Sometimes It’s Wrong to Resign

    The other day I was playing over some of my old OTB games from 1976 and in one tournament one of my wins came when my opponent overstepped the time limit in an ending where I had a R+B+2Ps vs. R+B+P, but my extra P was a useless a-Pawn and the Bs were opposite color. It was a dead draw. 

    Another win came when my opponent resigning in a position that was also drawn! How lucky can you get? 

    FM Dennis Monokroussos said there may be nothing worse than resigning in a winning position and Tim Krabbe once discovered 35 examples where it happened.

    Monokroussos also added that resigning in a drawn position, as my opponent did in this game, doesn't feel very good either. He wisely added that it isn't always obvious that the position ought to be drawn, so vigilance is needed to the very end.

    At Dos Hermanas in 1999 Peter Svidler took a draw against Anand when he had a forced win. And, in his match against Deep Blue in 1997 Kasparov first resigned a game he could have drawn, then later in a tournament took a draw against Joel Lautier in a position that he could have won. At least my opponent in the following game was not alone. 

[Event "Cincinnati"] [Site "?"] [Date "1976.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Tartajubow"] [Black "Opponent"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C12"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "1976.??.??"] [WhiteTeamCountry "IND"] [BlackTeamCountry "ENG"] {C12: French: Classical System: McCutcheon Variation} 1. e4 {[%mdl 32]} e6 {When this game was played Botvinnik's 100 Selected Games was ny constant companion and so I was happy to see this because as black I usually played the French myself.} 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 {The Classical Variation. White's main options are 4.e5 and 4.Bg5} 4. Bg5 {The threat is 5.e5, attacking the pinned N. Black has a number of ways to meet this threat.} Bb4 {The McCutcheon Variation in which black sharpens the play very early and indicates his wish to win. Black ignores white’s threat and prefers to threaten white’s center himself. This interesting and sharp strategy gave Viktor Korchnoi a number of fine victories.} 5. e5 h6 6. exf6 {The main line used to be 6.Bd2, but nowadays 6.Be3 is preferred. The text doesn’t work out very well in practice.} hxg5 7. fxg7 Rg8 8. Qh5 {A better move would have been 8.h4} Qf6 9. Nf3 {There was no time to retreat. After this black is better.} (9. Qh7 {keeps things equal.} Rxg7 10. Qh8+ Bf8 11. h4 g4 12. h5) 9... Qxg7 10. h4 g4 (10... gxh4 11. Qxh4 Bd7 12. O-O-O Nc6 {and black gas only equality.}) 11. Ne5 Nd7 12. Nxd7 {12.Bd3 was worth a try.} Bxd7 13. O-O-O Bxc3 $146 {After this any advantage black may have had has disappeared. He would have done better to attack my Q with 13...Rh8} (13... Rh8 14. Qe5 Qxe5 15. dxe5 Bc5 {ow white’s e-and f-Pawns are hard to defend.}) 14. bxc3 Rh8 15. Qe5 Qxe5 16. dxe5 c5 {Against Rd4} 17. Be2 Rg8 18. f3 g3 {He should have played 18...gxf3. Black was hoping to keep by B limited and at the same time attack the h-Pawn.} 19. f4 Ke7 20. Rh3 {The idea is to play both Rs to the third rank and attack the g-Pawn before advancing my h-Pawn.} Rg7 21. Rd3 {This allows black the opportunity to get the advantage which he does immediately. Advancing the h-Pawn would have been more effective.} Bb5 {Eliminating his bad B.} 22. Rd2 Bxe2 23. Rxe2 {[%mdl 4096]} Rg4 24. Re3 Rxf4 25. Rexg3 {I thought I was winning here, but the engines give black a small advantage. Apparently the discombobulated g-and h-Pawns aren’t going anywhere and all my other Ps are weak as kittens.} Rh8 26. h5 {[%mdl 32]} Rf5 {There goes a P.} 27. h6 Rxe5 28. Rg7 Re1+ {After this black’s advantage ceases to exist.} (28... Kf6 {keeps the upper hand.} 29. Rg4 Rg5 30. Rf3+ Rf5 31. Rh3 Ke7 {Of course black does not want to repeat moves.} 32. a4 Rf1+ {Black has some winning chances because of white's weak Ps. Practically speaking though double R endings are difficult. In Shootouts white scored +0 -2 =3}) 29. Kb2 {This keeps black's R from attacking the a-Pawm, but 29.Kd2 was equallyplayable.} Rf1 30. h7 {[%mdl 32768] Now after a couple of minutes thought black, seeing no way to stop 31.Rg8, resigned. Somehow he missed the obvious 30...Kf8. Ot's interesting that a tactical analysis using Stockfish gives white a Weighted Error valie of ).25 (precise and black 0.31!} (30. h7 Kf8 31. Rhg3 (31. Rgg3 {Black can mobilize his Ps to create winning chances.}) 31... Ke7 {And there is no way for either side to make progress.}) 1-0