What is your criteria for a losing position? I have had several games were I considered resigning, but played on to eventually win. In one game, the opponent's final piece was a rook and mine was a knight. I nearly resigned, however, I realized I had a chance because I had 3 linked pawns. I was able to use my knight and king to shepherd forward my pawns and eventually promote to a queen:
I wasn't relying on hope or an obvious blunder by my opponent. I was interested in seeing how strong my end game was and whether I could win even though I was down an exchange.
I always resign, I do not believe in miracles.
#21
@sandcastel that game was not obviously losing. You had better advanced pawns on the kingside which you very well used to churn up problems for the lone rook. A knight and a pawn isn't that bad against a rook. So it was worth cotinuing.
I think it depends on the time control - in blitz and bullet, you should fight till the end as the chance of your opponent blundering his or her advantage is much higher than in longer time controls. Also, not resigning does help you develop the skill of 'swindling' and trying to hold worse positions, a very important skill as you're always going to get bad positions from time to time.
Blundering is always possible, particularly at my level but being some type of Trumpian man child in the face of things is something I actively try to avoid. Life is too short.
@iPlaychess2 Not really. It is one of the ways a game can end within the rules. I respect your personal preferences and if I knew them in advance would surely accommodate them. However, online, against random strangers. Who can know this?
#26
That's not checkmate in one. f5 means the queen is defending h7, that game can still drag out for a long while.
At my level of play I think the biggest mistake people make is resigning after blundering their Queen. If you're playing at a lower level, losing the Queen for a minor piece does not automatically mean you'll lose the game.
Plus, since blunders are inevitable, I think it's important to learn how to play and regroup after making a blunder. I've seen people resign after blundering a Bishop in the middlegame, which, especially at a lower level, would never mean an automatic loss.
@CreativeThinking so should I have resigned this obviously losing game against a titled player at classical time controls?
Looking at the result I think I did well to continue playing... And when I was younger and playing lower rated opponents I have won way worse positions, like one with a queen and a rook down. You can't score less than 0 points by continuing to play. But you can certainly score more than 0.
so this is why all of my opponents are quitting the game without resigning. Please stop spreading this advice, it's really annoying to have to sit and wait before I can claim victory.
