should you ever resign?

There is nothing wrong with resigning when the game is hopeless. All of the world champions have resigned such games and all of today's top players do also. The only people who think you should never resign are either hacks or jerks, and possibly both.

Theempiremaker--I disagree. I never said I had a chance in my game with him. I knew he was going to win in several moves as if they were obvious to me they were second nature to him. As to his respect, he wrote a very nice personal comment in my book about our game.

You seem to equate resigning is quitting where I look it more like losing a game that is already lost.  When to resign is a subjective matter that will differ depending on your strength. Also in a OTB tournament playing on in a hopeless position can tired you out for later rounds.

The players who really make no sense are the ones that play quickly until the game is hopeless, then slow way down.  If they are trying to put up their best posible fight, then when not look things over while there was still something to be accomplished?

there is no problem in resigning if your clearly beat. If someone did have a king against an army, how could they accomplish anything. their opponent obviously, is much more skilled than they are, to get them to the point where they only have their king left.

Please, please, please introduce wildcard conditional moves, chess.com!

I don't mind people playing on to the finish (if they don't drag out the moves to the max), but I really couldn't be bothered trying to anticipate every possible variation in a net of conditional moves. I like trying to figure out the fastest possible mate - it's like a chess puzzle. Wildcard conditional moves would just make life so much easier - they are my number one request!

Here's my 2 cents - if we are talking about corresspondence chess, I would resign in a position which I see totally lost with no hopes of reasonable counterplay.

However, as I am still far from being a good chessplayer, I don't always see a coming mate, so sometimes I get checkmated. Additionally, after analysing my lost games I found out that some of the games I resigned were not hopeless at all - in one game I thought I lost my queen and resigned, but after post-game analysis I saw that I could easily get opponent's queen with simple move sequence. After one more game which I resigned, I even saw the winning combination afterwards. So now I resign only if I am 100% sure that I have no chances left (I'm not talking about the positions where I could only expect a stupid stalemate or opponent hanging a queen or a rook or stalling the game with the hopes of opponent timing out - it would be being down a queen or a rook with no compensation and no counterattack possibilities, or the opponent having his pawns clearly convertable to queens etc). In case I see a crushing attack or mating sequence for me, I usually wait one more move to see if the opponent really sees it and resign when I'm sure he's on the right track.

As regards winning positions, I don't get nervous when people want to play on - it's their right to do so even though I don't understand whant they want to achieve. I find conditional moves very helpful for such situations.

In live games, I typically do not resign blitz games <5 minutes. I typically make moves fast, so if I'm significantly down on position or material, I try to build a fortress and hold on, and often I win on time or get the opponent to hang pieces when he's short on time. Typically, the situation is that my opponent used his time to gain the position, so I feel that I have the right to use my remaining time and see if the opponent is good enough to break my fortress. For live games with higher time controls, I apply the same rules for resignation as in corresspondence chess unless the opponent used up his time and I have a crushing time advantage - in such situations I would even play on with a king vs. army and as the opponent has no time to think I have a decent chance of stalemate.

And finally, if the opponent tried to talk me into resigning (which didn't happen yet), I would disable chat and stretch the game to the very last move.

resign!

i played this guy yesterday who claimed he won't resign becasue he beleives a player loses more points in a loss when they resign.  i hate him.  not really but...  a little.

It's not that it takes a good player to know when to resign. Class D players otb seem to have no problem with it. It may be that the never-resign crowd (online mainly) just aren't exposed to the chess culture the same way otb-ers are, so they don't pick up the lesson from their fellows.

Of course there are some who don't grasp chess well enough to know when to resign either, but I don't think that accounts for most of the lost causes being dragged out.

I am fine with people not resigning.  I respect the attitude of hanging in there in hopes of a draw or blunder.  However, if you are going to play that way, please don't come on here and post stuff about how some dude got 4 queens on you and that it's unsportsmanlike.  You can't have it both ways.  If you are going to play to the bitter end, sometimes you'll get lucky.  Other times it will just be bitter. 

I'll often resign, I don't want to win because the opponent made a fatal blunder. Its not as satisfying. When I win, I want it to because I played well, not because the other player blundered in a clearly won position. Its much more satisfying.

It really depends on your skill level and experience. Beginners should keep playing to understand why overwhelming material wins. Players with plenty of experience should know when they are lost and not waste each other's time. Resigning a complicated position is a sign of respect for your opponent and demonstrates that you truly "get it". 

Resigning in a hopeless game is a  privilege  reserved to the player with honorable intent to do so.

the chance of winning when you material down say -14 or -16 are pretty slim and when you lose your queen i don't think at my skill level i can continue it's off to the next game where maybe i will do better and not get -14 points material down -- i used to keep playing -- but then i realized i was wasting time trying to fight back -- with a chance of say 10% to win -- but then some people are fighters and go down with the ship -- hoping that the hole can be plugged and ship righted ---- to each his own way i guess

Yes, if you're playing in a critical position (your friends/family/business partner ask you to focus on them) I think it's better to resign.

resign as soon as you lose a pawn it will mentally attack your opponent becuase he will get less practise and get destroyed by hikaru because of you

I resign if I get bored or it's no fun anymore. To be honest, I don't enjoy winning, so I resign quite a lot, even in positions that are probably won. Once the interest is over, why play on?

anyone can resign whenever they want to. but as someone who always hope for something good, i don't. i'm hoping my opponent will make a mistake or blunder then use it as an advantage 🧠 play, play, play and play!