---
title: "Turn Timer & Chess Clock for 2–8 Players | Dice Parlor"
description: "Board game turn timer and chess clock for 2 to 8 players: time per turn or per player, increments, pause, a warning sound and a screen that stays on."
url: https://diceparlor.me/turn-timer/
---

# Turn timer & chess clock

Keep slow turns moving. Give every turn the same allowance, or give each player one bank of time for the whole game like a chess clock, for 2 to 8 players.

## How to use it

Choose the timing, the number of players and the time, and type names if you like. Press **Start** and the first player's clock runs. When they finish, press the big button (or `Space`) to pass to the next player. **Pause** stops every clock; **Reset** starts over with the current settings.

In **Same time every turn** each turn gets the full allowance again. In **Chess clock** mode each player's time is a bank for the whole game; the increment adds a few seconds back after every turn they finish. When time runs out the clock keeps counting in red as overtime, so nobody loses a move to the timer; how strict to be is up to your table.

The screen stays on through the Screen Wake Lock API in browsers that support it. If yours doesn't, the page says so; turn off auto-lock in your device settings instead.

## Sources

- W3C, [Screen Wake Lock API](https://www.w3.org/TR/screen-wake-lock/): how a page asks the device to keep the screen on, and why the request ends when the page is hidden.

## Questions

**Does the timer keep running if I switch apps?**

Yes. Times are worked out from the moment each turn began, so they stay right even if the page is in the background. The screen lock is released while the page is hidden and requested again when you come back.

**Why didn't I hear the warning sound?**

Browsers only play sound after you have pressed something on the page, and a phone on silent may mute it. Press Start once and check the volume.

**Can I change the settings during a game?**

You can edit them at any time, but they only take effect when you press Reset, so a running game is never changed under you. Names are the exception and update straight away.