For my KMC X10 SL, the masterlink was assembled with my fingers, and removable with my fingers. As I recall, once you place the two masterlink halves together and insert both pins into the side plates, a light tug set the link - I admit it seemed a bit "too easy", thinking it could disengage itself, but it works flawless. BTW - after riding SRAM chains for 10+ years, I recently switched to KMC and don't plan on going back to SRAM.