Refusing to resign...

Why do some players refuse to resign when the odds are so stacked against them?  Are they hoping they will win by time out?

I've got one game which my opponent has a King and 4 pawns left.  I still have 2 rooks and a Queen left.  ???

Which of your games stick in your memory about players refusing to resign?

one of the never ending questions at chess.com.  there are so many reasons.   i tend to think people should resign in lost positions.

The next player who disconnects, abandons or logs off in a lost position, goes on my no play list!!!!!   This getting tiresome and frustrating.

If its OTB then PLEASE resign a lost position, unless its a D or below game.  If its a online game then play on as long as you want.  I only have to check to see if you have resigned or not, its not a big waste of my time to check. 

We all hate that, why people do it? I don't know, is there a way to block that person, so you don't need to play "it" ever again? (not i tournaments)

I have drawn 3 games with an overwhelmingly lost position (Like Q + R + B against my K)...I am sorry, but I am not entirely convinced a <1400 may not fall for a stalemate even though it should be easy enough to avoid.  

In one game, I blatantly placed my last piece (rook) next to a 1300-1400 player's king (he also had multiple other pieces and pawns to my lone R) and he just took it!  Against an 1800+ player, I typically resign but <1400, there is a chance I may draw with such an overwhelmingly lost position.

I play for the hole point, a draw in a lost position dosen't give me much satisfaction.

There are loads of threads on this - check them out for peoples' thoughts.

I think it is a good idea to resign a lost position in turn-based chess, but everyone has a different idea of what a lost position is.

I'm playing a guy at the minute who seems to refuse to resign lost games right until the move before checkmate when he resigns at the last second. Best way to deal with that is to set up conditional moves and forget about it.

Try not to worry about it, whatever way your opponent plays. Never let someone get the edge by winding you up.

In some cases, I think that refusing to resign is a tactic.  I've had a few live chess games where my opponents have a lost position and will let several minutes run off their clock before making a move.  I suspect they hope that I will become inattentive and lose on time because I hadn't realized that they had moved (or get disconnected and lose by default).

it's annoying but it's their right. however, under a certain rating i don't think players should resign. they should practice their endgames anyway. i have been in situations where i've wanted to finish out the game and have been upset that the player simply resigned. sure i won, but i didn't learn as much as i could have.

I believe a player should resign if it is clear there is no chance they will win. However some people are greatly against resigning. After I resigned one game my opponent called me a pussy and told me he would not play with anymore because I was garbage. He comments only made me feel worst about losing since I realized lost to  a ...(I'll try to avoid name-calling)

It's not a problem at all. I play people at all kinds of ratings and it's their choice to play or to resign when they are losing. I have enough other games and things to do so I am not annoyed at all.

yes

but there are psykopaht ,who don,t want resigne ,because ..

I met a fellow at an OTB tournament once and through the course of the 3 day tournament we hung out quite a bit. Late in the tournament he told me that he has never resigned a chess game in his whole life. "You can't win if you resign" he said.  He was rated about 1500-something USCF, so surely he knew some positions were just hopeless.

As I was asking him some rediculous examples "what if you have a bare king and your opponent has two queens?" we went to check the pairings for the last round. "Nope, still wouldn't resign." he replied.

We knew there was a chance of it, but it was still surprising to see we were paired against each other in the last round. I turned to him and said "I guess I'll just have to mate you in the middle game." And I did. So I guess I don't have a refusal to resign story. :-)

who knows....

they do it for different reasons.some of em are beginners that don't know any better,others might stall just out of spite (if you've said something the staller might not like in the chat box,then that might account for that),others might be in denial and may be delluding themselves that they can still save the game.it's different for everybody.

I just resign lost positions immediately (most of the times,sometimes I continue a few moves,I'm a bit guilty of the denial thing myself from time to time.)

If it's a tournament game, however, the impact may be wider reaching.  When it's one of my opponents I at least have 50% control over the pace of play.  When it's a game between two players that are holding up the advancement of a tournament not only are the other players who've advanced not able to manage any aspect of the pace, but there are also many more people affected.

Ok, I have a recent story. I was paired against a much stronger guy in a team match.

The 1st game, he reached an easily won position, and I would have resigned on the spot, except for the fact that he made what I considered the winning move, and before before I could move, he insisted I resign. Now, I dont like that, it's still my decision, so I played a few more moves before resigning.

Then cane the return game, and somehow I killed him. Not only did he not resign, he waited till the last moment before making his move, a full 3 days per move, judge for yourself: (bear in mind this guy insists his opponents resign)

Care to note the point in the game you consider him to have an obviously superior position.  At a glance I'm missing it.

It was a team match, there were 2 games. He easily won the 1st, that's the one where he told me to resign. This is the 2nd game. Sorry for the confusion...

I used to be one of those "Never resign!" players. Now I have learned some manners, and also that there is no real gain to be had from playing on in the hope of a lucky stalemate.