Don't Resign in Winning Positions! Learn to be a Resilient Fighter

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00:00 Resignation 1
02:22 Resignation 2
04:26 Resignation 3
07:03 Resignation 4
08:53 Resignation 5
11:48 Homework
Resigning from a winning position is perhaps the greatest sin in chess and the most painful way to lose a game. This video features instructive examples where a player resigned despite being in a winning or drawn position. We explore the psychological aspects of chess, emphasizing the importance of not overestimating your opponent, which often leads to premature resignations. Additionally, we discuss how improving your calculation skills can prevent this issue. By visualizing just one or two moves deeper, you can uncover hidden resources and avoid unnecessary resignations.
Please give me feedback and share your practical experiences where either you or your opponent resigned in a winning position!

[@pakasokoste]

Thank you Dr Can. I solved everything except that Bg1 move, very hard to find. The homework is, I believe, a knight maneuver to f7, protecting the queening square. One line is Ne8+ Kh8 Nd6 b1=Q Nf7+ Kg7 h8=Q and white is probably very much winning.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Beautiful! Thank you.

[@user-gn4ed5rg1s]

In the second example, white should have taken on e7 instead of f6. That would have worked. Dear Can, I love your content, especially your love for chess and your great didactics. Keep the quality and the pace up, and your channel will grow like yeast. Best of luck from Germany, Wilhelm

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for your motivating thoughts 😊 Please do not hesitate sharing the channel with your chess friends. Love to Germany, Can

[@Mikejones011990]

"grow like yeast" - what a great phrase and compliment. I certainly hope so. The presentation and approach is outstanding. I can tell Dr. Can has a background in science. Translating that to chess isn't as simple as it might seem.

[@roeydaz]

Lovely Dr. Can. Always a great learning experience. I never miss a video lesson of yours!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

That is so lovely and motivating to hear, thank you so much! ❤

[@yoboy3220]

Thank you Can as always for your videos, so educative!🙏

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Humbled to hear your kind feedback 😊

[@user-gg6df4xr3i]

Seriously folks,dr can's chessables are well worth your time & money you will learn to play better chess...

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for your humbling comment. I have seriously created them to help my own students too 😉

[@user-gg6df4xr3i]

@@Dr.CansClinic Yes i can see that,keep doing what your doing sir.

[@user-nl7wn3ud7v]

Great coach

[@Dr.CansClinic]

❤

[@ElizabethGreene]

I don't resign because (I need the experience and) the giddy delight I feel in the rare occasion when my opponent waddles into a stalemate. The more ludicrous the position, e.g. they're gloating and have promoted 4 queens or something ludicrous, the more likely it is to happen. :D

[@Dr.CansClinic]

That is true! You never know - especially at the beginner level.

[@Mikejones011990]

At 1500, if I have 30 seconds on the clock, there's no stalemate. I'm pre-moving mate. There's a difference in being competitive and being petty. If you wait until you hang all your pieces to start thinking, I'm bringing all the ladies, Insight stats be damned. More often opponents just abandon the game. That happened more around 1300 for some reason. The resign button exists for a reason. Be competitive, but don't be petty. Unless you're under 1300...then all bets are off.

[@rotatingmind]

We common mortals often fail to do a simple blunder check.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

More on that in later videos!

[@magicvoice0741]

Key move.... 1.Ne8+!! 2.Nf7!!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Nice!

[@odgennash652]

Homework position is saved by a little knight dance: Ne8-d6-f7 which protects the queening square h8 just in time. If the black king insists on staying on g7 guarding h8 he even gets beautifully mated when Harry queens.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Very nice, thanks! Harry does queen in that line.

[@ivanzakharov8832]

As always, great video!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

As always, thank you! 😊

[@Daniel-G-P]

Dr Can, your videos are the best! ❤🙏🙂

[@Dr.CansClinic]

I am so happy to hear it ❤😊 So motivating!

[@peterintoronto6472]

The short two pawn draw is a beautiful example of wrenching free of the blatantly obvious.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Absolutely! Even moving beyond in considering we are not forced to capture free pawns...

[@Mikejones011990]

@@Dr.CansClinic When to grab pawns and when not to? I watched your video on it, but chess is tough. If it's a sac, is it sound? If it's just free, what's the real price? Are you letting him activate pieces? Does the tempo matter? Does he have a tactic? Botanists have a procedure to test if wild plants are safe to eat: touch it, wait an hour. If no rash or pain, rub it on your forearm, wait 6 hours. If no reaction, lick it, wait 12 hours. If no reaction, chew a small piece, spit it out, wait a day. If no reaction, eat a small piece and hope for the best. I guess we should treat pawns like that, but we usually don't have that much time. (Also, it's just lettuce. My 5 year old comes up with clever excuses to avoid anything green.) Moving K pawns is one of the trickiest decisions for me at 1500. Is it weaking or not? I guess the first step is not resigning.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

@@Mikejones011990 Loved your analogy on botany! Yes, a similar procedure goes on to figure out whether that pawn is poisonous. That is why chess expertise requires several years of dedicated study :) If you are around 1500, you can check my videos on how to reach 1800, and also 1500 :)

[@hossainmahi3559]

I love your videos! Thanks a lot for your valuable work! Could you please make a video or series about "Chess Anxiety" and how to deal with it? I suffer a lot from this, will be greatly appreciated!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for your motivating thoughts! I have added your idea to my video ideas :)

[@michaelf8221]

That Qxa2 resignation was particularly brutal haha

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Indeed. That hurts.

[@MarkPersoonlijk]

Loved this video. Here and there some light episodes are very welcome too 👍 I like to say: Don't resign in losing positions either! (I tried two times to post this with argumentation, but my message doesn't show up here eh.)

[@MarkPersoonlijk]

Because: 1. You train your defense skills. (Looks less sexy, but it combines great with attacking skills I think.) 2. You might learn from your opponent on how to convert advantages to wins. 3. You might make it a draw. Perpetual check for example. 4. You give your opponent the chance to train his/hers checkmating skills. 5. It could create a beautiful chess game, something to tell about how you got checkmated in an amazing way. 6. You might win!

[@MarkPersoonlijk]

I never give up, even if I blundered several times. A beautiful example for inspiration: I was playing Black, February 2023. I screwed up in several ways. (Back then I just had started the tactics trainings and I didn't had any chess courses by Can yet eh!) All the opponent had to do is checkmate me after he penetrated my defense. But I didn't gave up! I tried to be as difficult as I could be (some opponents send messages like that I show disrespect blahblah). What I did: King run! As the opponent had a hard time while the clock was ticking, he made one critical blunder haha. That was my moment, I check mated him like there was no tomorrow 😎 Link to game (as reply):

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks Mark! :)

[@KikanKikan-wb1wr]

In minute 6.20 if white turn Qc5 ,Nc6 Qxg5+,Qg6 Qxg6+,Bxg6 g4 and white has extra pawn

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks!

[@brainfellow5140]

Re: Homework: The only thing I see here is Nh5+ and depending on where black moves, white will queen first and can begin delivering checks. Another option is Kg4 first but once black queens at b1=Q on the next move, white has to keep delivering checks otherwise will lose initiative. Either way, it's no reason to resign from this position.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you! Have you looked at Ne8+ followed by Nd6 & Nf7+ to escort the h-pawn?

[@brainfellow5140]

@@Dr.CansClinic I actually pruned Ne8+ out of my candidate moves because I didn't think it would lead anywhere... I saw black king just moves to the corner Kh8 and if white pushes g7+, black king will Kxh7 and white cannot get a queen because knight is stuck guarding g7, black can then queen b1=Q and win or force a draw... Maybe I overlooked something but not entirely seeing the line you mentioned.

[@huckmart2017]

I always resign when im winning

[@Dr.CansClinic]

In life or chess?

[@MarkPersoonlijk]

Your comment sounds funny. But there is some truth in that. I noticed a lot of winning opponents just resign when the idea comes to mind they might be loosing. Lots of potential beautiful games weren't played! (Because of that this episode by Can is important.) Especially on the board I use this sometimes to my advantage. I appear to have some vicious and genius plan, but I am actually blundering. They lose their critical thinking and I still win. I renewed my passion in chess as an adult after I found out there is a lot of emotional en mind game in chess.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

@@MarkPersoonlijk Thank you Mark! So true on this psychological side of chess, when two humans - with emotions - are battling each other. It is an open information game, and yet emotional triggers play a big part!

[@huckmart2017]

@@Dr.CansClinic lol i wrote this comment because i thought your title was a typo and was supposed to say "don't resign in losing positions". So i was just being a sarcastic twat. But then i watched the video and realized it wasn't a typo lol

[@totallynotgale]

Have a comment to please the algorithm. Love your lessons Dr Can

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much! You also made me happy on top of the algorithm 😊

[@twentyrothmans7308]

I tried to resign against a friend of mine. He showed me my mate in three :-) 10:44 After ...Bg1 Rxg1 Rxd3 Bxd3 I mean, Black's up, but not by that much, and you really want a Knight to get to f2. Perhaps I'm missing something. Homework I'm in a hurry, but checking with the Knight is my guess. Thanks, and have a good weekend.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you! Have a nice weekend too! Black has a winning material advantage there, but it will take effort to convert. It is better than resigning in any case :)

[@magicvoice0741]

Super👏👏👏👏♥️♥️❤️❤️😘😘😘😘😘😘😘

[@Dr.CansClinic]

😊 ❤

[@lehrerb42]

In position 2 it's also possible to see one ply deeper and resign/ think you are losing because of Bxh6, but the dark Bishop watches over g7 and another ply deeper Qf6 counter attacks yet again with an attack on the white bishop, f2 and b2.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Absolutely, thank you for paying attention to that detail!

[@DanielDollinger1959]

It seems that resigning early is one flavor of emotionally giving up. You are in an emotional box that your opponent and you have constructed for perhaps 40 moves. You can only see one flow and it is a bad one. So you do something stupid or you resign. More correct is to have the imagination to think outside the prison you constructed. Much easier said than done. Obviously for your test, there is a knight move that allows a pawn to promote. I am not seeing it clearly (calculation skills not up high enough) but I know its there.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for your extremely wise words, Dan!

[@mikkelhansen3714]

How did you find these positions? are they from your students and if so how much did you yell at them for resigning?

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Mixed bag. Some of them are famous ones from history. Some random online games. I am not from the yelling school of chess coaching - at least not yet 😉

[@user-ot8bb3ng7o]

I think 🤔 sometimes we allow ourselves to one outcome and the mind holds on to the idea in a position that we exclude orther resources 😢i tend to call it a chess blind spot,ding fell into a blind spot against Carlsen norway chess,an made super blunder every one was shocked😮 great video

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Absolutely! Well said. I saw Ding's blind spot...

[@rosscup_yt]

Did you change the way you say the "r" in rook?

[@Dr.CansClinic]

It keeps swinging, depending on the mood.

[@manuelfuentes4509]

13th... and video released 2 hrs ago.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

13th comment on a Friday... Conspiracy...

[@Mikejones011990]

@@Dr.CansClinic I was using the restroom around the time you guys commented. A kid walked up to the next stall and completely missed. Peed all over the floor and my shoe. Why did you conspire to make that happen?