The DGT 2500 timer

[John Upham]

I note a new DGT product has been announced.

The DGT 2500

https://digitalgametechnology.com/produ ... ks/dgt2500

Has anyone tried it out?

[Ian Thompson]

I note a new DGT product has been announced.

The DGT 2500

https://digitalgametechnology.com/produ ... ks/dgt2500

Has anyone tried it out?

I immediately noticed that there is no socket on the side, or anywhere else, for a cable to connect it to the board. I wondered if that meant it had a wireless connection. No, it hasn't got one at all, so it's not a replacement for the DGT 3000.

What has it got to justify the higher price tag than the DGT 2010? I suppose the quick time penalty might be useful, but then I don't know how long it would take an arbiter to do the same adjustment on an older DGT clock.

[Roger de Coverly]

What has it got to justify the higher price tag than the DGT 2010?

It would seem to have a facility to add time for the second period based on either the expiry of the first period, or on the count of clock presses.

What isn't listed are the presets and arguably importantly whether the numbers have changed. If you are used to using #18 for x minutes + y increment, you probably don't want a similar but different clock where it's something else for that increasingly used time control.

[Ian Thompson]

What has it got to justify the higher price tag than the DGT 2010?

It would seem to have a facility to add time for the second period based on either the expiry of the first period, or on the count of clock presses.

The DGT 2010 will count clock presses using option 21. It might be easier to set a clock this way on a DGT 2500, but it's not an extra function.

[Roger de Coverly]

The DGT 2010 will count clock presses using option 21. It might be easier to set a clock this way on a DGT 2500, but it's not an extra function.

In the absence of a list of the options, it's difficult to say.

Option 21 is superficially an increment setting. If you wanted to do x moves in y minutes then add z minutes to finish in the old way after move x, the trick was to set the increment to zero. More often people would set the clocks to only add the time when y minutes had completed. Increasingly such move rates are losing popularity in favour of the simpler y minutes plus increment.

[Joey Stewart]

What has it got to justify the higher price tag than the DGT 2010?

It would seem to have a facility to add time for the second period based on either the expiry of the first period, or on the count of clock presses.

Would that mean that your bonus time actually appears on screen instead of hidden away and making you play increasingly fast 'just in case' ? I can't stand the way that happens in events like 4ncl - even if I know I've passed 40 moves and the time will be there if I've only got a few minutes showing on screen it's nearly impossible not to make fast instinctive moves in that situation and it's cost me (and almost certainly others) multiple results.

[Roger de Coverly]

Would that mean that your bonus time actually appears on screen instead of hidden away and making you play increasingly fast 'just in case' ?

As Ian Thompson noted, that's already available on the DGT2010 with option 21. That's not often used, but it can replicate the old non-increment move rates of x in y plus z, thus avoiding the false flagfall. It does have the slightly offputting habit of adding time to the white clock and leaving the black clock untouched when the white counter hits x, not adding the time to black until the clock is pressed. That contrasts with analogue clocks where, in the UK at least, the ceremony of winding the clocks back took place when both players were satisfied that at least x moves had been made by both players.

Arbiters seem to prefer to use the preset options rather than set them. With adding the time on the counter not being a preset on the 2010 and later models, it fell out of use. Once upon a time a move rate of 40 moves in 80 minutes with an extra 20 or 40 minutes at 40 moves along with 60 second increments was popular. The clocks would be programmed to add the time at the move count.

The other obvious new feature on the 2050 as compared to the 2010 is that the display appears to be hours:minutes:seconds throughout instead of switching from hours:minutes to minutes:second when twenty minutes remains to the end of the time period.

[Colin Purdon]

Here's an image showing the list of options for the DGT2500

2500-bottom-crop.jpg

If you right-click it an open in a new tab its more readable (I downsized it to make it more manageable, the original's better quality).

The (rather brief) manual and photos for the device can be downloaded from https://digitalgametechnology.com/mediakit.

[NickFaulks]

With adding the time on the counter not being a preset on the 2010 and later models, it fell out of use.

Good thing too. In a scramble to reach an interim time control, the last thing you need is an argument with the clock about how many moves have been played.

[Roger de Coverly]

Here's an image showing the list of options for the DGT2500

If you are using a move rate different from 90 30, whether the initial time or increment, it will be option 21 on these clocks rather than 18 on the DGT2010. What would be a useful feature would be more than one set of manual options for each group.

If you played 80 10 in one competition and, say, 90 15 in another, you would have to continually reprogram as with the DGT2010.

[Mike Gunn]

I think the display always shows hours/ minutes/ seconds left which is a plus over the 2010 and will avoid the occasional mishap where blitz games are set with times in hours and minutes rather than minutes and seconds.

[Joey Stewart]

Hourglass time setting is one I would be genuinely interested in trying out - I've heard it talked about recently and it sounds like quite a good version of blitz.

[Roger de Coverly]

Hourglass time setting is one I would be genuinely interested in trying out - I've heard it talked about recently and it sounds like quite a good version of blitz.

It's been available with digital clocks since they first became available nearly thirty years ago. My experience was that against equal strength opposition you get a curious form of equilibrium. One player uses up time to gain an edge on the board, then has to play quickly and dissipates it. Like buzzer chess, games between equally matched players can last a long time.

[David York]

I'm not rushing to buy any of these. The white flash on the red bar is catching up with the LEAP Digital Chess Timer / Clock (KK9908) which features a red flash on a white bar. That clock only needs one battery and is less than half the price. I also think it is easier to set than the DTG.
I do have a DGT 3000 (well a DGT Pi) because of board connectivity, so I'm not a DGT hater.

Showing my age - please would clock manufacturers stop putting presets information on the clock in a tiny font!

[NickFaulks]

Showing my age - please would clock manufacturers stop putting presets information on the clock in a tiny font!

Agreed, I think I am competent at setting chess clocks, even those with which I am unfamiliar, but that is the one thing which stymies me. Sometimes I forget to carry a magnifying glass.