Professional time controls, face-to-face rotation, and clean design — all in your browser.
Tickmate is designed for ease of use over the board. Place your phone between both players and follow these steps to start your game.
Select one of the preset options — Bullet, Blitz, or Rapid — or enter a custom start time and increment. The increment is applied after each move press, following FIDE clock rules.
Each player has two orientation buttons in the corner of their zone. Tap ↕ to flip 180° (upside-down) or ↻ to rotate 90°. This way both players can read their time clearly without touching the opponent's side.
Tap any player zone to start the game. The first tap starts the clock and switches to the opponent's turn. After each move, tap your own half to stop your clock and start your opponent's.
The ⏸ button in the centre pauses both clocks. From the pause menu you can resume, restart with the same settings, or return to the setup screen for a new game.
Built specifically for over-the-board play on a shared phone — Tickmate does exactly what a chess clock should, and nothing more.
performance.now() and requestAnimationFrame for sub-100ms accuracy, even in background tabs.The table below explains each preset available in Tickmate and what category of chess it is suited for.
| Format | Category | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| 1 + 0 | Bullet | Lightning fast, very sharp play |
| 2 + 1 | Bullet | Quick games with a small buffer |
| 3 + 0 | Blitz | Club-night blitz tournaments |
| 3 + 2 | Blitz | FIDE standard blitz |
| 5 + 0 | Blitz | Most popular casual blitz |
| 5 + 3 | Blitz | Online-standard blitz |
| 10 + 0 | Rapid | Casual rapid games |
| 10 + 5 | Rapid | Online rapid standard |
| 15 + 10 | Rapid | FIDE standard rapid |
performance.now() inside a requestAnimationFrame loop rather than setInterval, which means it is immune to the drift that plagues naive timers. Accuracy is within a few milliseconds per move and stays accurate even when the tab is briefly backgrounded.Tickmate was created by chess players who kept reaching for their phones during casual games only to find bloated, ad-filled clock apps. We wanted something that just worked — fast to open, clean to use, and accurate enough for serious play.
The result is a single HTML file you can bookmark, share, or save to your home screen. No tracking, no signup, no nonsense.
A chess clock should disappear into the game. The best tool is the one you forget is there. Every design decision in Tickmate was made to reduce friction and keep players focused on the board.
No accounts. No analytics. No ads. We don't collect your data, we don't sell your information, and we never will. Tickmate is a tool, not a platform.
From kitchen-table bullet games to club-night rapid tournaments, Tickmate handles every standard time control and adapts to how you like to play.
Have a feature request or found a bug? We genuinely want to hear from you. Reach us at [email protected].