Why resign?

You resign when you are confident that your opponent has shown to you, either in a previous game or the current game, that they are knowledgeable enough to beat you from the current position. The continuation of play is similar to that of sticking around at a baseball game when a team is 10 runs down in the 9th with 2 outs and no one on base. Time to head to the parking lot! (Insert your favorite analogy!) And yes....of course there's a minute possibility that you could win. Why wait for the inevitable though? Better to just "rack em up" and try again in my opinion. :)

Just so we're clear, I agree with almost everything you said except the bit I quoted...

Dead lost has a different meaning for everyone, my idea of a dead lost situation is often different from that of the general public, and most certainly different from that of my opponent. If my opponent wants to get upset because I believe I have a chance to draw, he gets an opportunity to play me into a hole so deep I will struggle to crawl out because of the shame. And if he does get upset, I have an even better chance to find that draw

What I'm trying to get at is actually this. It is silly for anyone to get upset because you choose not to resign. It isn't the opponent's choice to say you've lost and have no hope of recovery. He can carry on playing and prove you wrong. Of course if he feels he's not gaining anything by playing on he can resign or offer a draw, since if he's happy with the idea that he's won already there truly is nothing to gain for him by playing on. But for most people the win is what counts (especially if they like their rating). I've never heard of anyone winning a game by claiming a position "Won". If that rule existed most games would have 2 winners after 10 moves.

I am all for showing respect to your opponent and resigning at a proper time where you really feel the game is lost, but if my opponent asks me to resign or complains because I have not resigned, he better be ready to play until he has me in mate.

respect? dignity? waste of time? For me, I am selfish. Usually I am disgusted at myself for getting into a losing position, why should I continue to beat myself up by playing on? Just resign, end the pain. Forget about this playing on to the bitter end crap, it's for kids.

Are you snickering right now?

Dueds, its not about winning or loseing, its about ghetting your king to the other side man

AAAaaaaaaaaaarghrghrghhhhh!!!!

/me bangs head against table

Because Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov resigned when they knew they were beat and you sure as hell ain't no Garry Kasparov

Hoping that wasn't aimed at me.  :-D

I don't have any illusions of being God's gift to chess.  I've yet to break 1500 on any site I play on (except maybe by fluke of calculation on the computer's part, quickly remedied after my next loss).  I'm getting better, but I doubt seriously anybody's going to be putting a GM or IM before my name any time soon.

But therein lies the problem I guess...Kasparov was smart enough to know when he was beat.  I'm not...yet...although I did just resign a game where I was king and rook against king rook and both bishops, and my rook was going to die shortly.  So maybe I'm growing.  Lost the tournament on that move, though.  Bummer.

Anyway, I do think it's a little bit of hubris for someone to get upset at me because I refuse to resign before checkmate.  I'll probably do it more after this conversation...so thanks to those of you who engaged me rather than getting upset and annoyed.  I have noticed that chess allows us deep insight into the character and psyche of a person.  We should all probably consider what our responses here have said about us as human beings.

Laters!

It boils down to whether you consider winning or losing to be the most important aspect of chess.  You should resign and analyze your game if you want to get better.  If you don't care about getting better, and winning is your only objective, play on....

There's no point playing Online Chess or Vote Chess, with a piece or even a pawn down. Just lost games, should just be resigned, waste of time.

Lol, only fools stalemate, the guy playing white must be drunk.

never resign!

stalemate is always possible.

Believe me, some day your going to change your mind.

or if you want to stalemate with all the pieces on the board..

I think that these discussions should be broken out into rating levels.  You could easily argue that for two begineers there is never a reason to resign because the stalemate is always possible.  For two titled players, they may be in a lost position while being up a pawn.  Most of us are somewhere in between.

I resign when i think there is no hope of catching up.  Sometimes this may be long after my opponent knows there is no hope of my catching up, but i have to get to that point.  If my opponent finds it disrespectful, all i can offer is that i am not always good enough to know when i am beaten. 

Believe me, some day you're going to realise he was joking

You resign when you feel you've lost... not when your opponent thinks you've lost. Worry not what they think - play and learn.

To blunder is human, to win divine.

Never, never, never resign.

Not resigning can sometimes kill your opponent psychologically, that can be usefull in a tournament, or you can continue just for fun, to learn... resigning should never be an obligation, even if it is sometimes your duty... I've seen people with a king and few pawns not resign against a queen plus other minor pieces...

 My "Best Win" (against someone rated 700 points higher than me) came when I was down a bishop.  So, it doesn't matter what your rating is, or if your opponent believes you are "lost" due to material imbalance.  You resign when you believe you have nothing more to gain by playing on, and that's the only criteria - mate must be inevitable.  The idea that it is honorable is secondary to the fact that you are clearly losing in a position, since the loss must be guaranteed.  Otherwise, the outcome is not 100% assured.

I never waste the energy on a lost game.