After a blunder, is it better to resign or keep playing?

I often wonder if it is better to resign or keep playing at a disadvantage after making an obvious blunder (for instance leaving a piece hanging, only to realize too late that you made the mistake).

Let me be clear - I am referring only to casual games (not tournament), and my main goals are 1) to have fun and 2) to improve.

It can be frustrating to keep playing at a disadvantage, but does that additional challenge help make you stronger, or is it better to just resign and start a new game?

An example would be the game below, where I blundered (black) on move 13 and left my bishop hanging... should I keep playing or resign?

Thank you for your suggestions and thoughts.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Bxb7+ Qxd7 8.Nc3 Nxd5 9.d3 Nc6 10.O-O Nxc3 11.bxc3 O-O-O 12.f4 f6 13.Ne4 Bc5+ (???)

No brother :river

 

Test

Ah yes, thank you for the correction. Should have been 7.Bxd7. Considering this game, would you suggest that I resign after the blunder on 13...(???) and start a new game, or keep playing?

As a general rule, if you want to improve you should (almost) never resign, at least not on our level. To quote GM John Barhtolomew (https://youtu.be/oFGF2rp-mcg?t=388) right after he blundered a rook against a lower-rated player due to a mouse slip:

"(...) but this gives an opportunity to talk about shifting your mindset. So, when a good player makes a mistake in their position, and they know it, what do they do? Do they despair about the mistake that they make? Do they say 'oh woe is me' and start thinking about whether they're gonna withdraw from the tournament or whether they're gonna take out their anger about the next opponent they play? No, what they do is they immediately shift their mindset and they try think of how to make the best of a bad situation. That's very important that you do that. It's a characteristic of all strong players. They don't go down easily. If they make a mistake, a GM will simply assess the position, acknowledge the mistake and look at how they can best repair the damage. I don't think that comes as any secret. (...)"

If you can manage to do that, I'm confident that you'll improve faster and win more games. After all, players at our level aren't perfect. I know I have bounced back from a losing position quite a few times myself. People time out, or they just make mistakes themselves.

Heck, I suspect some might even get cocky and taken by surprise when you don't buckle and start playing your best. Again, I think this holds especially true at lower levels.

What a long, complicated, meaningless and stupid post.

As you can see, white completely overlooked the blunder on move 14.

Then he took the bishop but gave you two pieces for your rook.

There was no reason to resign until 26 Qa8+

The_Vedge and notmtwain, thank you for the very well thought out and helpful answers. I will follow your advice :-)

I'm with @The_Vedge. Don't resign. Not even when all you have left is your king. Strange things can happen. Plus you can work on improving your defending skills when you find yourself down a piece.

Never resign:

1) You may learn from an opponent that is better than you

2)You're not playing strong players, you're playing Rufus and Dufus so they may blunder too

If you wish to improve in chess--you need to learn when to resign---however if you just wish to be a very poor player who plays only Rufus and Dufus then don 't learn this essential element of chess.

That is just complete nonsense. How do you improve from resigning?

I can see this applying to GMs and the like, where not resigning in clear-cut lost positions can be a waste of energy and be seen as unsportsmanlike, but how does it it hold for us? Are you thinking of some particular situation, like correspondence chess, perhaps?

Unpopular opinion: Unless you are actively trying to improve, you should allow yourself to resign if don't want to watch yourself lose. I've played enough games to know where my ELO ceiling roughly is (It's low), and since I find it far more painful to lose by checkmate than resignation, I personally resign pretty much as soon as I'm decisively losing. Of course, if you do want to have a good score and/or improve your game, you are going to want to learn how to bounce back A) you just might still win and save your rating and B) if you do, it's valuable practice. But if not, I think it is okay to quit a game if watching yourself lose is too painful. Heck, in my ELO range, it is so common that you can pretty much win a game by breaking the opponent's "morale", usually by taking their queen or getting an early point advantage.

That said, I find that games between sub 800 rated players tend to be more forgiving of blunders. This is because your opponent may not notice, or will blunder him or herself and give a comeback opportunity. So... Wait. You are above 800 in all areas. NVM.

It'd said the winner in chess is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake. On that theory, play on; your opponent may make a mistake.

I am stubborn, but on this site, if I'm playing a decent player and I fall decisively behind, I'll resign when the game becomes a matter of technique and they've shown they have the technique.

No matter the situation (online, OTB, higher rated, lower rated), I think it's rarely a good idea to resign immediately after a blunder.

Almost always it's better to play at least a few more moves.

After a blunder don't think about whether or not you should resign. Focus on what threats you can make, and how active you can make your pieces. After a few moves if you haven't generated anything interesting then contemplate resigning.

U1600 - probably keep playing, chances are - the opponent may even blunder themselves later in the game, or be prone to falling into stalemate traps.

>1600 probably not going to fall into stalemate traps, and there's generally no hope playing a piece down vs an intermediate or above (unless you out-rate them by 300-400+ points).

It kinda goes both ways.

Only total beginners play until mate every game... and only beginners consistently resign immediately after a big blunder.

Everyone else resigns somewhere in the middle.

Funny to read 1200 players accuse 1500 players of offering “stupid advice”. I think I will trust the experts here :-)