A Weiqi clock that counts in Mandarin
Weiqi (围棋 simplified, 圍棋 traditional) is the Chinese name for the game known internationally as Go — the game's country of origin, with the largest player base in the world. A Weiqi clock (棋钟) needs 读秒 (dúmiǎo, "reading the seconds"), the Chinese term for byo-yomi: main time followed by periods that reset each time you move in time. Byoyomi Timer implements it and can count the closing seconds aloud in Mandarin, independently of the interface language.
读秒 — the system, in Chinese terms
读秒 is the Chinese term for what Japan calls 秒読み and Korea calls 초읽기. All three translate literally as "reading the seconds", and all three describe the same rule.
After main time expires, each move must be completed within a period. Complete it in time and the period resets in full — leftover seconds are not banked and the period is not consumed. Overrun it and the period is spent for good while the next one starts counting for the same move. Overrun the last period and the game is lost on time.
Chinese tournament practice also uses 包干制 — absolute time, with no overtime at all, where the clock running out simply ends the game. The app supports that as sudden death, alongside 读秒.
Simplified and traditional, both
The interface is available in both written forms: 简体中文 for the mainland and Singapore, and 繁體中文 for Taiwan and Hong Kong. They are separate languages in the app, not one with substituted characters, so the terminology reads correctly in each — 围棋/圍棋, 读秒/讀秒, 棋钟/棋鐘.
Taiwan is the fourth-strongest Go nation and Hong Kong has its own active scene, so this is not a cosmetic distinction.
The voice is set separately from the interface
The spoken countdown and the interface language are two independent settings. A Chinese player living in Germany can run a German interface with a Mandarin count, or a Chinese interface with a German count — whichever combination fits. The voice speaks Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, English or German, and reads the last ten seconds of each period, the entry into 读秒, the final period and every lost period.
Everything else the clock does
- Canadian overtime (加拿大计时) with a stone counter — a block of time for a fixed number of stones, refilling when the quota is met.
- Fischer bonus time with an optional cap.
- Sudden death for 包干制, per-move play, the NHK format, Ing overtime and Progressive overtime.
- Independent clocks per player for teaching and handicap games.
- Pass buttons — two passes stop the clock for counting.
- Digits large enough to read across a board, with the two halves facing opposite directions.
- Referee tools for correcting time, periods and stones mid-game.
Fully offline, no account, no advertising, no tracking, and it keeps counting on the Lock Screen through a Live Activity.
One game, several names
Weiqi (围棋/圍棋) in China and Taiwan, Go or Igo (囲碁) in Japan, Baduk (바둑) in Korea, cờ vây in Vietnam. The rules are the same, the clock is the same, and every language either borrows the Japanese byo-yomi or uses its own translation of the same phrase.
For the Korean framing of the same app, see the Baduk timer page.
Turn your iPhone into a real Go clock
Byoyomi Timer plays every Go time system — byo-yomi, Canadian overtime, Fischer bonus time, Ing — and reads the seconds aloud like a human timekeeper.
Coming soon to the App Store