I think this question must be seen in the context of the game.
Is it a correspondence / teaching / tournament / live / blitz game etc.
Is it necessary in a live tournament game to play to the very end if you for yourself don 't see a way of winning, but want to “test” out some things? The other player might have another game afterwards and you forcing him to still invest and not make a stupid “blunder”. Sometimes it really feels like waisting the other persons time and as far as i feel, i think it’s “honourable” or the right thing to do to resign if you, yourself don’t feel you can win the game, especially against an better opponent that is unlikely to make a huge mistake.
On the other side in correspondence games i think every situation, the 1 point ko etc. can teach both players a lot and if you engage in such a game you should be aware of people trying to enjoy themselves as they wish.
This uncomfortable feeling that some describe of not knowing often times can be resolved by communication : )- just ask the other player how he feels about it.
In my opinion, one should never feel obligated to resign. You have the right to play any game through to the end (although playing pointless moves after the boundaries are settled is rude, especially if you are trying to win by timeout). Playing through to the end in no way demonstrates poor etiquette.
Pressuring your opponent to resign, on the other hand, is very bad etiquette. If your opponent is behind and still wishes to play through to the end, patiently play to the end. It allows you an opportunity to develop one of the most difficult skills in Go: winning a won game.
I suppose the only thing left to talk about is what is a “pointless move?” Reading comes into play. I find myself not wanting to play kyu 10 stones lower than me because I will likely be waiting for them to figure out what they could have figured out by playing igowin.
On the other hand, I know that I play what my opponents consider “pointless moves” that I feel might upturn the game!
By “pointless move” I mean a move you yourself believe is pointless. You’re hoping for your opponent to misclick (not blunder, misclick) or run out of time, or you’re simply trying to irritate them. Very different from trying to exploit your opponent’s bad aji in a position that may or may not be settled.
Yes, I don’t see any problem with playing a game out, but I draw the line if one of the players starts playing pointless moves in the opponent’s territory. Like, I feel it’s ok to go for an all or nothing invasion or capturing race as a last ditch effort, but if your opponent can pass 5 times in a row and still kill your stones, you should probably either count or resign.
I completely miscalculated the ladder and once I realised that, at the very end, I decided that the game was probably lost and I didn’t feel like hanging around for the slaughter, so I resigned. Anyway, my opponent took it really personally and the following conversation took place:
[9:52] pxb: why resign?
[9:53] pxb: did your mother abuse you?
[9:54] pxb: i see…
[9:54] pxb: get over it and come play again
[9:58] SgtSunshine: well - usually I’d be happy to give you a rematch, but if you’re going to
talk like a k–b then I don’t think I’ll bother. I resigned because I
didn’t think i could recover from the damage you were about to do. What would be the point of continuing?
[9:59] SgtSunshine: apart from feeding your ego that is?
Anyway I guess I should offer an apology to my opponent. I usually say something like “Looks like you win” or similar before I resign, but in this case I didn’t, and I guess that if I’d played on I might have learned something, but I suspect that it wasn’t concern for the development of my game that prompted the outburst:)
Anyway - it made me grin. I suppose anyone with a shred of decency would have played on and given their opponent their anticipated bloodbath. I must be a horrible person
I am one of the people who likes to resign rarely and I think that it was appropriate to resign and that there is no reason to interact with this user again.
(I don’t know what your swearword means, though. Possibly, you might want to apologise for that.)
Well - the word in question is hardly even a swearword, but in the context of a hissy fit from an opponent I think it fit the situation nicely. I couldn’t apologise for that without being an utter hypocrite.
Am I blind? I don’t get why you thought, that you misread the ladder? I mean how can white set you atari? He can only bring you down to two liberties and then you have enough time to abuse the plenty cutting points.
… facepalm… ok the answer is clear, I am blind. Too add something constructive: I think the shock alone, after realizing the ladder isn’t working, is reason enough to resign. It’s psychological I think. You have a plan which is working well you think and suddenly you see him falling apart. In such a situation the impulse to resign is really strong. The behaviour of your opponent by the way is, childish just ignore him.
Just as I don’t think there’s any obligation to resign in Go, nor do I believe there’s an obligation to play on. Resign whenever you wish. No apology necessary. Your opponent’s behavior was rude and inappropriate. I agree with @Wulfenia, there is no reason to play against this person again.
Well - he was probably looking forward to punishing my mistake thoroughly and I guess he was as frustrated at missing that, as I was for giving him so many captures. You never know, he might learn something of value from this, If nothing else, not to be so emotionally invested in the game. A lesson I would do well to learn
You can offer a creative retort with lots of expletives, if that is your thing.
Then you should close their chat window and not play against this person ever again.
Well - It always seems a bit petulant to me when someone resigns without a word, and I’ll admit I was feeling annoyed at myself for misjudging the ladder so badly, It would have been polite just to say “Ok - looks like game over.” or something similar. Thing is I was too busy slapping myself around the head to think of that
I would say that you should resign right at that moment when you are sure you can’t win. If you think there is still something you can do that gives you the possibility to win, do it first.
If there is a situation when you already have won the game and the other player keeps playing, well, then you can break the silence with “did you notice that the upper side would have lived if you had played H16” type of comments.
I’d like to offer a perspective that I didn’t see voiced here, but admittedly might have missed. I don’t know what the proper etiquette is, but I know what I find to be annoying, and I assume I am not alone in that, so I try not to do it myself. I personally don’t mind at all if a game is played out that is basically decided. I don’t think it is rude to resign or not resign. However, once all areas of the board are settled, and the losing player makes another 50 desperate moves, none of which accomplish anything, that is annoying, and seems a bit rude to me.
