Theory of Resigning
“No one ever won a game by resigning” - Savielly Tartakower
I agree. Unless you are playing chess at a very high level or you need to leave for the airport, there are very few situations in chess where you should resign.
No matter what situation you are in, there is always a chance, no matter how slight, that you will win, or at least draw. Ok fine, your opponent has a mate in one. But what if they miss it? What if they stalemate? What if their cat coughs up a hairball on their WiFi router and they disconnect from the game? You never know what could happen.
Even if you do end up losing, you’re still gaining experience. You get to practice your endgame tactics for when you’re down pieces. You can see where you went wrong and learn from your mistakes. By playing through and properly losing one game, you can prevent the loss of future games. And in that case, are you really losing? Technically, yes, but that’s not the point.
Some may argue that to not resign when you are down by a lot is disrespectful to your opponent. While this is a valid argument, I disagree with it. If your opponent is really so great at chess, then why is it so disrespectful to make them play it? Chess is a beautiful game and was made to played. You could even argue that to resign is disrespectful to the game of chess itself. Luckily chess doesn’t have feelings.
To resign is to give up, and no matter what you’re doing you should never give up. Unless you’re smoking. You should give up smoking. Seriously though, even though resigning seems like just a small surrender, it could breed a attitude of giving up. Next thing you know, you’ll be giving up tournaments, and eventually you might even give up on your chess career as a whole. So the next time you think about resigning, don’t. You’ll thank me later.
- daishukyo
P.S. Please feel free to leave a comment telling me what you liked, disliked, or would want me to add. Also, please leave any recommendations for interesting topics or ideas I could write about.
