When to let your opponent resign

evilari · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 17

I was playing a 1-point match and I had the chance to beat my opponent with a backgammon. My opponent offered to resign for 1 point several times, but I declined. My opponent seemed a little perturbed that I wouldn’t let him resign and I wasn’t sure why. After all, it isn’t all that often that someone gets a backgammon and I didn’t want to give up that chance. Maybe someone can tell me what the problem was?

Catalin · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 18

Well, I think it should be pretty clear to anyone who isn’t made of stone what the problem was. You were forcing your opponent to continue playing a game that it was clear he was going to lose for the sheer purpose of satisfying yourself with a backgammon. Your opponent offered you to resign for one point in a one point match. He was giving you the match and that should have been the end of things. Instead, after telling you he wanted to resign more than once, you made him continue playing until the bitter end, which was a waste of his time and probably a bit humiliating as well. I hope you won’t do this in the future.

Pigeon · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 13

I would have to agree that it was a little unsporting of you to make your opponent finish a game that he had already lost when he clearly didn’t want to waste his time. On the other hand, if you had been playing in a longer match, say seven points, and winning a backgammon would have been worthwhile for your game then I would say your move of rejecting his resignation would be justified. However, because it seems you just wanted to feed your own ego I think your move was a bit rude and unfair to your opponent.

To give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you thought that by winning a backgammon your rating would be boosted or that you would get a little star in your match history. If this is the reason that you did it then fine. However, for your future reference you should know that winning a one point match will only show up in your history as winning a one point match… regular win, gammon, backgammon, it doesn’t matter. When you win a one point match all that you can win it for is one point. Just try to remember this in the future and try to take your opponent’s feelings into consideration before you made them play out an embarrassing game to the bitter end for no good reason.

Stack · Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 24

Hold up. I think if the chance to win a backgammon came along I would want to go for it too! Anyhow, if you could tell that you had a good chance of winning a backgammon you were probably pretty close to the end of the game anyhow so I’m sure you didn’t waste that much of your opponent’s time. Don’t sweat it, I would have done the same thing and I’m sure a lot of other people would have too.