to resign or not to resign

Depends how much life is left in the game, 

In a completly lost position with no possibuilities to drag a game on is bad form and I've seen it happen many times on Gameknot I remember a 13 year old kid from Singapore Li Wei Sheng who vowed to the other members of the sight he would never ever resign the kid stayed true to his word he went for stalemate after stalemate and dragged lost games on for weeks and months.

If you think that any further play may be fruitless, then of course consider resigning; on the other hand, if you believe that you can learn something by playing on then do so.

I share your opinion! 

I will resign a game if the following conditions are met:

 1. My opponent has an overwhelming advantage, and a clear, straightforward path to victory.

2. My opponent has no compensatory weakness, such as a loose king, that I might be able to exploit to create a draw or a win.

 3. My opponent has demonstrated to me throughout our meetings that he or she is a skilled, careful, perfectionistic player that does not make major errors, does not get tired, bored, or frustrated in a long, difficult game.

 Someone who suggests resignation to me obviously does not meet condition three. They are already losing their cool a little bit; hopefully their next mistake will be over the board.

Chess is fundementally a competitive sport in which "won" games are frequently lost and vice versa. At the highest levels, serious blunders are relatively rare. In chess.com games, this is not true. 

People who feel it is more "civilized" to resign in a "lost" position (by which they mean a position lost with best play on both sides from that point onwards) are really making a judgement about how they want to win. They want to win by intelligence and skill. On the other hand, a lot of other things go into winning at chess, like patience, stamina, determination and the will to win. While some may wish to minimize the importence of these elements, I think they are equally a part of the art of chess. Everyone will admit that if you fight on relentlessly in "hopeless" positions that you will pick up many points and half-points. Some people think that is undignifed; I see it as using all the strength of your character in the fight.

Resigning is part of the game but some of my friends who i play chess with ask why did u resign even if i can see the checkmate completly! I think it depends if u should resighn to the type of player your playing to. LIke lets just say your playing to a really strong player... Then when u see the checkmate u should probably resign cause he probably see's the checkmate also , But if your just playing some random kid on your block and u see a checkmate its wise not to resign cause he might not see it and also for educational purposes.

hahaha funny

I like your sence of humor dylan!

My $.02

If you've lost a piece with no compensation, it's time to resign.  What's more, I might tell you so.  Sorry...time to face reality.

I guess the subject of resignation is quite a sensitive one. Different people have different notions on when the correct time to resign is. For example, in my national federation, it is not rare to find players down a queen in an endgame to continue playing, in the wild hope of a unforseen stalemate. Whereas at the the master level, as Erik has mentioned, a GM could resign as soon as he blunders a piece or finds his position too passive(!) For example, in a not too long ago game between GM Anand and GM Topalov, Anand was playing the black pieces against Topalov and had Rook and pawn vs. Topalov's 2 pieces. Finding his position too passive and disgusting, he simply resigned! In fact, it was quite a premature one, but one can hardly expect a player of Topalov's calibre to blunder away such a beautiful position.

I guess it all boils down to your sense of sportsmanship. If you're playing a player more than 300 rating points higher than you and refuse to resign a queen down, its really quite rude of you, in my opinion. Of course, in bullet or blitz games this would not be the case as time is another big factor. However, in a classical game such defiance would be detrimental to your reputation as a chess player. I believe a while back, the veteran GM Korchnoi was playing a game against another GM, and Korchnoi saw a forced mate. It was not too obvious, but being GMs they could probably both see that the game was over. Nevertheless, Korchnoi's opponent continued playing, and then Korchnoi got furious that he did not resign.

So something to think about: should the GM have resigned, seeing the forced mate? And should Korchnoi have lost his temper?

And about requesting for your opponent to resign, I believe that is quite preposterous. Even if you're winning, you should at least have the grace to wait for your opponent's resignation! In fact, I've actually seen times in tournaments when players keep on prompt for a resignation and got complained to the arbiter for disturbing thought! So, relax and stay cool, and win the game carefully!

I agree that having a "disadvantage" or a "losing" position doesn't necessarily mean that one should resign, but in the case of a clearly LOST position, it's insulting to play on. But all that is thrown out the window if the player happens to be a beginner. All serious players have a responsibility to treat beginners with respect.

I must add that the overwhelming majority of chess games actually do _not_ end in checkmate. They end in either a draw or resignation. At the GM level, games never end in checkmate.

 LOL!

Good question to bring up. Kind of reminds me of the golfer about to try an 18 foot putt, who says to his opponent, "conceded?"

"You certainly are!" his opponent shoots back.

 Actually the opposite happend to me: I had lost material and was in a compromised position, and proposed resigning. My opponent chided me for giving up too easy, so I fought on for awhile until even he had to admit that I was beat. 

 In another game with Chessiq, I was hopelessly tied in knots (he is a really nice guy, but in a chess game with him I feel like I have been thrown to the lions... or, since I have challenged him a couple of time to get the experience, I guess it is more like me insisting on going into the lion's den). Anyway, here I am getting totally destroyed. So what do I do... I offer a draw!

 I forgot to put a smiley, so, after a long hesitation, Chessiq asks: "You are offering a draw?" I could almost feel his incredulity coming through the ether. I think he thought I was serious. At least with Chessiq I have had the good sense to request unrated games, and he has graciously agreed to that.

I like to put in a bunch of conditional moves and then checkmate them with knights when the opponent will not resign.

you  should not never resign , this is a man -to - man game ,    no mercy with your opponent.