The DGT North American Chess Clock is a popular choice among players looking for an affordable but reliable chess clock.
Chess clocks are often associated with chess tournaments. But did you know that owning one at home could also help improve your playing skills? These handy timers have been proven to increase a player’s calculation speed and chess tempo through the use of time pressure.
There are a lot of chess clocks being sold on the Internet and physical shops. Follow our series of articles which cover the pros and cons of buying particularly popular models of chess clocks.
In this article. we will talking about the DGT North American Chess Clock and Game Timer.
Features
- Quick and easy to set and program
- 16 different contrast settings for any lighting
- Enables users to use quick set options
Quick Specs
- Battery: Two double A batteries
- Dimensions: 7.5″ x 4″ x 2″
- Clock Type: Digital
- Main Material: Plastic
The DGT North American Chess Clock is a popular choice among players looking for an affordable but reliable chess clock. This model is actually the cheapest in DGT’s line of chess clocks.
As its name implies, it’s generally marketed to be used in the United States Chess Federation (USCF) tournaments. In case you didn’t know the DGT (Digital Game Technologies) clocks are the ones usually used in European chess tournaments.
Although this DGT chess clock has the least amount of functions and features compared to other models, it still has quite a number of preprogrammed options (23) which main focus is on time delay. This makes the clock very apt for USCF tournaments which are held under time delay controls.
Users have the choice of using either quick-set options or manual programming options in setting up the clock for play. Another great thing is that once manual settings are made on the clock, it automatically saves the details of the setting in its memory for future use.
Aside from being a chess clock, the DGT North American model can also function as an excellent game timer for other two-person board games like Scrabble, checkers or shogi.
Want to see the DGT North American Chess Clock and Game Timer in action? Check out this short demo by Wholesale Chess on Youtube.
As you may have noticed in the video, the clock’s body itself is primarily made of plastic and comes in a light greyish blue color. The digital screen clearly displays the setting and countdown in use. This is also where the indication for low batteries is flashed. The screen’s visibility can be adjusted through 16 screen contrast options depending on the venue’s lighting.
The clock is popular among chess enthusiasts and amateur players who primarily use it to add excitement to casual games at home. They were most pleased about the clock’s relatively affordable price for the types of features it comes with. They also confirmed how easy it was was to set up with one saying easily his 9-year old son figured out how to use the preprogrammed settings. However, one thing they didn’t like about it is that it doesn’t make noise whenever a player hits it.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Affordable price
- Plenty of preprogrammed settings
Cons
- Doesn’t have sounds
