Those who play on in lost positions would benefit much more if they could learn what mistakes they keep making over and over again. If you really want to improve your chess you need to find your mistakes and try to not to keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
Continue playing despite material disadvantage?
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losingmove wrote:
If you are down to your king vs 4 pawns, a queened pawn, a bishop and a king...will you grit your teeth and fight bravely on?
Yup.
MissMoomin wrote:
Would it bother you if an opponent plays on stubbornly despite significant material disadvantage? How (in terms of material disadvantage) would you draw the line between being stubborn and simply being disrespectful?
If I play against a child, I would not mind playing until mate. But I expect an acquaintance of similar strength in chess to resign when it's clear that s/he has a losing position.
Yeah... if only I had resigned earlier in this game, I would have saved my opponent a lot of trouble:
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/just-won-the-most-epic-game-ever
i know this is a very old post, but whenever someone is in a CLEARLY lost position (i.e. the game that losingmove mentioned, with a king vs 7 pieces, or something like that) and they refuse to resign, I take it as an opportunity to squeeze the life out of them. Think of it not as an annoyance but as a chance to demonstrate your fury to its fullest extent.
On the other hand, if I am in a losing position, my take is similar to what other people have said. If all is not completely lost (like in the above game), but maybe I am only down a piece, then I may very well attempt to play it out and learn from it. However I also may not have enough energy/desire to try to fight from a losing position
when i'm down on material i usually look for a draw opportunity, like a perpetual check situation. this may be a reason why people keep going.
Remember, the object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king and not to have a material advantage. It doesn't matter if you have more material than your opponent if you are mated.
Kindly bless this . IN NOMINI DONIMI !
aperi domini .
Amen . 75
Carlsen ' s successor. .
I think it depends on circumstances. I like it when people play me to the end. I am capable of blundering away a won position. Perhaps those who are more skilled than I am might feel differently. I remember playing out a position where I had to win with a bishop and a knight. I knew it was doable, but I had a hard time getting it done. It was good experience.
It is also good experience to figure out how to make my opponent work for it. I suppose it would be polite to ask. "I am sure you will win, but I would benefit by playing it out, would you mind if we played on?" I would imagine most would say "sure". But some might say "I have something else I would like to do and I would prefer that you resign."
Communication and courtesy can solve most problems.