Hey kids! Learn how to resign!

How would you know whether to resign or not when you don't even know whether to Zoom or Boom?

and the boomers keep coming

maybe I should change my name to Zoomers vs Boomers

   ---   Yep.

So newbie chess player here. At my level all we do is blunder. So in a 10 minute game, when does a really low rated but good sport resign? I've blundered my queen but he may blunder his five moves from now. I'm ahead in time. Should I play it out for a time win? Play it out for the counter-blunder?

It's all a matter of opinion, but something that I stick to pretty often is resigning when I am confident I could beat the computer if I took the other side.

If you are just learning, I think there is basically never a good time to resign, since your opponent is so likely to blunder a stalemate or something (practice those basic mating patterns!), and since you will probably learn something from trying to defend the position or create opportunities to get yourself back in the game.

As you see improvement, playing on in such positions with enough time on the clock becomes pointless, at least for me. Yes your opponent's internet could always go out or they could mouseslip or something, but I'd rather play a new game then hope for things like that.

But as always it's a personal choice; so long as you aren't intentionally stalling it is no big deal one way or the other

For a total newbie I think never resigning is fine.

At a certain level, I'm thinking somewhere between 800-1000, play on in a bad position if:

• You have realistic attacking chances or
• You have realistic drawing chances or
• You think you can learn something from watching how your opponent plays for the win

If none of those, then best etiquette is to resign (that said, you should never feel compelled to resign because someone else thinks you should ... it's what you think).

Obviously, correctly evaluating the first two possibilities takes a certain level chess skill, depends on how much time you and your opponent have left, and is influenced by how well or poorly your opponent has played so far.

I adamantly believe that whatever time is left on the clock is fair game. If you start a 10 minute game, don't whine if the opponent spends their 10 minutes. 

Sounds like somebody who threw a game up a queen and is trying to blame it on their opponent. What's wrong with converting a win? Too much of a challenge?