To Resign...?

After reading chess.com's official (okay, unnoficial) 'millionth resigning thread', I decided it was worth a blog :).

So here's the thing: No one can tell someone else to resign, and no one should feel pressured to resign a game they feel like playing on. 

But that's been mentioned in those millions of threads which all you chess.com addicts (lets face it, you're reading my blog, you're addicted) have read over and over again.  So what can I possibly tell you that you haven't read or thought of before?  Nothing. 

For those of you satisfied with that answer, you can go back to repeatedly refreshing your browser waiting for a 'your move' to pop up (we all know...).  For the rest of you (most likely you, you're addicted remember), keep reading.

I'd like to start off (or continue) by saying that I consider myself more of an OTB player than a chess.com/online player.  That biases my opinion to some degree.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of weirdo's you'll meet in tournaments that make you mate them despite being down a queen, rook, and 4 or so knights, but that only emphasises my point. 

If you just got smashed by someone who is sitting across from you wondering if you enjoy suffering, the odds are he's a drastically stronger player than you.  If you want to become a better chess player, you'll gain a lot more from keeping your opponent happy than watching a refresher course on mating with 4 queens.  Keep your opponent moderately happy, and perhaps he'll be willing to give you an extra 10 minutes of his time (the time that normally would have been spent avoiding stalemate traps) to explain where you went wrong.  Believe me, it's a lot cheaper than a coach. 

And so in short my argument is simple:  Resign a couple moves before your opponent starts to think you're just being an idiot.  It'll be good for both of you!

My two cents :)

-matt