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Resign or Checkmate?

Which one gives/loses the most points?

If you are in a position of forced checkmate, and you resign, is that the good choice for ratings?
It makes no difference whatsoever. The system doesn't discern under which circumstances the game came to its conclusion.
Resigning is good for your sportsmanship points, and putting up a good fight even in a losing position is good for your style points.
I think that playing a lost position is rude. Otherwise you are kind of underestimating your opponent.
Also, I always resign in lost positions because I find it rather depressing to be fighting just for a draw, and with less pieces than my opponent. The game is not enjoyable any more. Even if I get to draw, it's not worth it. Note that I am not talking about bullet chess! haha
2005 UEFA Champions League Final.

My team, Liverpool, was losing 3-0 at half time.

We ended up beating AC Milan.

Nuff said.
Sometimes it's nice to practice on squeezing out a tiny bit of hope from a losing position, even though you _know_ that you will lose the game 99% of the time. I don't get angry when other players does it to me.

Unless you're a really good player, there's always the chance that you'll accidentally stalemate your opponent, especially in the blitz and faster time controls. If you opponent plays on while you're clearly winning, just take the rest of the game of an exercise of playing consolidating a winning position.
If you are trying to raise your rating rapidly, resigning when it is clear your position is lost will allow you to play more games and your rating will rise faster provided you have the relevant skill level.
magnus says don't resign lost positions, at least on amateur levels. presumably there are things to be learned; your opponent might blunder a draw or loss. I know I go on autopilot when I'm winning and often blow the win, and I generally get frustrated when the opponent is lost and doesn't resign. rule of thumb: if it annoys me when an opponent does something, it's probably a good psychological strategy for me to employ as well. of course, there are exceptions. resigning lost positions may not necessarily be better for rating because of these draw/win possibilities, or in a series, gaining a psychological advantage by keeping your opponent working for the win. in blitz and bullet, of course there's flagging options too, so you can speed up and see if your opponent can't mate you in time or blunders along the way. I usually play positionally, so playing very tactically and looking for cheapos when losing helps improve an area of the game I may normally ignore in winning positions. sorry to blab on.
Play on if you think it's worth playing. Resign if you think it's worth giving up.

The one and only one thing that truly annoys me? People who play on for 8 or 9 more moves after losing significant material and don't see that they are about to lose even more. After losing a queen and both rooks, with their king out in the center of the board, they muster on with pathetic move after pathetic move. Then when you make the first check of a forced mate, they leave the game, or they run out the clock, or they run down the clock a bit and then resign.

Seriously, if you're about to lose every major piece on the board with no compensation, resign it. If you are going to play on, play on until the game concludes, don't just get pissy when you can't win without your queen and both rooks and leave as soon as your opponent (who was already higher rated than you) proves that they have a win. It's so absurd.

Seriously frustrating. I hope no one reading this does such things, so I'm likely preaching to the choir here.
#9 Yeah, those players (who play on until they see checkmate) encourage me to capture all their pieces and underpromote all my pawns.

In general I resign once I no longer have winning or drawing chances... and part of that is considering, "Does my opponent understand how to win this position?" If my opponent is making random moves (trying to win on time) I do tend to play on.

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