Chess Etiquette: Winning on time when you are extremely behind

right...so hes in a completely losing position, and instead of trying to win on time, he resigned....and at resignation aronian had .3 sec left...

im just saying, it certainly fits the circumstances.....

May be it does fit the circumstances. I am not so sure. Would be interesting to ask Grischuk why he resigned. It's a wild speculation but may be because of lag he didn't see that Aronian has only 0.3 sec.

But there is a difference between 2 scenarios:

• you are in a completely lost position but your opponent has 1 sec left and even with perfect play he needs more than 10 moves to checkmate you - physically impossible especially if playing without increment
• your opponent has mate in 1 - even a split of a second is enough to deliver it

Let me ask you - why don't you resign when your flag is going to fall just in few seconds. The loss is inevitable, you can't do anything about it, it's like seeing that you are getting mated in 2. Why not to resign?

It is funny

Uri65 who claims to knows and therefore represents"the majority" is discussing with everyone haha.

This is a chump move. You know how your opponent got so far up in material? Because he wasted so much time. It's not your fault that he was fine with using minutes more than you to come up with the best moves. People who want to complain about losing on time are people who shouldn't be playing timed games. There has to be a balance between the time you use, and making the best moves you can. If I take all 5 minutes of a blitz game just to win a pawn by move 10 and my opponent still has 4 minutes left on his clock, he played better chess than me. The time is an aspect of the game. The less you have of it, the more valuable it is. It is often even more valuable than a material advantage. People who don't know that are people who should be playing correspondence only.

I do not at all understand why anyone would be attempting to play a quick-timed chess game and then act as if time is not a factor. This is not just chess. This is chess + time. You have to manage both.

Remember, Grischuk's match had an increment. That makes quite a difference.

I played a half hour game recently where it was a dead draw. But I only had five minutes left on my clock (FIVE!) and my opponent had fifteen. He tried to keep moving around the board randomly instead of agreeing to a draw so he could wind down my last five minutes. Finally after about three minutes of me moving my king between three squares he accidentally drew from repitition of position.

That right there was a situation where I thought losing on time would be completely cheap. But I guess five minutes of thoughtlessly moving pieces around was worth the cheap "win" to my opponent. I wanted to thrash him in the comment section but didn't want to waste any time on it and he left immediately after the game was called. 

He resigned even AFTER he made his move, when aronian had .3 seconds left.  increment or not, that is unusual, and says something in regard to his desire to win on time in a losing position. 

I like to make a draw offer when I'm like 2 pawns up, but time-trouble is looming for my opponent. In other words: When the time-situation gives me reasonable compensation for the loss of material, but both results are still possible.

If the opponent refuses, then I do my best to premove him or her to death.

To the original poster; enjoy your win, you'll be on the other side of that soon enough.

For me, the possibility of losing on time is a part of what makes blitz fun and challenging in a way that's different from long games. Yes, it's frustrating when your clock runs out and you're up a queen, but the adrenaline rush of delivering mate with 0.3 seconds on your clock is a kind of pleasure you can't get if there isn't also the risk of losing on time. Far from being a 'gentleman' or 'classy' or whatever the term someone wants to use for refusing to win blitz on time (and in some cases cursing at the opponent when they lose, like one delightful opponent I had yesterday), these people are undermining a part of what makes fast play fun.

Iba_4 has the right attitude. There's really nothing else like checkmating your opponent with 3/10ths of one second left. 

As Alexander Alekhine said (when in serious time trouble): "We play without clocks", against which his opponent dared not argue since Alekhine was much better placed with the local Nazi bigwig than he was. (Recounted by Harry Golombek in the essay "World Champions I Have Met", The Chessplayer's Bedside Book)

You both ended up with equal positions, but you had the advantage of 10 extra minutes to get there. You opponent deserved to win.

Its also not your opponents fault that you didn't leave yourself enough time to convert.

today i played a specimen that won as folllows : in a 5 minute game i lost connection twice, which set me behind for half the clock time, since his skill wasnt sufficient to win i got 2 pieces up, including the queen, the b*gger managed to win on time by hopping around like a madman... so many players here are completely honorless and chess.com does nothing against it ...

What are you complaing about? Your connection is not your opponent responsibility. Somebody with honour would rather fix it instead of complaining.

Chess Etiquette Question:  In a recent game, I was way behind in material, and also behind on the clock.  It was my opponent's move, but instead of moving, he messaged me in chat that he was having a heart attack!  What should I have done?

1)  Cackle gleefully as his time ran out;

2)  Resigned, so as not to win a game I didn't deserve;

3)  Google his Godforsaken third-world country, try to determine what the equivalent of 911 is there, call it long distance and tell them "My chess opponent is somewhere in your country and he's dying.  No, I don't know exactly where he is.  How many chess players do you have over there, anyway, you should probably be able to count them on your fingers; just go down the list.  If he dies intestate, can I have his stuff?  I am particularly interested in exotic stuffed animals."

Boo hoo hoo get better internet.

I don't sweat it.  I have won games on time when I had the worst position.  And I have lost games on time when I had a better position.  

I figure it all evens out.  Win some, lose some, learn, and move on.