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Ashta’s chess tales

The clock with two faces

London, 1883 · 2 minute read

Once, a player could think for as long as he liked. Then somebody lost patience.

For most of its history chess had no clock. A player could sit and think about one move for an hour if he chose, and some did. Games dragged on through the afternoon and into the night. Spectators fell asleep. Opponents fumed.

In the 1860s organisers began to try sandglasses — one for each player, turned over when he moved. They helped, but sand is hard to read and easy to argue about.

Then, for a great tournament in London in 1883, an English clockmaker named Thomas Bright Wilson built something new: two clocks joined on a single beam. When you finished your move you tipped the beam. Your clock stopped; your opponent’s began to tick.

It was simple, and it changed chess. Each player now had a fixed amount of time for the whole game, and how you spent it became part of the skill.

Later clocks added a little flag that falls when your time runs out — which is why players still say “my flag fell”. Modern digital clocks can even add a few seconds after every move.

Today every serious game is played with a clock. Chess became not only “what is the best move?” but “what is the best move I can find in the time I have?”