Increment
Extra time added to a player's clock after each move, used in most modern time controls.
For example, a "90+30" time control gives each player 90 minutes plus 30 additional seconds per move played, preventing games from being decided purely by clock mismanagement in the endgame.
Etymology
The general English noun increment is attested from the mid-15th century meaning “act or process of increasing,” from Latin incrementum. The chess sense is a 20th-century rule development, not a word coinage: the method of adding a fixed amount of time to a player's clock after each move was patented by Bobby Fischer — hence the alternative names “bonus” and “Fischer” — with the US application filed on 5 August 1988 and Patent 4,884,255 granted in 1989. The patent describes the device as the “Bobby Fischer Chess Clock” and gives worked examples such as 62 minutes plus 2 minutes per move. Increment time controls were first used in the privately organised 1992 Fischer–Spassky rematch and then at the FIDE World Chess Championship 1998.
First documented: 1988 — US Patent 4,884,255, “Digital chess clock” (Bobby Fischer), filed 1988, published 1989
Translations
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