The Best Chess Set and Clock for Beginners
One of the first exciting things a new chess player wants to do is select a chess set and often a chess clock. There is a huge amount of choice out there, and it can be much easier if you know exactly what you’re getting.
This guide is designed to make it easy. Read on to quickly learn about top chess sets and clocks for beginners, and my pick for the best of both.
How to Choose a Chess Set
As a beginner, the first step in choosing your chess set is figuring out your priorities. If you care a lot about aesthetics and quality, you may want to jump straight in with a wooden chessboard. If you are looking for something simple and affordable, you may want plastic pieces and a soft material board.
Asking yourself some simple questions can be a good place to start getting an idea of which chess set will work for you. How will you use your chess set? How much are you willing to spend? Do you want it stored away or on display?
As you’ll see in this guide, there are plenty of excellent chess set and clock options to choose from.
Why a Beginner Needs a Chess Clock
A chess clock may seem like a nice addition, but not essential for someone new to chess. Here’s my pitch for why it's a must-have for beginners.
However you see yourself playing chess, there is a huge likelihood that you will eventually use a chess clock and probably pretty regularly. If you want to join a chess club or eventually play in a tournament, you will need to be very familiar with this piece of equipment. The sooner you get used to it, the better.
Even if you are a casual player, you will likely want the variety and benefits of time-controlled games. Playing speed chess with your friends is just one reason a chess clock quickly becomes handy. Wherever and however you play chess, a clock can help you improve, explore different versions of chess, and enjoy the game more.
Chess Sets for Beginners
The following will help you narrow down which set to start your chess journey with. Check out these brief descriptions to see which type of chess set appeals to you.
Wooden Chess Sets
This is the most classic option and often what beginners are drawn to. A simple and classic wooden chess set with Staunton Pattern pieces is an excellent place to start.
Wooden chess sets are great for everyone. Properly maintained, they can be kept for a lifetime, and common wood pieces can be easily replaced if lost or damaged. Wooden sets are pleasant to use, with the feel, weight, and sound of the pieces appealing to many people. Wooden sets offer a variety of storage options and can also be featured in a room.
For many beginners, the classic wooden chess set just feels right. The long history, familiarity, aesthetic, and quality materials make it an exceptional choice for anyone.
Ultimate Tournament Chess Set
In wooden chess sets, the Tournament Chess Set is an excellent choice for beginners. The combination of high-quality wood, a folding board, simple yet elegant pieces in their familiar design, and a choice of storage bags makes this an excellent kit that a beginner can keep for a long time.
You can also select from a variety of woods for the board and pieces. This is largely a matter of preference and allows you to make customizations to your chess set.
Vinyl Board and Plastic Pieces
If your first chess experiences were at school or at a club, then you will likely be familiar with these classic sets. Vinyl board and plastic piece sets are excellent for beginners because they are affordable, durable, and easy to store or travel with.
Often with a white and green color scheme, the vinyl board is designed to be long-lasting, easy to clean, and stackable or rollable. The plastic pieces are comfortably weighted and similarly easy to care for. For these reasons, they are popular with chess clubs and schools.
Tournament-Regulation Chess Set
For a specific vinyl board and plastic piece set, I recommend the tournament-regulation option. These are a comfortable size to play with, and naturally, they prepare you well for the kind of dimensions and movement you would need in a chess tournament.
They come in a variety of colors, the pieces are single weighted, and two extra queens are provided for pawn promotion.
Related: How To Prepare For A Chess Tournament
The Best Clocks For Beginners
You may make your decision on which chess set to purchase intuitively, but chess clocks can be a trickier choice to make. Here are two top choices of the digital and analogue varieties.
Digital Chess Clocks
Digital chess clocks are much more common these days. If you are looking to play in tournaments and clubs, they are likely to be the better choice. Common types of chess clocks are DGT, Tap N Set, and Chronos.
Using digital chess clocks is fairly simple. The display generally shows each player's time, the increment in use, and which timer is active. Some have move counters and low time warnings.
DGT Chess Clocks
DGT, standing for Digital Game Technology, is the industry standard and an excellent pick for a beginner chess clock. They are effective, simple to use, and highly programmable. In other words, you can create a wide variety of time controls and increments. They display tenths of a second, and the buttons are built to withstand quite aggressive tapping.
The DGT 2500 and 3000 are used in official chess tournaments worldwide. A more affordable version is the DGT North American Digital Chess Clock. It has a more streamlined interface, built-in timing presets, and large, durable buttons. It is a best seller for a reason: easy to use, reliable, and suitable for preparing for competitive play.
Analog Chess Clocks
Analog chess clocks are for those who prefer the mechanical, simple, and classic appearance. There are plenty of varieties in plastic, wood, and metal. They work using a spring-winding mechanism. Pressing the button will simultaneously stop one player's clock from unwinding and start the other's. The simple and elegant methods have been in use since the early days of competitive chess.
The key downside of analog chess clocks is that they are not programmable and their displays are not as detailed. This means you cannot use time controls with increments or clearly see fractions of a second.
Wooden Mechanical Chess Clock
There is a wide variety of simple and affordable analog chess clocks. One strong choice is the wooden mechanical chess clock. The appearance is much simpler than digital options, as we see here.
The two clock faces show each player's remaining time, and the red flags show when a player has run out of time. Extremely simple to use, the clocks can be wound to different time settings and require no batteries, using a simple wind-up mechanism. While they do not offer the diverse settings of the digital options, a wooden analogue chess clock is completely functional, looks great, and can last a beginner for a very long time.
Final Picks
My final chess set recommendation for beginners is the Tournament Chess Set. It combines everything a beginner needs, featuring a chess set and clock. The high-quality wooden board and pieces mean it can last you a lifetime and make it an attractive fixture if you want to keep it set up. The foldable board makes it easy to store and travel with. Finally, it’s reasonably affordable and regulation size, so it makes for excellent preparation for competitive play.
As for chess clocks, the DGT North American Digital Chess Clock is also the best all-round option. It is more affordable than other DGT options, yet offers all the necessary time-control variations and helpful presets, and features a clear, streamlined display. Whether you’re looking to play casually or prepare for tournaments, it is an exceptional choice.
To select a combination folding wooden board, pieces weighted to your specification, and a selection of chess clocks, try the Design Your Own House of Staunton Deluxe Tournament Combo.
Frequently Asked Questions
My pick for the best chess clock for beginners is the DGT North American Digital Chess Clock. It is affordable, easy to use, playable with extremely fast time controls, and usable in tournaments.
How you set a chess clock depends on whether it is analogue or digital. With some digital chess clocks, you can use the preset buttons for different time controls. Alternatively, you can use the arrow buttons to set the time. Use the arrows again to set the increment next, using a second button or preset.
For analogue chess clocks, you simply need to wind the clock to the desired time control using knobs on the back. They use standard clock faces, so you need to set the time on that basis. For example, for a 5-minute game, you would set the clock at 5.55, so 5 minutes would need to elapse before the small hand reaches 6 and the player's flag falls.
There are many rules in chess related to the clock. One lesser-known one is that you must press the clock with the same hand you used to make your move.
10 10 is a time format in chess in which each player has 10 minutes to make all their moves, and an increment of 10 seconds is added after every move. This is a relatively common Rapid Time Control in chess.