Chess Buzz for January 2, 1997
Just for Fun: US Chess Federation Fun Fact Trivia
"Time and Time Again"
This week's answer can be found in the Answer Page
.Chess Buzz this week discusses the impact that the new elimination format for the World Championship Tournament may have had on results.
We all know the frustration of waiting and waiting for an opponent to make a move in an untimed game, and chessplayers have choosing some form of chess clock for tournament play for quite awhile.
The key to a successful timing mechanism was the ability to STOP the clock when it was the other player's turn. Hourglasses were used in some early matches, since they could be turned on their sides to stop them when the player was not on the move. Eventually pendulum clocks were used, with the pendulum started and stopped as a player's turn completed. Thomas Bright Wilson which balanced two pendulum clocks on a seesaw beam so that when one was tilted, it stopped and other started. These had a counter for the number of the times the seesaw was tipped, which could track the moves.
Today, as in the World Championship Tournament now underway, clocks are becoming digital, with the ability to add a time increment, or other time control variations. Many top players have championed the use of increments to eliminate time scrambles, and Robert J. Fischer is co-holder of a patent on a similar mechanical clock. Clockmakers, too, were intrigued by the challenge of creating a chess clock, and a number of different variations have been offered.
Here's our Fun Fact question this week: when was the first patent taken out in the United States for a chess clock?- 1791
- 1832
- 1884
- 1931