prize13-6, Exercise 2: Equipment

Model answer (check the details):

The chess clock. Problem solved: before clocks, a player could take as long as he liked over a move, so games could be stalled and tournaments could not be scheduled. Sand glasses, then mechanical double clocks in the later nineteenth century, gave each player a fixed amount of time. What it changed: time pressure became part of the contest. Players had to manage the clock, quick judgement gained value, and a position could be lost on time rather than on the board.

(Another good answer: the Staunton pattern solved the problem that sets of different nations and makers looked different, so that players could not easily tell the pieces apart; it let a player sit down to a strange board and recognise every piece.)

Care: the dates and credit for each invention are uncertain.