How many people do this? When resigning, knocking your king down?

I think it is quite rude if this is done rougly, and disrespectful for the pieces and the game of chess.

But the thing is, I have yet to meet someone who puts his King down respectfully.

What are your thoughts on this?

When I was a kid I saw for the first time a chess match in my school, they were older guys than me and every time one of them resigned knocked the king down. I thought it was part of the rules so when I started playing I did the same and never thought of it as rude.. Now I handshake my opponent!

But consider this.. even a handshake could be rude! It depends on the attitude.

I have always gently set it over.

Oh come on! (1:10)

Haha I watched 1:09-1:11 for like 20 times :-D Funny. That king was bitchslapped so hard haha! And nice anekdote, phren.

What if you were to take your King off the board and set it down in front of your opponent? Or is it most polite to verbalize your resignation?

ciljettu your doing it completely wrong your supposed to resign  with external combustion you didn't know that [lol].

I think you are supposed to stop the clock, tip over your king, and place a white handkerchief of surrender in the middle of the chessboard!

I knock the king over but i do it gently and i shake my opponents hand me and my wrestling coach play quite often and were about the same level but he is a sore loser and we always play on my set so he flicks my king across the room :( oh and what happens in a uscf game or a FIDE game and you accidently knock the king over?

Knocking over the king by accident doesn't mean you resign.  If you weren't trying to touch it, then touch move probably doesn't even apply.

so you could "accidently" knock over a piece on the board to avoid moving it

Alehkine once "resigned" by throwing his king across the room

Half the time I lay my king on its side softly and extend my hand.  I set it back up soon after though.  At least in the United States it's recognized as resignation, so it's not rude (goldendog shows an exception heh).

Pfren's story made me laugh :)

I thought you were supposed to make your opponent eat it.

Wasn't that in the game when Grunfeld first played his new opening . Some world championship match I believe.

(In case anyone is wondering what opening it is the Grunfeld defense).

I remember one time I was playing against this really rude guy and when he resigned he grabbed MY king, threw it to the floor and swept all the pieces off the board.

He was booted out of the club and asked never to come back unless he wanted to make friends with a barbed bullwhip. 

Touch move states that you have to move a piece if you touch it "with intent to move". You're right, accidently touching it doesn't count. You can't pick it up and then say it was an accident though lol.

My little sister used to do that .

I never "knock" my king over when resigning. What I do is I gently lay him to rest.