Sparing unnecessary suffering

[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]

When people start playing chess, everything is rather confused and the conversion of an advantage fraught with danger, so that resignation by the losing side is neither necessary nor necessarily a good idea.

Later on, things become much clearer and there are positions in which it really is best to resign and spare oneself unnecessary suffering, even if one time in a million the opponent might have messed it up

Indeed resignation is part of chess etiquette and I really feel that people should do so, though there are exceptions - even if they become excellent, young kids may well not want to resign till they're 9 or 10 years old, and even if a position is lost, as long as there is any hope or you can see any tricks, then you should definitely carry on. The etiquette has also been affected by online play, and I must say, not necessarily for the better.

I'm writing this in the context of the imbroglio on another platform in which Hikaru Nakamura resigned a rapidplay game against Magnus Carlsen in a position which turned out not only not to be lost but to be demonstrably winning!

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After Carlsen played 32...Bg4, Nakamura thought for only a few seconds before resigning, even though he had about three minutes on his clock.

Later he described it as "the Carlsen effect", and it was lucky for Carlsen that after starting his combination five moves earlier he hadn't seen the refutation because, if he had, he might have paused before playing ...Bg4, which would surely have transmitted itself to Nakamura even in a virtual game.

Apparently Carlsen put the engine on after the game was over and had a big shock when it went beep and told him 33.Rfg3!, so he wasn't bluffing but, in principle, even if he had seen the refutation beforehand then, given that nothing else was going to work, it would have been best to bash the move out anyway.

Magnus Carlsen | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Over the years, there have been many instances of misguided resignations in drawn or even winning positions, and I thought that we'd look at a few more today, starting with an old chestnut:

After 36.Rd1 Black resigned, believing that he was losing a piece, but there was a way out. The reason appears in the dynamic replayer at the end of the article.

In 1984, Murray Chandler, who was then editor (and I think proprietor) of the venerable British Chess Magazine, produced a one off shore spoof "Not the BCM". One item was a blunder of the year, and this was the winner chosen by a panel that included myself and Tony Miles, amongst others. Here Black offered a draw without playing his move and White quite rightly requested one.

After 28...Qxb2+! it's mate in three more moves: 29.Kxb2 Rb3+ 30.Ka1 Ra8+ 31.Ba6 Rxa6#, and forgetting that he'd been offered a draw, White resigned!

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The next example is justly (in)famous as the best player on the planet faced by the very best computer not unreasonably believed it and resigned rather than trying for perpetual check. Of course, machines can analyse a vast distance and nowadays they are fearsomely accurate, but back in 1997 there was still much more subject to the "horizon effect" in which they "believed" that a line was clear too early and here it turns out that Black is, in fact, drawing!

Garry Kasparov facing Deep Blue in 1997

I can't remember resigning prematurely very often, but there was a London League game against the strong FIDE Master - he really ought to become an IM at some stage - Peter Sowray, in which faced with exchanging the last pair of rooks I resigned thinking that it was over, but subsequent analysis showed it should be drawn.

This was the position where I resigned - the rest of the game appears in the pgn too.

Incidentally, I nearly forgot that as I write on Sunday, June 1^st it's Nigel Short's sixtieth birthday, so Happy Birthday Nigel!

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