resignation

I am a patzer, having played only 84 serious games, ever.

My question is, is it ethical/annoying/advisable etc to resign immediately one has lost one's queen "en prise"?

That's fine.

Depends on the level of play, but if you drop your queen and all else is equal you should probably resign.

I say yes.  I know there will be a contingent of people who will say "Never resign, your opponent might stalemate you!"

But IMHO the only thing that someone who won't resign a hopeless position does is to teach themself how to get used to being ground down in losses time after time.  You should never teach yourself to get used to that feeling.

If you hang a minor piece in a complex middlegame, by all means keep playing.  But if you hang your queen just resign. 

“No one ever won a game by resigning”

Saviely Tartakower

I wonder how many times Tartakower hung his Queen.

And he himself resigned many games.

You can get away with doing this silly stuff and not resigning a clean queen down on the internet, but if you do it down at your local club, pretty soon no one will want to play with you.

It depends on the situation. If it's a casual game, on the net or at the club, just ask "mind if we play on, I want to see how well I can defend this?" Most people will be more than happy to continue.

But if you're in a heated tourney, then all you're doing is sapping your own and your opponent's mental energy when you could be resting up for the next round. That is not only rude to your opponent, it's bad strategy for yourself.

Losing your queen is like throwing away money - it's rarely to your advantage...

Thanks for the advice, I'll try not to do it again.

I disagree.  If you want to save your own mental energy for the next round then resigning is OK.  However, you have an obligation to the other players in the tournament to wear down your opponent's mental reserves and not give him an easy bye, and doing so is not rude.  Also if his mental energy is getting sapped, you obviously have compensation for piece.

I was just wondering whether Fischer had played more than 84 serious games, ever.

It is ethical/annoying/advisable etc not to resign.

 Google says Fischer has 984 games in the data base.

But were they serious ones?

I was wondering if Bobby Fischer ever played a game he didn't take deathly seriously.

It would be contrary to Fischer's psyche not to take every game seriously.

In my view it is ok to resign after losing your queen if it is online chess. There is no point in playing on when you can view the game many times to see how you got into the unfortunate position in the first place. ie. you can learn from the experience.