Top One: Three Seconds on the Clock—Increment or Delay?

Understand chess increment and simple delay with two clock examples. Before timed play, offer to Mahadev on Ishta Mel and pray for steadiness.

You make a quick chess move and press the clock. Yesterday, the number went up. Today, it stays where it was. Both settings mentioned three seconds—so what changed?

With an increment, time is added for each move. With a simple delay, the main clock waits before counting down. Finish within that delay and you keep your main time, but the unused delay is not saved for later.

Before your next practice game, try the two turns below. Then you can begin with the setting understood and a quiet prayer to Mahadev: “Keep me steady when the clock begins to hurry me.”

Follow the same two turns

We will use two teaching clocks, each showing 300 seconds at the starting point. Clock A adds three seconds after every completed move. Clock B gives a fresh three-second simple delay on each turn, charging only time beyond that delay against its main balance.

Count the whole turn, from the clock starting until the player presses it after moving. On the first turn, that takes five seconds.

A: 300 − 5 + 3 = 298 seconds.
B: only two seconds exceed the delay, so 300 − 2 = 298 seconds.

The displays match. Now let the next turn take only two seconds.

A: 298 − 2 + 3 = 299 seconds.
B: the move finishes within the delay, leaving 298 seconds.

The quick turn has made the difference visible. On A, the balance increases by one second. On B, the main balance stays where it was. We have fixed the starting display and credit timing for this example; actual clock settings should be read before using the figures in a game.

Article 6.3.2 of the FIDE Laws of Chess describes how delay protects the main thinking time. The examples here use a simple delay and an increment credited after a completed move. Check the clock’s mode and instructions: different displays may show the allowance differently.

Before the clock begins

The board is ready, but neither clock has started. This is a good moment to put the coming game before Mahadev, without one eye on a running countdown.

At Shiva’s offering area on Ishta Mel, take darshan and offer the displayed Bilva leaves, Milk, Jal, Datura and Deepak together. As you offer, ask for his grace in the moments when a hurried hand might outrun a considered move.

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Mahadev, accept my offering. Grant me clarity when the seconds feel short. Let me understand what is before me, and carry your steadiness into the moves I still have to make.

Finish the offering before starting the clock. During play, you can remember Mahadev quietly; changing pages does not necessarily pause a timed game.

Three things to confirm

Before pressing start, ask: “Is this increment or delay? When is the allowance applied?” Confirm the starting time too. If you are practising with a friend, test one quick turn together before resetting the clocks for the game.

Then try the calculation yourself with a four-second turn from a 60-second balance. Under the two arrangements above, both clocks finish at 59. Follow that with a one-second turn: the increment clock reaches 61, while the delay clock remains at 59.