build up between players
before one player is ‘timed out’

to differentiate it
from other forms of timed chess
instead of the term ‘timed out’
the Duff term is ‘dies of old age’

this version allows a max
move time
of 6 mins
(from max credit
to max debit)

but that period can be varied
without effecting the structure of the system

3mins was the period
that came to hand
so to speak

and it turned out to produce
a fairly lively game
in my experience
so I kept it

I was inspired to produce this
to solve a small problem
that I know a lot of social players have
of one person who always takes forever to move
while their opponent
tends to move quite quickly



The Duff Chess Clock
consists of 2 egg timers

both with white stickers
on the bottom of one end

and black stickers
on the bottom of the other

setup:

the 2 egg timers
are placed together

one belongs to each player

black's timer is positioned
with the white sticker uppermost

white starts
with the black sticker uppermost

all sand in the bottom bowls


to begin play:

at the agreed start of the game
white inverts their egg timer

[so now both timers together
are showing white stickers
indicating it is agreed
that it is whites move]

white’s 3mins
has now begun to run out

on white’s move
both players
invert their egg timers

now both timers show
black stickers
indicating it is agreed
it is blacks move

and now black’s 3mins
has started to run out

while white’s 3mins
is starting to re-accrue

[note: it is not a problem
that it can never re-accrue beyond 3 mins
because that is the same 3mins
it takes the other player
to die of old age]

on each move
both timers are inverted
changing the color
of the sticker showing
(the agreement of the stickers on the timers
also serves as a failsafe against
forgetting to change)

it costs about $1
if the players dont already own eggtimers

and it pits the players
against each other personally
and in the same game

so an aggressive player
can actually eat into the think time
of the other player

obviously you could use
hour glasses
or 10min glasses
or some analogical
or digitological substitute
but the principle
is the same – enjoy