OK to bash clocks???
Sort:
i would think using a piece to press the button in a time scramble is much better than having to whack the clock hard with your hand, because the shock isnt that great, and it's mostly directed at the button. If you put the piece down and have to use your hand then in order to make sure the button actually gets pressed and doesnt go between your fingers or something you are going to have to hit it harder, and what's more you really will be whacking the clock housing and not just the button, which would be worse i think. I think the idea of delicately pressing the button when you're short on time is not really practical, but you should try to do it the rest of the time. I would think blitz would be harsher on a clock as you will be whacking it after every move and would be the only use that really has the potential to damage it. I think most chess clocks are probably broken by excessive winding, and the rest probably by totally stupid exaggerated bashing, like someone new to using the clock might think is fun to do. As an aside, it seems silly to me that more clocks arent made with the larger paddle like buttons, as opposed to the silly little brass things.
I don't think clocks are generally that sensitive, but I can understand their concern. Chess clocks aren't that cheap, and I think it would be better to just treat their clocks how they ask you to. Blitz players in the park are used to their clocks getting whacked a bit and expect it. On the other hand, a recreational club player who has just spent their lunch money on a shiny new chess clock could understandably be a little protective.
Consider this: If you are playing a fast enough control where taking the time to set down pieces is an issue, you should expect your clock to get bashed a bit.
Thank you all for your input, and I do try to be considerate of all concerns.
In no way am I trying excuse violence or rudeness. But does anyone know of a clock actually having been damaged from shock from pressing/hitting a button too forcefully? It seems to me that any shock the mechanism suffers is transfered through the housing, and not directly from the stopping and starting of the clock too quickly. In other words, the unseen base of the button does not slam into the clock mechanism with force. The housing shock may be damaging to some mechanical clocks but not to electronic clocks and even analog electrics should be fairly immune. Old BHBs were famous for taking it. Can a Chronos switch be damaged short of breaking the plastic?
I dont play blitz with my good clock(s) nor my good chess pieces. In time scrambles I have seen clocks and pieces get knocked to the floor, sometimes breaking them. I have played with some blitz players where the rule was if either player knocked the clock over, or to the floor that player forfeits the game. Ofcourse, if you break someone's clock you SHOULD pay for it imo.
Mar 28, 2008
0
#6
I recall hearing a long time ago that hitting the brass buttoned clocks with a chess piece could ruin the bottom of the chess piece. Is this true? I got lucky a few years ago and had an OTB blitz win against someone rated much higher than me, and wondered if that contributed to my win.
It was using the 4 fingers to press the button that i was referring to as being worse than using a piece. I've never seen anyone use the palm of their hand. 
using your fingers it takes significantly longer to push the button than using a piece. Not just if you have to put the piece down, but actually to ensure the button is pressed fully and not costing you more time - all the while you're trying to concentrate on what move you will play next. If the button goes between your fingers, it may actually take an extra second a move just to get it down fully. I'm not talking about slamming the piece into the button, just pressing the button gently using the piece as in the op. You get a hard, reliable contact, which doesnt require aiming, or excessive force to guarantee the button is pressed immediately. Using your hand/fingers, well you're going to be hitting the body of the clock and generally shocking the components much more.
I agree with comments about "bashing" which i take to mean treating the clock like you're playing dominoes. I didnt realise people actually slammed buttons with the palms of their hands.
All of this pretty much assumes you're playing a meaningful game. If you're just playing a friendly, however irritating and unreasonable, you pretty much have to do what the owner of the clock wants you to do, even if this means delicately gripping the clock and gently depressing the button with a single digit in the middle of a time scramble.
AnthonyCG wrote: Y'know. touch-sensitive chess boards would be a great idea to stop this kind of thing. No button pressing required!
Despite my preferring low tech cheap stuff, such boards would have advantages. If sensitive enough such boards could even settle touch move "You touched it" --"No I didn't" disputes. Thank you.
unfortunately people would then get upset by people handling the pieces too aggressively and bashing the board every move. Also, you just know problem squares would develop over time, and be a pita. 
Retguvvie,
I do not doubt your story of linking arms between buttons being broken. I had a friend who could not seem to play with just one hand and I could not explain to him that he was cheating. I often felt a "see-saw effect" with my fingers. Most of us have seen extreme instances of players caring more about the clock than the board and missing checkmates. Not mates in one, but actually being in mate, and extremely destructive behavior similar to a golfer breaking a club over his knee after missing a short putt. A visiting player bragged of heaving (after losing) his old BHB against the wall and both sides still working. I half-doubt his story, although I am a great fan of the old BHBs, and if he had done so to my aforementioned Jantaz aka "The Tank", I would have been furious even if it survived. Beyond the obvious (rudeness, inconsideration, not easily replaceable, physical danger to other players etc), it has a glass face.
I tend to think that the "controversy" is largely because of my titled use of "bash", which I tried to qualify in my introductory post. I tend to maintain (clean & lube) my own clocks and all my stop-and-go mechanisms have a piece of spring metal touching the rim of the timing wheel and acting as a brake or clutch. Such is an ingenious arrangement which should not suffer damage even if applied forcefully, simply because no significant force is applied to the wheel. Shock through the housing is another matter. The bottom of the top of the button (don't know how else to word it) strikes the top housing plate, not with all clocks, but with mine. Such could indeed transfer shock through the housing to the mechanism which is susceptable to damage. I am, nonetheless, amazed at how much those "delicate" mechanisms can often handle. Not just my "Tank" and old BHBs, but even the cheaper BHB imitators. Even Baby Ben wind-up alarm clocks usually survive falls off the night stand. I think what happens is that players adjust to their clocks accepting their "bashing" and, in their excitement, start pushing envelopes.
What would it take to damage the electro-mechanical (non-touch) switch Chronos? Aren't their circuit's virtually shockproof? So would it not require enough force to crack/break the plastic switch? Such would require a level of maliciousness or adrenalin inspired spaciness far more than anything I intended to discuss. Everything is obviously breakable, and there are personalities that prove this. We need a phrase like "normal, excited play".
Please continue all feedback, this is turning into a good one.
Gentle touch on the clock is a better option than anything like bashing , that it will spoiled the mechanism indirectly!
When I lived in NYC, high adrenalin blitz players regularly slammed captured pieces down on the buttons of their old BHBs and never seemed to do them any harm. It seems to me that most clocks are designed so the buttons "bottom out" ie the underside of the button top hits the top of the clock housing without putting any pressure or shock on the inner clock workings.
I have never seen one break from having been hit too hard in ordinary play. I am not talking about maliciousness, but a simple excited whack can be quite forceful. How much harm does it actually do them from people's experience?? I know the "touch" Chronos cannot be switched with a piece, but must be touched with a conductive finger. But a player tonight insisted that I not press his mechanical switch Chronos with a piece, even if I was careful, insisting I need to put the piece down and then gently press it with my finger. He insisted we use his superior Chronos instead of my old Russian Jantaz, (not sure of spelling, cryptic script) 3 jewels per side, and a main spring a go-cart would envy.