Hello chess lovers.  I was just wondering, what is the proper etiquette when you are in a seemingly hopeless situation?  Do you resign or do you go down fighting until the bitter end?  It's always been my position to fight until the end.  Your opponent may make a mistake or may achieve a stalemate.  Just wanted your thoughts and opinions on this.  Thanks!

For me it depends on how the game has gone and how strong the opponant is, if I think he has played very strongly I will resign, if I feel I have made mistakes but feel I might get a chance then I will play on, but I do not like stalemates.

If the situation looks really hopeless, I resign.

There is, however, the chance of stalemate, and I believe resigning hurts your rating more than losing (not sure of that).

This question comes up a lot on Internet sites. It depends on the strength of the players. For lower rated players who make a lot of mistakes or may not even realize they have a win (or are lost) it pays to play on. On the other hand if you are playing a much stronger opponent and you realize you’re dead lost then don’t drag the game out. They didn’t get high ratings by making stupid mistakes and blowing games to players rated 400 points below them.

Some people say they’ll do it because they want to learn something. Once you’re down a lot of material and your opponent is just mopping you up there’s really nothing to learn.

I’ve seen players toy with weaker opponents by promoting all their P’s to B’s and such like. That’s a stupid practice. Masters don’t screw around like that and neither should anybody else. If you find a much better rated opponent toying with you like that I’d say keep playing because it means he’s miffed at you and playing moves in haste and anger…a bad mindset.

Totally hopeless,like running with a king  against 3 or 4 major pieces, resign!! The thing that I must admit really bothers me is when people stop moving when they're losing!!

it doesn't

doing that owns if you let someone do it to you you deserve it

Keep fighting, there's always the human blunder element, and timeouts are likely:D

Thanks everybody for your responses!

it all depends on my emotions at that particular time. If I'm hungry, tired, or bored, I'll just resign. But if I'm motivated or not fatigued in any way, I'll probably continue on.

Either one is fine, just don't go halfway, like waiting until they have mate in one to resign.