Review video of SilverBack chess clock by Chess Gorilla

I decided to post this video in a separate thread than the long established one about this chess clock model.  @shelbylohrman I hope you get a chance to see this video. 

Yes, it's long but I figure those interested in purchasing it may want as much info as possible.   My wisdom and humility tell me that I ramble.  My foolish pride and stubborn arrogance tell me i have the gift of gab.  

Anyway, if you are interested in the chess clock model; I hope you enjoy this video.   It's my opinion, I'm just a customer that purchased the clock. I have no incentive to try and sell this clock to others.

Very nice review!

Since you have so many chess clocks, what is the primary reason this will be your main goto clock? If you could only name just one factor, why this clock?

1. It's so dang easy to use, and I can use it without putting on reading glasses no need to read the fine print of menu options on the bottom like on the DGT style clocks.

Well, that was the primary reason. Here's a couple more.

2. The text line at the bottom tells what the clock is set for prior to the start of the game. this reassures both players that the clock is set correctly for the TC.

3. Buttons instead of lever, means that black can start white's clock in the usual manner with out pressing a different play/pause button.

4. The seconds are always shown, not just under 20 minutes on under an hour.

5. time Display is large and easy to see from a distance.

etc.

In the near future I will do a comparison of this clock with the DGT 2500, and the ZMF tap-n-set, among others.

I have a couple of questions about the clock and one observation:

1) It looks like it still rounds the seconds down on the screen. Is that right? If it is, I think this would prevent the clock from getting FIDE certification. Try the following example: pause the clock when a player has 0:00.9 (nine-tenths of a second) left, take the tenths of a second display off in the preferences, and go back to the last game feature and see what the clock shows. Does it round down and show "0:00" or does it round up and show "0:01". It should show "0:01", like all other clocks do, to make it clear the player still has some time left.

2) When the clock is paused, can you start either side of the clock when unpausing it? For example, let’s say “Player A” makes an illegal move and presses the clock. “Player B” pauses the clock and two minutes are added to “Player B’s” time for the illegal move. Now “Player A” needs to go back and make a legal move but previously the clock will only allow “Player B’s” time to start when you unpause the clock. Does it now allow you to start Player A's time when unpausing the clock?

Both FIDE and US Chess rules consider Bronstein timing to be a form of delay (see the note in the FIDE Arbiters manual after rule 6.3.2 https://arbiters.fide.com/wp-content/uploads/Publications/Manual/Arbiters_Manual_2025.pdf and the TD Tip after rule 5B1c in the US Chess rulebook https://new.uschess.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/us-chess-rule-book-online-2026.pdf. Having Bronstein delay in the "increment mode" setting in the preferences could lead to the clock being set wrong since a player could simply set the clock for a time control with increment and think it's set right but it could actually be set incorrectly with the Bronstein form of delay if the Bronstein option is active in the increment mode setting. It would be better if there was a "delay mode" setting in the preferences where you can choose between "simply" delay (which is the way the clock currently does delay when you set it for a delay time control and should be the default option) and "Bronstein" delay.

Hi, Big Lew.

I watched your review, and I'm not sure if I found a bug or not. But the clock seems to be functioning different than other clocks. You didn't test a 'standard' mode with no delay or increment, only one where 10th of a second is shown, so I'm unable to determine if this is a VISUAL bug or a genuine bug, but both the DGT 2500/Chronos do not behave like this.

On the section where you have the 3 with 2 second delay, as soon as you start the clock, the other player's time *instantly* goes to 3:01 immediately. The same thing happens if the other player hits the first player's clock after the first player starts the second player's. The increment time is ADDED back correctly, but I am unsure (since you didn't test non increment and non delay modes) of if the following is happening:

1: The clock shows 3:02, but actually starts at 3:01 (only 1 full second is added for the increment at the beginning, or more precisely, 1.1 seconds), then +2 added afterwards:

2: The clock shows 3:01 as soon as it is UNDER a full 3:02, so in other words, 3:01 + 9/10th of a second left shows as 3:01 rather than 3:02. Then 3:00 + 9/10th shows up as 3:00 instead of 3:01, etc....

If the problem is just #1, then while that is a defect, it's a bizarre one, and shouldn't affect any of the remaining time.

If the problem is #2: We have an issue.

Both the Chronos and DGT clocks show the base time, until all of the fractions of a second are gone. This is how all digital clocks usually work. 3:01 + 1/10th of a second above 3:01 will show up as 3:02, because 3:01 + 1/10th of a second is HIGHER than 3:01, so it has to show 3:02 until its fully down to 3:01. But that isn't what seems to be happening.

This could just be a display bug, since the mode with fractions of a second (no delay) worked fine: 1:00:0 went down to 0:59.9, 0.59.8 etc as expected. But without fractions of a second, 0.59.9 should show as 1:00 UNTIL it goes down to 59.0. The only way to verify that is to test a mode like that, like 5/0 or 3/0 or 1/0 and see what happens when you start the clock.

Again this could just be a visual issue, but this again isn't how digital clocks are supposed to display IF that's the case.

The other question directly related to this, is what happens when someone reaches 0:00 with freeze on? Does the clock stop? And I dont mean 0:00. I mean in actuality, 9/10th of a second left (0.09 seconds) on your time! but the clock shows 0:00. What happens? Does the clock keep going until "real" 0.00 and then stop? Or does it stop with "0.09" of actual time remaining?

And what happens if someone has 9/10th of a second left on their clock, the clock shows 0.00, and your opponent says "your flag fell, you lost?!" THIS IS A MAJOR PROBLEM NO MATTER WHAT. Obviously, such a problem would not happen if 10ths of a second is shown, but that's not standard setting (not even sure if it can do that and it should't have to).

I'm talking about a deal breaker, because I've seen GM's move in live tournaments with 0.01 remaining. If what I'm guessing is true, the clock would show 0:00.

You can test this yourself by testing a 1 minute or 3 minute TC with no delay/no increment and with freeze on. Start the clock and see if it instantly says 0.59 instead of 1:00 for 9/10th of a second (that's what it SHOULD do). And IF this is the case, see what happens if it reaches 9/10th of 1 second (it should say 0.01, but what if it says 0.00?)

I'm not 100% sure what the clock does now but previously (and the same issue occurs with the VTEK 300) the clock would round the seconds down on the screen if you chose not to have the tenths of a second displayed. For example, if a player has 0:00.9 (nine-tenths of a second) left and you chose not to have the tenths of a second displayed, it would look like the player had run out of time since it just showed "0:00" (the clock would continue to operate for both players here until the player was truly out of time. The clock displayed the words "TIME EXPIRED" underneath the time when a player ran out of time and didn't display the words "TIME EXPIRED" if the clock showed "0:00" but the player still had some tenths of a second left.). I've mentioned this issue to Shelby on more than one occasion.

Wow that's pretty major to not have been addressed. Digital Clocks are NOT supposed to round down "displayed" seconds. As soon as someone has "0.00" shown on the clock, their opponent is going to say you're down--I see that all the time. If a TD has to actually arbitate to "Time expired", vs 0.00, oh man--I would NOT want to be in a FIDE rated tournament where this actually happened....

I'm very good at noticing imperfections like this. When I was watching the video, something struck me as odd as soon as Biglew started the clock with the 3:02 increment. I had to go grab both my DGT 2500 and longbody chronos (which can set seconds in hour long time controls manually), while repeatedly backstepping the video to check what was happening, and then I checked at "5:00.0" chronos setting then "guessed" what was going on when I saw a fraction counter on biglew's clock as well.

1. You are right sir it is rounding down. I stopped it three times in the last minute. When I turned off the tenths of a second it went it didn't round up. With the tenths on I stopped it at; 56.4-57.6, 49.8-42.7. and 00.6-00.8. After each stop I turned the seconds off and it read; 56-57, 49-42, and 00-00. that was in USCF mode. I did it again in FIDE mode and it still round down the tenths so that 51.7-45.8, became 51-45. According to what you say it should read 52-46, right?

Oh well, now I have something to not like about the clock that is not quite so superficial.

However, I intend to use the clock with the tenths always displayed under a minute, so I don't guess it would make a hill of beans difference in the casual single day tournaments and club games I play. However, I do thank you for pointing that out to me.

2. No pausing the clock, it can only be restarted with who ever was on move when it was paused. I never thought about it, but I guess that's not too good. What's even worse is that in multiphase games in TD mode, changing the move count doesn't even result in the opposite players clock restarting after a pause.

3. As far as Bronstein, Fischer, and simple delay. Bronstein functions more like increment, but is mathematically equivalent to simple delay if a 10:00 w/ 5 sec delay is the same as a 10:05 game with Bronstein. Back in the 1980's, when the digital clocks offered the opportunity to add time to existing time David Bronstein and Bobby Fischer disagreed on how the bonus should be applied. Bronstein didn't think it was fair that a player could ever increase his remaining time at the start of a move. Fischer thought a player should be rewarded for moving swiftly. Personally, I don't care if both the Bronstein and Fisher are listed under increment settings, because if there is a 10 second increment (bonus) and the player takes more than ten seconds to move it doesn't matter if it is Bronstein or Fischer, it only matters when the player use less time than the bonus.

Well I set it to display tenths of a second at all times under 5 minutes. Then started a G3 i2. clock stated at 00:03:02.0 then immediately went to 00:03:01.9 and descended from there.

If you choose to have the clock shows tenths, the display is fine. The issue is when you choose not to have the tenths displayed, it rounds the seconds down on the screen which is poor since the clock will display "0:00" when the player still has some tenths of a second left.

So what everyone is saying, even for USCF rated games this clock in NG? I am so confused now I give up on the clock. You are telling me my cheap DGT North American clock is better than this?

Why so many problems. Is someone in China that bad at programming or has no understanding of how the chess clock works?

@Micahsmith touché, I understand.

Also, to you, @Ike_Miller, and @Skeeeterbreath, I sincerely appreciate you all for taking time to watch my video review. I will be making more videos with this clock and I will address these issues of rounding down and pause option to switch players in a future video. that wont be nearly as long as his introductory video is.

It's fine as long as you choose to have the tenths of a second on when the clock is low on time. The problem is not everyone is going to know they need to have the tenths on or want to have the tenths on (some people find seeing the tenths distracting).

I guess another option would be to have the tenths off and explain to your opponent that the clock rounds the seconds down on the screen and even if the clock shows "0:00", the time hasn't run out until the words "TIME EXPIRED" appear underneath but who on earth would want to have to explain that before every game?

I will have another video of this clock posted by Friday or Saturday addressing the two issues pointed out to me in this thread. The not rounding up, and turn being fixed on pause.
Thanks again to all who watched.

The purpose of this first video was demonstrate the features and how easy it was to use.

Thank you all for watching.

Micah, If you have the tenths off do you lose time every move? In other words is it rounding down in the background each time some presses the button after they move?

Do you think you can contact Shelby about this?

I already know one longtime TD in person who is going to be VERY angry if a clock shows 0.00, a person makes a claim but the claim ends up to be wrong because of the no "time expired" thing.

Are you even supposed to have an assist like "time expired" showing on a clock when freeze mode is disabled? That's like an extra perk in a massive time scramble when someone is under so much pressure they don't notice their opponent is at 0.00 (on a standard clock!)

And what is going to happen if one side says "time expired" and the other side says "0.00"?

I feel very bad for whoever is going to have to arbitrate that!!

I know Shelby reads the threads and I am sure he has had it with the inner working of the clock. He has gone back to the manufacturer a couple of times now if not more and they stil cn't get it straight. Too bad the company who made the VTEK for him wouldn't sell it for a reasonable ptice to him. Now they sit on the VTEK clock and get nothing instead of selling him the works.

I try to support Shelby when he creates new p[roducts because without his creativness we would have very little innovation. It's a tahnkless business for sure. He has had his problems with the Chess Center and now this clock.

I’m not 100% sure I understand what you are asking but the clock times the game accurately as far as I can tell, regardless of if the tenths are being displayed or not.

It’s allowed. Most clocks have some sort of extra indication that the player is out of time in addition to the time showing zero.

See rule 16B2 in the US Chess rulebook https://new.uschess.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/us-chess-rule-book-online-2026.pdf.

@Micasmith, I see what you mean about the rounding up sort of. When I compared it to my DGT 2500 a 5:00 time seemed to stay on 5:00 a little bit longer after starting. However, when I compared it to my each of my ZMF clocks, the II and Tap-N-Set, the CG Silverback behaved the same way. The 5:00 immediately went to 4:59. Of course I don’t think it is possible to turn the tenths of second off on the ZMF’s. I also have no intention of turning them off on the SliverBack.

If I use the SilverBack in tournament, then I would likely be the player with the black pieces. I wouldn’t care if the player with the white wants me to turn off the tenths of a second. Besides, as poorly as I’ve been playing lately my opponent will likely have me whooped long before the time expires anyway.

@TundraMike. I do hope Shelby reads this thread. I would like to read his input before I do a follow up video about these two issues; rounding down and player on move during pause.