Amateur play: Why you should not give up games early

Amateur chess. Kinda like a sub-division of chess where things often go horribly wrong. From blundering mates in one and hanging pieces in the opening, heavy mistakes are very common among amateurs. So, it's not amazingly rare to be in a lost position from the very start. But what should you do? Give up and go home, smashing your fist in the wall out of anger, or play the lost game anyway, so you can at least relax a bit first?

The answer is the latter, really. Mostly because you can possibly save a "lost" game because the same you blundered, your opponent can blunder.

Behold a practical example. After I hanged a rook in the opening in a very crucial game (against the 1st seed of a

My opponent was a fairly experienced 11-year old. Rumor had it that everyone playing him was prone to blunders, as this March in a local tournament, 3 decent, FIDE rated opponents, blundered against him. I didn't pay attention to this rumor, but then I saw the results on the board.

After that I managed to win my last round game and finish 2nd.

The point of this post is, don't give up early. Your opponent can screw up big time in the same way you did.