Coach Conn's Resignation Rule

I have a rule regarding resignation that is designed to help my students improve their knowledge, understanding, skill, and competitive edge. This blog post is intended as a reference for those students, and anyone else who is interested. Stated simply:

You may resign if and only if:

1. You recognize that you are clearly losing, AND
2. You know at least one more or less specific method by which your opponent could secure the win, AND
3. Your opponent has more than ample time remaining on the chessclock in which to prove the win, AND
4. You are certain that you could win with your opponent's position, in the amount of time your opponent has remaining, against the best possible play, AND
5. Your opponent is playing according to a more or less specific winning method with which you are already familiar, and therefore demonstrating that he, too, can win in the amount of time he has remaining, against the best possible play.

Note that neither player's rating, title, reputation, etc. has any direct role in these criteria.

Note also that this necessarily means that I claim that Beginner to Novice level players should never resign any game early on in his career, and that very few people in the world should ever consider resigning games played at time controls faster than G/5.