How do you know when to resign?

Here's my decision tree:

• Is my opponent <1000
  • Never resign
• Else, are you being ladder mated?
  • Resign
• Else, do you have very few pawns and pieces
  • Progress pawns until blocked or taken, sacrifice pieces, and try to squeeze my king around his pawns and minor pieces seeking a stalemate
• Else, are you overwhelmingly losing and have no meaningful counterplay?
  • Resign
• Else
  • Play for a win, hope for a draw

@magipi, it's cheating if you use it to "sandbag", that is, throw a lot of rating points so you can enter a competition at a level where you would expect to win all your competition games, or to ensure that in a subsequent round of a competition you're paired with weaker players.

But for those of us who never play in competitive situations like that, how on earth can it be cheating or rating manipulation? Resigning in a won position can never, never, increase my rating. The way ratings work here, you gain 8 points when you win, lose 8 points when you lose, and you're paired against people with equal rating. If someone deliberately resigned to reduce their rating by 8 points because they thought it would increase their chance of winning the next game, all that would happen is that they'd win, and be back where they started, with the same number of rating points, and the same quality of opposition.

I'd also point out that it's nearly impossible to distinguish between a sandbagger and someone who loses heart, decides they're incompetent, and resigns a load of games in a row because they're having a psychological downer about their own abilities. I've been there, done that, plenty of times. I should have added that one of the reasons I might lose interest is losing faith in myself, and then I will resign easily.

@IfPatriotGames, yes, I get your meaning, but you could say the same about any sport. The point of tennis is to win, too, but a lot of people play tennis not to win but because it's a happy healthy activity knocking a ball about across a net, and they enjoy the process rather than worrying about who wins. I enjoy the patterns and shapes that arise on the chess board, the problems it poses. I don't much care who wins. At the moment I'm feeling positive, so I'm playing out the dull endings, but there are plenty of times where if I've got the opponent's king imprisoned (my usual favourite is a rook creating a locked-off square of board, protected by a pawn outside the square; the king can do nothing but meander around in its prison), and I have a pawn I can promote outside the prison. I'm absolutely certain I can get a checkmate because all I need to do is promote the pawn, and then shuffle around row by row moving the opponent's king to the edge of the board. It's completely mechanical. At that point, there is honestly no interest for me whatsoever, and I may well be tempted to walk off and make a coffee instead. I don't want my opponent to sit there waiting, that's wasting their time. So I may resign. Logical? Not from their perspective, but with the aroma of coffee wafting from the kitchen, who cares about logic?

Oh, and a practical point! Down in the 300's, people play some really whacky chess with all sorts of interesting things happening! Up around 500-600 people tend to be a bit more sane, and I find myself playing the same three games again and again. So I do like the occasional drop down to the depths, it's fun down there...

Yes, I understand what you mean.

Well, I certainly don't disdain the competitive aspect of chess, which remains the "spring" that pushes us to play a game with another person, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the determining factor for everyone. Or not always, at least.

I like the aspect you mentioned about chess, and playing chess relaxes me, like a powerful anti-stress. So, generally I play with determination and competitive vigor ; but not infrequently, only because I need a moment to escape, to relax. And in that case, as you say, who cares how it ends. ( It has never happened to me that I resign in a tied or winning position, but if you do, I can understand )

In short, I think we cannot start from the principle that the opponent must always be one who fights with the spirit of the gladiator. Sometimes you have someone in front of you who just wants to have fun, or relax ; and when they lose interest they resign. It can be annoying for those who are playing with great commitment, but they need to be patient, because everyone plays this beautiful game with their own motivations, and their mood of the moment.