Thursday, March 19, 2020

Never Resign?

     It’s not unusual to see raging forum debates among lower rated players about when, or even if, you should resign. 
     One common argument is that you should never resign because you can always try to create a stalemate. In 60+ years I’ve had exactly zero serious tournament games end in stalemate. If memory serves there have been a couple of offhand or blitz games but the stalemates weren’t the result of a cleverly “created” trap, but rather the result of a gross blunder. 
     The truth is “never resign" is beginner thinking and it should be! Beginners are prone to making horrific blunders. Once I saw a player offer a draw in an ending where he had a R+K vs. K. He commented, “There must be a way to win, but I don’t know how to do it.” HIS opponents should NEVER resign! 
     On the other hand, knowing when to resign is a sign of chess maturity. You should play until you are out of ideas...then it's OK to resign. Bobby Fischer once said he knew he was lost, but instead of resigning he played on a few more moves to make sure it was really true! Perhaps that’s not a bad idea because it may prevent things from happening like what happened to the great Miguel Najdorf in his game against Raul Sanquineti at Mar del Plata in 1956; he resigned in what has been claimed was a won position. 
     I think the claim that Najdorf resigned in won position came in the days before engines. Najdorf was not winning at all...not even close. In fact it was Sanguineti who was winning until he blundered and allowed a drawn position in which Najdorf resigned. 
     I ran Shootouts with Stockfish 11 and the games were all drawn. Usually they came down to white having a Q vs. R+B+2Ps and white got a perpetual check. 
     Najdorf resigned because he thought there was no defense against 59.Qe7 mate and didn't see that 58...Rxg4 gave his K an escape square on f5...an incredible oversight from a player of his stature and it cost him a clear first. It's also obvious that Sanguineti, a strong player himself, missed it in what was a double oversight. It's possible time may have been a factor.
     Tim Krabbe has 35 examples of players resigning in won positions HERE.

 Final standings: 
1) Julio Bolbochan and Najdorf 11.5 
3) Sanguineti 10.5 
4) Eliskases 10.0 
5-6) Jacobo Bolbochan and Redolfi 9.5 
7) Shocron 9.0 
8-9) Behrensen and Idigoras 8.5 
10) Pelikan 8.0 
11) Maderna 7.5 
12) Wexler 6.5 
13) Toth 6.0 
14-15) Rossetto and Reinhardt  4.5 
15) Olivera 2.5 
16) Gondim 0.0

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