Do Not Learn This!

A report about a recent Titled Tuesday caught my attention with an unusual statement: "Sometimes the aura of these players is quite strong, even to fellow grandmasters. The former world champion GM Vladimir Kramnik got a resignation from his opponent in an equal position in round 10." Indeed, the very strong Ukranian GM Pavel Eljanov resigned in a position where, according to an engine, he could force a perpetual check. Judge for yourself: 

Please note that Titled Tuesday is a 3/1 blitz, so chances are Eljanov had just seconds at the moment of resignation and when you are that short on time even the most obvious moves are not easy to find. So the real question is not why he didn't find the saving move but why did he resign? 

When you get old, you cannot help but get Rose DeWitt Bukater syndrome: everything brings old memories. The episode from the game Eljanov-Kramnik brought me over 20 years back.

The FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 took place in the Kremlin Palace in Moscow between November 27, 2001 and January 23, 2002. The knockout tournament ended in the all-Ukrainian final match between legendary GM Vasyl Ivanchuk and young prodigy GM Ruslan Ponomariov. While GM Ivanchuk was a heavy favorite, it was 18 years old Ponomariov who got the coveted title. The decisive moment of the match happened in the fifth game. Ivanchuk got a completely winning position, but in time trouble he even lost the game!

There is a very interesting moment in Ponomariov's post-match interview, which is available in English here.

Q: After one of the games, Ivanchuk noticed that they said, Ponomariov needs to learn to give up.

A: It's never too late to give up! As for my stubborn resistance in difficult positions… I just tried to fight to the end. And it has borne fruit.

To be fair, Ivanchuk puts his money where his mouth is. Look at the first game of the same match:

After 23.c5, Black's position is bad, very bad! And yet, in the previous game, an engine gives Black an advantage around -3, while in the position after 23.c5, where Ivanchuk resigned, the engine gives White an advantage around +2. Yes, it is not completely fair to compare the degree of disadvantage based solely on an engine evaluation, but at least from an engine's standpoint, Ivanchuk had a smaller disadvantage compared to Ponomariov, who didn't resign and even won the game!

Getting back to the Eljanov-Kramnik game, I was surprised that Eljanov didn't keep playing. What was the risk? The worst-case scenario is he would lose anyway, so what? Besides, blitz games are notorious for huge swings, where the advantage goes back and forth, so why not see if your opponent would be able to convert his advantage while being short on time? I guess GM Eljanov followed the advice of his old teammate and learned to resign.

Pavel Eljanov is not alone. Here is how GM Viswanathan Anand does it. Can you figure out why White resigned immediately after completing his move 22.Qb5?

What if Anand wouldn't resign and instead just waited for GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to actually play the crushing move on the board, was there a chance that Black would miss it? I really doubt it, since Mamedyarov is one of the best attacking players in the world. And yet, you never know. Look at the video of this exact moment. Mamedyarov looks completely puzzled by Anand's resignation:

Unfortunately, it is not just grandmasters who have learned to resign. Club players do it too! Here is a game of one of my students:

My student blundered his Queen by 16... Qd4?? and resigned one move later. I asked him why he resigned and he explained that he was very upset after such a huge blunder. Ironically, even after the blunder, he still had a serious material advantage. But the funniest part of the game is that Black resigned exactly at the moment when his opponent blundered his Queen back. And this is exactly why I wrote this article six years ago, where I explained why you should never resign.

By the way, there is another interesting moment in the Ponomariov interview:

Q: Did you hum something during the decisive game against Ivanchuk?

A: (With a smile) "Victory Day"!

It is a well-established fact that Ivanchuk is a genius and you shouldn't miss anything he says about chess. Yet, his remark about learning to resign should be ignored, since he was understandably very upset when he said that. It is something you definitely don't need to learn! Instead, follow Ponomariov's advice and when you are considering resignation, sing a song!

Ponomariov's choice, "Victory Day," is by far the most famous Soviet song about winning the war against fascism. It starts with the words: "Victory Day, oh how far from us it was." So, no matter how difficult your position is, remember, you can still win!