Thursday, November 8, 2007

Is It Necessary To Play Till The Death?

I played 3 rapid games last night at my chess club. My last game was against Vincent. I ended up in a hopelessly losing position. And rather than choosing to resign, I chose to play on till near checkmate. Vincent wasn't happy with me after the game saying it was not a gentlemanly thing to do. He refused my handshake after the game and I didn't realise that he would get so upset over that.

Well, a couple of players at the chess club have a notoriety of playing till checkmate and I didn't see why he had to get so upset with me when other people are doing the same. I didn't like it but that doesn't mean they don't have a right to do it and I acknowledged that.

Which brings me to the question? When do you resign? Do you resign when you're a piece down?

In any other game, I would've instantly resigned in a hopeless situation and would have done so. I felt a bit lousy after the game for making Vincent go through the motions. I won't do that again, that's for sure, at least not against him or Alan.

FYI I did apologise to him much later and he was more receptive.

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