Sorry that I differ on that, but I can only recommend two options here:

A) adjudicate the game as lost for black if one wants to give highest priority to continuing the tournament soon.

B) not do anything. In particular there are two reasonable objections to "half-interferences":

* Player white would be right to say that it makes not really a difference whether he is on vacation or not. His vacation time makes a difference of 14 days at the maximum right now. His opponent can delay the game for about 5 months, since it takes about 10 moves or so until mate. Two weeks are nothing compared to 5 months. Player white may also reasonably argue that if any of the two players were to be addressed on this, it should be black who should be asked to resign this game. I personally could very well understand player white if he gives low priority to making moves in such a game that has stopped to be interesting or challenging in any way for players at that level.

* Player black could very understandably say that he sees a realistic chance to draw this game by timeout. His opponent has only one game running, and he lost his other game between them on time some weeks ago. Time management in 14 day games is not a trivial thing to do especially if one has only few games running. Player black may reasonably argue that any outside interference unfairly helps white in his time management by reminding him to make his moves.

Of course, if the organizers think that such hopes by black for timeout should not play a real role in decent chess, we would be back to option A).

get_lost, resigning is often the best move. Players beyond beginner level know in which situation playing on in a losing game will not change the outcome. They play chess while it is an undecided and interesting battle, and they concentrate their energy on these important parts of the game, and on preparing for and playing the next interesting game. Look forward to reaching levels of chess at which knowing when to resign becomes second nature!

Please remain serious. Your scenario is highly, highly unlikely. Would you really like to win a game like that and spend your time hoping for such things? As long as you are focused on such things, you will have a hard time noticing what use of your time will be best for improving your game of chess.

Note that this thread is about Online Games, not Live Chess. Are you really proud of thinking you improved your chess skills in that game by not resigning? If your opponent had played the final stage of that game seriously, he would have queened his pawn instead of choosing a rook.

Please don't be childish. "Their flag might fall" may be for bullet blitz chess or for extreme time trouble cases in which you have reason to assume that the opponent's remaining time and technique will not suffice to reach the mate, not for correspondence chess.

The white player has the right to be on vacation. It's not his fault that his opponent won't resign. So the game should be awarded a win for white.

Don't forget to see the whole picture.

* The probability that the result on the scoresheet may get better without resigning is extremely small in some cases. So you do not gain much at all there.

* You would not want to win an over-the-board game by seeing your opponent having to go off to hospital for some unexpected reason.

* You have a reputation to lose. It is completely normal and understandable for absolute beginners to play on until mate. Not resigning makes you look like such an absolute beginner. (If you think you do not have a reputation to lose, then it is about time to earn yourself one.)

* Not resigning in some positions is tantamount to saying that you think your opponent is weak enough for the game still to be interesting. When your estimate is wrong, you are showing disrespect to your opponent's chess abilities.

* You have your own time to lose. Don't you know chess friends from your chess club or so who would clearly show you by the look in their faces that you are ridiculing yourself when you spend your time not resigning lost cases instead of playing true chess? Has none of your best chess friends given you the advice to start concentrating on really enjoying true chess and learning to improve instead of getting sidetracked like that?

So if you never resign, the result for you as a whole will be worse in many ways.

the_villa, the life chess game ended in a draw, not the online game.

In life chess, people can be right to play out a game until mate as long as they know their opponents have chess technique difficulties in converting their advantage. Once you reach a level where you know your opponent has a good enough technique to win in the time remaining, it becomes uninteresting to play out the game, you will resign it and have the chance to use the occasion to play a new interesting game with your strong opponent.