Whenever I'm about to resign, I think to myself "if colors were reversed, and I had the superior position against a GM, would I feel confident winning it 10/10 times?" If the answer is no, then I keep playing.

You see, my standards of resignation in this spot (and in my ongoing games currently) are laxer than they'd be in a serious game, see this post for an explanation. Currently, I'd just like to get frustrating games off my chest quickly.

E.g. here's my most recent resigned position on chess.com; note that it was vs an FM; I felt I would have been utterly lost (taking the difference in endgame skills into account) had I exchanged the queens, and there was no way to avoid the exchange because otherwise Black would have just invaded my queenside with his queen and gobbled a pawn or two. Stockfish gives me about -2 here.



In the final position of the Malkovich game, I thought I was -1.5 at best, again, vs a better (though untitled) player.

In a serious game, I resign when I feel that Stockfish would give me -3 or worse.

However you guys feel about the game, it was really cool that you volunteered to do this entertaining open game on this forum. It was fun to follow it. Thanks.

Yeah props to both players. I'd never want to do this. So much stress.

Thank you, dear readers, for making the thread 'thrice hot' (over 200 replies + >2x5K views)

I need to look more into 25... Nc2 and why the outpost on d4 is so powerful. I most probably thought on Nc2 briefly during the game, but I didn't see any targets for this knight in the White camp (except b3, which I thought could be advanced to b4 and exchanged); besides, I thought the knight could be easy to swap off (Nc3-e2xd4). I missed that I could play 25... Nc2 26. Rxe8+ Rxe8 27. Rf1 Kf8 [so that the exchange on b5 don't end with Bxb5+ with a tempo] 28. a5 [preventing b5; one of the benefits of Nc2 is that the a1 rook is distracted and a6xb5 becomes possible without worrying about the Rxa7 sac exchange] Nd4 29. Ne2 Nxb3! 30. Bxb3 c4+.

25.-Nc2 would be good even if the knight did nothing on c2/d4, mostly because the position after 25.-Nxc4 sucks (as lka pointed out). But yeah, the Nxb3 idea is really important and hovers over the position.