Is it rude to resign?

If you feel you have no chance given the material/positional disadvantage and you don't think you can flag(make him run out of time) the enemy... just do whatever you want to do. 

Some people take offence at anything. But usually resigning won't offend people, they just want your rating points.

It's not uncommon for titled players to play on either.  There are many ways to draw a game and you can find some exciting examples of high calliber players setting up interesting fortresses or complex but drawn endgames

I find that it is only rude to resign after an early game queen blunder. If you lose your queen early on and resign it isn't respectful. It when there is still a chance of a win it is rude for someone to resign. If it is late in the game and they are losing a ton of material, it is more acceptable. But resigning over a silly blunder is stupid. This is just my opinion. It is a free win though, so I won't complain if someone resigns to me. It is just not the best way to learn for you or for your opponent if you resign early on. 

Don't resign until you are 1500.

Resigning too soon in a real match is kind of lame and ruins it for the audience.

Online in a private 1v1, it's beneficial to your adversary and maybe also beneficial to you if you saved time and avoided the time and effort spent on inevitable defeat.

@Jomonger  "don't resign until you are 1500"  - I'll never live that long!

Ehh, if you can't lose, at least tie.

GMs often  play for the draw, rather than win, because drawing is slightly easier. 

Lots of good answers here already...  I play 3 minute blitz at around 700 rating, and I consider it a courtesy to continue to fight on and give the opponent the opportunity to try to figure out how to checkmate me, and I appreciate that in return if I'm winning, assuming neither of us is down to just seconds on the clock.  At this level of play to say an endgame is drawing or winning is ridiculous, they are often instead chaotic and unpredictable, and the number of stalemates reflects the experience yet to be gained.   And fun, at least I think so, to have that frantic ending where I win or lose with .2 seconds. Also, in the area where chess overlaps with regular life, the feeling of wanting to quit something due to a setback can be addressed, practicing the habit of focusing on "now" and putting a mistake behind you, here in such an inconsequential thing as an online blitz game, but still a kind of valuable mental discipline.  To the OP, no I don't think it's "rude", especially not compared to abandoning the game, which is not at all sporting.

Somewhat !

FWIW from a total noob, I fight until it's pointless, then often I'll send a chat admitting defeat and asking if they want me to play to the bitter end or just resign. Also, by far the best victory of my fledgling career was a significant come-from-behind checkmate with either 2 or 8 seconds left (I can't remember).

Lmao I know I feel the same way sometimes.

Most games, especially at a high level, end in resignation.

But most people remember what it was like to be a beginner, and no reasonable person would fault a low rated player for playing all the way until checkmate... some coaches even recommend playing until mate.

So far from resignation being rude, it's the norm, but you should never resign out of respect. You should resign when you believe it's pointless to continue... which actually means a few things. The obvious one is believing you have no winning chances, but also it means you believe you can't learn anything by watching your opponent's winning technique.

In one OTB (over the board) tournament game against a master, at one point I realized I was 100% lost, but I didn't resign at that moment because I wanted to see how he would win.

However it is rude to stall the game. Sometimes, even now against peers, OTB I delay resigning more than most people would... but I never make them wait. After I realize I'm completely lost I play at a fairly quick pace.

I think there has been some good advice on this issue. First, I am a newer player, taking up the game after a 50 year hiatus. In the beginner or early advancement stage it is sometimes good to hang in there because your opponents can make a big mistake. There were games I thought I was a dead man, but came back due to a blunder by my opponent (just to let you know i have also snatched defeat from victory).  I feel that a resignation is a personal choice, it is the ultimate decision that he or she can make, so it should be left to them.

You've played over 7000 games on chess.com

You've never been rated 1500.

Of all your losses, you've resigned about half of them, about 1500 resignations in total.

https://www.chess.com/games/archive/jomonger?gameOwner=other_game&gameResult=resigned&gameType=live&timeSort=desc

No such thing as a "rude resignation", unless they let the clock run out a lot before they do. I rarely resign, because I only play 1 minute. However, if I am at a huge disadvantage and have much less time on the clock I will resign. Most of my losses are to time, but I do have a few wins on time. It depends on the personality of the player. I have no patience and a long game of being down 1 piece is not my idea of fun. Plus, to be honest, you don't learn anything playing a lost game for 30 minutes or and hour. On the other hand if you take that time and study how you blundered, you will definitely learn a valuable lesson in the opening, or midgame. 

So when you lose your queen and you resign it's rude? I don't understand this logic.

I mean if its early on in the game it is rude. If I expect a chess game and 45 seconds in the opponent resigns because of a queen loss, it is rude. If it's middle game and they're already low on material it is more understandable. 

At the beginner level, it's fine to play on to the end as it's always possible your opponent could mess up and give you chances to either win or draw.

Now, as you progress through the ranks and make it to the higher levels, playing on in a completely lost position can be considered rude and I don't recommend you do it. It's essentially saying to your opponent that you don't believe in their chess skills to convert.

Now in this game... I decided to resign in a winning position. Is that rude? Idk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS4bdIVnJ9w

As a beginner playing till the end usually won't raise any eyebrows. It's also a good (albeit painful) way to collect endgame experience.

As you get into the intermediate range, however, you might need to know when to wave the white flag. A couple of pawns down usually won't warrant it, but if you're a queen down with no substantial compensation, you may want to save everyone's time.

Checkmates are rarely seen at the master level. If someone's in enough trouble to be checkmated, they might as well save themselves from the shame that someone had to deal the coup de grace for you.