New player here at live chess (online and overtheboard) and wondering about whether or not one should resign an obviously losing position or play it to the bitter end in the hope that the  strong position either fails to checkmate and possibly lose on time or creates a stalemate... ? is there an ethical rule of thumb which is expected to be respected ? Thanks for help.

I would suggest that you resign if you can clearly see how YOU would force a win (if the situation were reversed), and if the opponent has already demonstrated that he is at least as good a player as you are.

Different strokes for different folks, though.

thanks for taking the time to write this... it helps me see the situation from a certain angle, which, to say the least is really tricky in the case of 2 very low ranked players...

You are also suggesting that your suggestion would not be followed by everyone..Cheers.

If I play badly enough and the situation is hopeless, I usually resign out of frustration.

Honestly, if your in a situation where you can get a stailmate, its a whole new way of looking at the game. A complete new set of tactics. It is a challenge, although your opponant may not appreciate it. But hey, if he/she cant take a joke.

Q/k vs. k. is an easy mate......because stale-mate can arise by a mistake is no reason to play on. RESIGN !

You'll figure it out, keep playing.

My rule of thumb is if I would be embarrassed to have someone walk over to my board and take a look, then it's best to resign before someone sees the horrible blunders I've played.

He should resign and spend about five minutes studying the RKvsK endgame.

There's nothing he could learn from that because he has no influence over the game at all. If he doesn't know how to mate here then the moves will just seem random until they're explained.

And you'll only get that from books, articles or practice games - not while getting beat and having no idea why.

Oh, I dont know about that, you can learn a lot from getting beat. Yes, it would be better if someone could explain why, and where. What sometimes baffles me is when someone just ups and resigns when they are in a better position. I always wonder, wow what did I do really right, what was he seeing that I was not, or did he just have to go.