When should you resign?

The post 2 slots below (Some Brotherly Love) provoked some correspondence. The question was "Why did black resign?" and ignoring issues about losing to your brother etc it is quite a good question.
However I'll answer it as a slightly different question, "When should you resign?"
There is a quote attributed to the Danish GM Bent Larsen which is "You should resign when the spectators understand why you are resigning". Of course this is then dependent upon the chess knowledge of the spectators, and is therefore hard to judge.
For most chess players I think the unwritten rule is "You resign when you believe your opponent is going to win". Of course taken to an extreme that may lead to more games like Fischer v Panno 1970 (1.c4 Black resigns), but usually it is the position on the board, rather than the opponent you face that counts.
Some players use a material rule of thumb to decide when to resign. One member of the PNG Olympiad team says he won't resign when down a piece as his opponent may blunder it back. The obvious rejoinder to this is "But which player has done the blundering so far?"
Interestingly enough these unwritten rules only seem to apply in "normal" situations. I've often seen (and heard of) players playing on after losing a piece before move 10, when if they had lost a piece after say move 15, they would have resigned instantly. It is as though the course of the game isn't an "usual" one, (ie it isn't usual to blunder so early), and therefore "usual" guidelines do not apply.
And one final thought. I once heard a quote concerning chess as a spectator sport for non-serious chess players. "They play for 4 hours and just when it is getting interesting, one of them gives up". Clearly for serious chess players the interest is what happens before the resignation, for casual players it may be in how the game is finished off.
Maybe it is time to remove the option to resign from the laws of chess.

Normal Service is to be Resumed

The O2C Doeberl Cup and the Sydney International Open weren't 2 tournaments back to back, they were one 18 round tournament held over 10 days (with no rest days). Or at least that is how it felt to me.
But I am back in Canberra and will return to blogging about more mundane chess matters for the next couple of months.
However for now I would like to run a small contest. The diagram on the right comes from Chekhover - Veresov (USSR Ch 1934). What is remarkable about this game? The first correct answer in the comments section will win a copy of my upcoming report "The application of the 'Gibraltar' Rule at the 2008 O2C Doeberl Cup". And a second copy if anyone can post me the full score of this game (not the abbreviated version that lives in Megabase etc)

Some brotherly love

It is one of the unavoidable facts of (chess) life that sometimes you get paired against people you don't want to be paired against. I'm not talking about me v Kasparov or even Kramnik v Topalov, but in the case of many swisses, members of your own family.
Of course this is due to the faceless pairing programs used by arbiters these days (one press of the button and the draw is done), and under the FIDE Swiss Pairing Rules we don't change such pairings. But annoying as this is, it can be even more annoying when paired against, say, your brother, and he doesn't even play nice.

Stojic,D - Stojic,S [B23]
Canberra Doeberl Cup (3.32), 21.03.2008

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bc4 e6 6.0-0 Nge7 7.d3 a6 8.a4 0-0 9.Qe1 d6 10.f5 exf5 (D)
11.Qh4 fxe4 12.Ng5 1-0

Sorry seems to be an easy word

Chess tournaments make me cranky. Although it may be that I'm cranky all the time, as GM Ian Rogers remarked "Apart from the extra swearing I can't tell the difference". But I was cheered up to receive not one but two apologies over issues to do with a couple of chess tournaments I was involved with.
In both instances it was a correction over things that were factually incorrect, but often in the heat of the argument people even refuse to correct simple misinformation. And in my case this is not helped by my often prickly manner in pointing these mistakes out to them ("arrogant and high handed" would be a good description of my demeanor), so I do appreciate it when people get past this.
So I thank them for their apology and I hope it makes me less cranky in my behaviour in the future.

** NB The second sentence of this post was changed to make clear who Ian Rogers was referring to (ie me)

Getting a norm

With the O2C Doeberl Cup and the Sydney International Open running back to back, the topic of title norms comes up. And more importantly, what you need to do to get one. Obviously perform above 2600 for a GM norm etc, but it is a little more complicated than that.
In the case of large open swisses the effects of early results can be vitally important. As the first couple of rounds have large score groups you can often bounce between GM's and 1800 rated opponents, especially if you lose to a GM. And by the time you get towards meeting them again, the tournament can almost be over.
Probably the best strategy is to get off to a fast start by winning your first 2 games, and hoping for a strong result (win against 2200+ or draw against GM/IM) in round 3. Then if you falter in Round 4 you may only drop down to a 2200+ player, keeping your norm chances alive. Indeed this is what Gareth Oliver did at last years SIO, while Tomek Rej seems to be following the script at this years event.
And talking of title norms, the O2C Doeberl Cup actually produced 3 GM norms and 8 IM norms. However in almost all cases these norms were earned by players that already had the relevant title, with WGM Ruofan Li being the only player to earn a norm towards a new title (IM). Clearly this indicates the field and format were right for title norms, players just needed the right results to earn them.

2008 Sydney International Open - Random Observations

At the Doeberl Cup the arbiters were replete in yellow tops, at the SIO they wear red. This lead Carl Haessler to remark upon entering the SIO playing hall and spotting the same arbiting team "You guys just change the colour of your shirts and start again"
And speaking of arbiters. GM Surya Ganguly was impressed by the strength of the organising teams. With an FM heading the organising team, and one olympiad player and a 2100 Elo rated player as arbiters he said "It is unusual to see such a strong arbiting team. You guys can actually play".
The DGT broadcasting system worked from the word go. Given that a stock of 9 boards had been rendered in-operational over the last 12 months, it was fortunate that the Australian organisers were able to source technical expertise from the Papua New Guinea Chess Federation in order to repair some of the boards. The continued assistance from the PNGCF should enable the rest of the boards to be repaired shortly.

2008 O2C Doeberl Cup - Finito

The 2008 O2C Doeberl Cup finished with an outright win for American GM Varuzhan Akobian, with 7.5/9. Akobian finished with 6 wins and 3 draws (including a first round draw), leaving him a full point ahead of 7 players on 6.5. Equal second were GM Zhang (SIN), GM Jones (ENG), GM Ganguly (IND), GM Gagunashvili (GEO), GM Antic (SRB), IM Solomon (AUS), IM Kizov (MKD).
The Major ended in a win for Blair Mandla (6.5) after drawing with Andrewy Bliznyuk. Bliznyuk finished equal second with Brendon Norman and Kerry Stead (6.0). In the Minor Emma Guo score 7/7 ahead of Michael Ngo (6) and Trent Parker 5.5.
Over all the event attracted 229 players (a record) as well as a large number of spectators who enjoyed both the event and Ian Roger's commentary. The organisers also surveyed the players about good/bad things with the tournament, and the overwhelming feeling was that the event was the best Doeberl Cup ever.
Of course such an event cannot be such a success without the assistance of plenty of people, so I will try and list all the contributers (in no particular order). Charles Bishop, Steve Rohan-Jones, Lara Bishop, Emma Piper, Nyssa Zelman, Shun Ikeda, Jenny Oliver, Mirabelle Guo, Jim Flood, Jenny Mason, Ian Rogers, Cathy Rogers, Brian Jones, Charles Zworestine, Simon Mitchell, the various game enterers, and of course anyone else I've missed (eg Libby Smith).