NEVER RESIGN!

I enjoy it when my opponent is in a lost position but plays on anyway.  It allows me to sharpen up my endgame and look for the quickest mate.

"As for me as the superior side, it's not bad as long as their tempo of play doesn't suddenly go way down."

Agreed.

  "I don't mind playing till mate in an OTB tourney against an expert.  But I may not feel like a post mortem... I may feel like they need to back to the hotel room and brush up on ladder mates before talking about anything more advanced..."

Fair enough. In my case though, I don't see myself being fatigued in such a soft position as say a queen up endgame where I can gobble up a bunch of pawns and make as many queens as I want. Would I be fatigued after winning against a non-resigner who was a piece down? Sure, but failing to win a piece up is far, far more likely than 1 in a million and it's something I have done or come close to doing a few times.

In summary, if it's a winning advantage like a piece up, I may work hard to win it but I respect my opponent's decision as his chances are not totally squandered. If it's a one in a million position like up two queens, well I'm not really suffering too much to allow my opponent to continue his hope, am I?

Chess players are a contentious bunch heh, so if my opponent makes me mate him while I'm two queens up... and I know he knows how that mate works... I wonder why he made me do it?  Is he frustrated?  Does he think I don't deserve to win?  etc etc.

On the surface of it, it's not a big deal, you're right.

I woudln't begrudge my opponent play on a piece down in a non-trivial position.  In fact quite the opposite, I'd probably admire his fighting spirit.

"Some people have strong opinions about it.  Not everyone can be as laid back and indifferent about resigning as you elubas "

Haha, well I do have a strong opinion against people who have a strong opinion about resigning.

Not resigning is OK. And i completely get it if your a beginner or if your under  or around 1300. I've been playing chess for 2 years now but i usually resign when I believe my opponent can mate me. I guess I resign out of pure respect.

Also sometimes if my opponent doesn't resign i have a little fun with them and promote the remaining pawns into knight and give away my queen to mate him/her with the knights. You learn a lot when a horde of ponies trap you in a corner!

Here's a cute and instructive lesson lol

Unfortunately, the move at 40 seconds is illegal.

Haha, I didn't notice that.

It's just something to think about. Though I do agree with some that there's no point in wasting time dragging out a game which is certainly a loss.

i made this booya

From a person who has only just started playing online i would personally rather be check mated than resign so i can see OP's point.

But I think its right to resign if you know you are well and truly boned and there are still quite few moves to make yet so you are just going to go through the motions. But if there are only a couple of moves until mate I think its feels like you are kinda cheating the other guy out of their hard work and if they are a better player than you its worth playing it out for the other guys ideas because you might learn something.

Asking your oponent to resign though is rude but then so is resigning and just walking away without acknowledging that your opponent played a better game than you.

Absolutely! I never resign without giving the other player credit for a game well-played. Same goes for mate--though that's only happened once when I was totally surprised by a one mover.

Give the other guy his due. He beat you.

just had basically the flip side, my boy left when he was won. but didn't realise haha

"Give the other guy his due. He beat you."

I just find it strange that people can lend their act of giving up as a Christmas present. One time a higher rated opponent here in CC chess blundered a piece, and told me he would resign if I gave him a rematch. It's not so bad in itself, until you realize that he's acting as if he is giving me some sort of privilege by giving up. I bet on Valentine's Day, a cute chess couple will play a game, and it won't even last a full move, because one of them will resign before that. No better way to show how much you care!

Good points Jase684.  Although I agree with what you're saying, I've noticed some people consider comments such as: "Good game" to be arrogant.  They will not interpret such a remark to actually mean "good game," and will disregard the possibility that you are merely being polite.  

I have been on both sides.  I had a guy "beat" and was cruising to an easy win, when lo and behold i made a stupid move and allowed him to stalemate:(  I also played a higher rated opponent who resigned a clearly losing position, although i was in time trouble, he may have been able to squeak by with a draw.  I am currently on the don't resign side because i tend to give in too easily, as evidenced by a couple recent games.  One opponent asked me to resign and i played a few more moves, then resigned.The next game we played, he asked me to resign, and i replied that i was surprised by that, since i had a winning endgame, which i am winning and i won't have a stalemate letdown.  Here is a live game i played recently and gave up when my Queen was taken.  After looking at the game i realized i had mate in 1 or 2.  look aat move 25

Weak players and beginners are the ones who should never resign.

The moment you start resigning games is the moment you start to improve.

Yes, but that's correlation, not causation.

To all the "never resign" guys past 1800, my answer is this : no, the tiny tiny hope that your opponent will get an heart attack, be kidnapped by aliens or run in a stalemate (by decreasing likeliness) is not worth the time you use to keep playing.

This being said, of course, asking someone to resign is much more rude that refusing to resign.

i will never play out such endgames since it is humiliating for me.

just playing around with my king and expecting for a stupid mistake that leads to stalemate isnot something that i do.since even if i succeed in making a draw(which is very rare) this doesent satisfy me.it is humiliating since my king is stuck in the corner surronded by pieces and since i m unable to move the king,because of my cripple king,i get a draw.