Resign! Resign! Resign! But when?

I hardly ever resign, but I don't see why that would be annoying at all, I think it's better to have won by Checkmate than Resignation.

I really don't get it.

Continuing on anthonyCGs point, besides courtesy not resigning makes no sense from a chess development point of view.

"But mike, wouldn't never resigning increase your winning percentage?"

Well yes, in theroy, especially since many resign too soon.  But the gain will be short term, since you aren't actually getting better (another important point), you are just skewing the rating system in your favor.  In the long term, not resigning is a bad decision because playing out completely lost games teaches you peanuts compared to starting a new game or studying.  Furthermore, if you play OTB and never resign, many players WILL refuse to play you, lowering your skill level even further (probably because you take too long to play/you made them late for piano lessons or something)

That seems to be more an issue of move speed. If a game drags, it won't be on my side of the clock. (On a tangent, how about better time controls, Chess.com?)

Not resigning a lost position is nothing compared to not agreeing to a draw when appropriate.

Do what you like, if they don't like playing on let them stew in it!  It is disrepectful to you that they don't have the courtesy to allow you to finish out the game!

Once more into the breach rode the six hundred.

Er, no they don't. You can have 10 pieces as long as none of them can move. A fundamental defence in K+P endings involve the defending side stalemating the side with the pawn, like so:

A famous stalemate:

stalemate in post 31...wow, how in the world would I ever see that coming?

Exactly, I just resigned today against a 2000 rated player when i could've played on even though I was 1 pawn down only and nothing big. But, I just don't like the pressure on me and hardly defending position, it makes the game boring for me, and I just feel It's hopeless so i just resign

I had an oponent with only their king and i had like 4 pawns and I was going to promote to queen, even after promoting to queen he kept playing, i would never ask my oponent to resign because it's not my right. But it sure is very very annoying. I myslef can't stand or see the fun in just moving the king pointlessly.

You won't learn anything by forcing your opponent to play out a win after you hang your queen.

Personally if I blunder a piece and don't immediately see counterplay I resign immediately, but that's more due to the state of my morale.

I think there is a big difference between learning how to defend in a worst position and pushing wood around in a lost position. 

I don't think anyone would expect an opponent to resign in a simply "worse" position. That's not the issue.

I most often resign when my opponent has a passed pawn that I can't stop.  I usually resign if I've blundered away a piece without compensation, but I'll occasionally fight on if the game is at a fast time control, and my opponent doesn't seem to know how to force the win.  If you want to stay on good terms with your opponents though, sometimes it's better to just call it a game, and challenge them to another one rather than waste their time.

So when would you resign in this game I played recently?

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/another-resignation-thread

yeah, 2 pieces down would have been enough for me...but honestly rich, at our level of play - we should never resign until there is impending checkmate.  Your game illustrates this and I have another against a 1570 and he was up a piece and now he's down a rook.  Tactical opportunities are aplenty on our boards at this rating.  

In OTB tournaments, if I've made a mistake early on, even if I've lost a whole piece, I'll play on- not because I'm stubborn and want to swindle a draw, but because I don't want to sit there for an hour and a half while the other games finish, and THEN wait for the gap between rounds.

Manukharana...stop littering the thread.

I resign:

When i cannot see myself win or draw.

When my position is crumped, i am behind, and i'm out of ideas to compete.

When i'm about to lose significant value because i blundered.

When i see a forced mate.

However, if my opponet produces a great tactical play without forced mate that does not lead to force mate but leads to some of the conditions mentioned above because it provides a learning expirience for both of the players.