is it correct to resign as a beginner if you’re losing badly?

Sort:
Avatar of jetoba
Ziryab wrote:

@jetoba

I’ve only been running youth tournaments half as long. But, my experience is quite similar.

That’s a big reason I say that beginners should never resign. I admit that counting fifty moves while your king is chased by a queen can be a chore.

I inadvertently lumped in all of the tournaments open to adults and overlooked dividing by 2 players per game.  The number of tournaments was right but a more strict review of the kids vs open sections comes up with only about 420,000 games in kids-only sections (around 234,000 in the 43 US scholastic nationals I've worked) and about 95,000 games in sections that allowed adults, not 1,000,000 games (though sometimes seems like more).

Avatar of Ziryab
jetoba wrote:
Ziryab wrote:

@jetoba

I’ve only been running youth tournaments half as long. But, my experience is quite similar.

That’s a big reason I say that beginners should never resign. I admit that counting fifty moves while your king is chased by a queen can be a chore.

I inadvertently lumped in all of the tournaments open to adults and overlooked dividing by 2 players per game.  The number of tournaments was right but a more strict review of the kids vs open sections comes up with only about 420,000 games in kids-only sections and about 95,000 games in sections that allowed adults, not 1,000,000 games (though sometimes seems like more).

 

Still impressive numbers.

I’ve been responsible for running a few tournaments that exceeded 1000 players (our state elementary championships) but the vast majority of those I’ve been TD for have had 40-100 players (local events). The largest local event has 143. Numbers have been in the 30-70 range since 2008. They were routinely 90+ before that. I do not have a count of the number of events, but there have been 2-12 per year for the past twenty years. The past few years, I’m nearly always running the pairings, but I get some time on the playing floor.

Avatar of RAU4ever
Ziryab wrote:

Spend a couple of years teaching beginners and get back to me.

Ah, yes, teaching for 25 years, but I'll get back to you... 

Avatar of Optimissed
Ziryab wrote:

If a player has two queens and four moves have been played since the second one appeared, presume the player does not know how to checkmate. Never resign to such a player.

Mate in four.

 

 

 

A lot of players would settle for the obvious mate in 5, however.

Avatar of Maverickuk2022

Why do chess players count and write down moves?

Avatar of Ziryab
Optimissed wrote:
Ziryab wrote:

If a player has two queens and four moves have been played since the second one appeared, presume the player does not know how to checkmate. Never resign to such a player.

Mate in four.

 

 

 

A lot of players would settle for the obvious mate in 5, however.

 

Yes. That would be fine, too.

My reason for bringing it up is that beginners often cannot find mate in twenty. Resignation to such players is foolishness.

Avatar of llama47

Some kids are even coached that when far behind in material, instead of resigning, your last trick will be to sacrifice your last few pieces and walk your king into the middle, hoping for stalemate... this works more often than you might expect.

Avatar of Ziryab

I see a lot of kids who have only losses and draws until there is a premature resignation.

I want them to learn how to checkmate.

http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2021/11/learning-checkmate-or-teaching-it.html