Increment, delay and move counters · FIDE Laws, Article 6
Online chess clock
A two-player chess clock for over-the-board games: tap your side after each move. Choose sudden death, a Fischer increment, Bronstein or simple delay, or a time control in several periods.
Ready: 5 min + 3 s increment. Press Start, or Black presses, to start White’s clock.
Keys: left player A or left Shift, right player L or right Shift, Space for whoever is on move, P to pause.
How the clock works
Press Start, or let Black press their side, and White’s clock runs, as the Laws require. After moving, each player presses their own side. Time saved in one period carries into the next, and the move counter adds the next period’s time as soon as the period’s last move is completed.
- Fischer increment: the seconds are added before every move, from the first, so 5 + 3 starts at 5:03. Unused time builds up.
- Simple delay: your main time only starts going down after the delay. Move within it and you lose nothing, but you never gain time.
- Bronstein delay: your time runs at once and, when you press, the time you used is given back, up to the delay. Here a Bronstein clock that reaches zero ends the game even inside the delay.
When a time reaches zero the clock stops and marks the flag. Under Article 6.9 that loses the game unless the opponent cannot checkmate by any series of legal moves, in which case it is a draw.
Sources
- Clock rules: FIDE Laws of Chess, taking effect from 1 January 2023, Article 6 (6.2 handling the clock, 6.3.2 periods and the delay mode, 6.6 White’s clock starts, 6.9 flag fall) and the glossary entries for increment, cumulative (Fischer) mode and delay (Bronstein) mode.
- Delay as a pause and increment as added time: US Chess Federation’s Official Rules of Chess, 7th edition, chapter 1, rule 5B1.
- World Championship 2026 preset: FIDE, Regulations for the FIDE World Championship Match 2026, Article 4.2.2.
Questions
What is the difference between increment and delay?
An increment adds time for every move, so time can build up. A delay only protects your main time: move within the delay and it does not go down, but it never goes up.
Is Bronstein the same as a simple delay?
FIDE’s Laws use “delay (Bronstein) mode” for the delay. Clocks that offer both count Bronstein down at once and give back the time used, up to the delay; a simple or US delay waits before counting down.
What is the World Championship 2026 time control?
120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds per move added from move 41. It is one of the presets.
What happens when my flag falls?
You lose the game, unless your opponent cannot checkmate you by any series of legal moves; then the game is drawn (FIDE Laws, Article 6.9).