We’ve all been there (some of us more often than others!)

We try our best, but the game is not going our way.

We have lost a significant amount of material or we’re under a crushing attack or (you fill the blanks).

Is it time to resign?

Definitely not.

Before I take this further, I just want to clarify something here:

I don’t advocate playing until mate.

Unless you’re a beginner (where miracles are known to happen quite often) or your opponent is in severe time trouble, I wouldn’t advise you to just prolong the game until you’re checkmated.

This is bad sportsmanship and you will annoy A LOT of people before you may actually save a game out of a hundred.

Instead, you should adopt another strategy:

1. Relax

If you have a lost position, then you have no pressure whatsoever. If someone should feel some pressure, that’s your opponent who needs to finish the job and make sure he doesn’t screw things up. You have nothing to lose any more, but you can only gain…

2. Come up with a new plan

Change your perspective completely and try to look at the situation with fresh eyes. You have to abandon your previous ‘conventional’ approach and start looking for a non-conventional recipe to continue the game.

3. Play actively

Don’t wait passively for the end. Try to pose as many problems to your opponent as possible. Give him opportunities to make mistakes and make him sweat to solve the new challenges you throw at him. Set up traps and prepare tactical strikes. If he doesn’t have much time on the clock, it is likely he will miss something and give you the opportunity to come back in the game.

4. Last try

If everything else fails and you cannot possibly turn the tables, think about actively pursuing a draw. You may want to trade pieces and reach a drawn endgame with less material. Or there may be an opportunity to force a stalemate.

(That will be a great story to tell your friends at the chess club!) J

The spirit of this post is clear.

NEVER RESING until you have exhausted all possible resources.

It has happened repeatedly (and very occasionally in GM games) that a player may resign prematurely or even in a winning position.

Don’t be that player!