A high-class case of losing by resigning

For many beginning players, the trickiest thing about chess is not how to play a game but how to end one.

The concept of resigning — conceding defeat before your opponent has even started to checkmate your king — takes some getting used to. What baseball team forfeits its last three outs just because the other team has a huge lead going into the bottom of the ninth?

Players quickly learn that it is common sense and common courtesy to stop the clocks in a hopeless position, even when one’s opponent’s advantage may be as slight as a single pawn or a single tempo. At the game’s very highest reaches, it can sometimes be hard to figure out at first why a player resigned at all, so subtle are the considerations on the board that signal inevitable, unavoidable defeat when grandmasters clash.

Then again, as the wag once noted, “Nobody ever won by resigning.”

That even the best players can get the resignation rumba wrong was demonstrated in an online rapid game last week featuring the two highest-rated players on the planet. In a semifinal match at the Chess.com Classic, American GM and world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura resigned a game against Norwegian ex-world champ and world No. 1 GM Magnus Carlsen in a position in which it turned out Nakamura had an objectively won game.

Even at a time control of 10 minutes for the entire game, this Reti Opening is played at a high — though not perfect — level of sophistication. Needing only a draw to clinch the match, Carlsen as Black plays solidly but misses a trick that would have cemented a clear edge: 18. Nd2 Qa5 19. Bb2?! Qb5?!, overlooking the superior 19…Qb6!, meeting 20. Ba3 with 20…Bxd3!, as 21. Qxd3?? c4+ wins at once.

The position sharpens considerably on 23. f5 Qd2!? (Kh8 was the safer choice, but Black eyes a pawn sacrifice that offers fresh attacking chances) 24. fxg6 fxg6 25. Qxg6+ Kh8 26. Nb3 Qe3+ 27. Kh1 Rg8 28. Qh5, and Carlsen thinks he sees a way to draw the White king from its foxhole.

Thus: 28…Rxg2? (perhaps missing White’s never-played 33rd move; Black is fine on 28…Raf8 29. Rxf8 Bxf8 30. Rf1 Bc8, as bad for White would be 31. Rf7 Bg7 32. Rxa7? on account of 32…Bxh3 33. Qxh3 [Bxh3 Qe1+ 34. Kg2 Bh6+ 35. Kf3 Qe3 mate] Qe1+ 34. Bf1 Rf8) 29. Kxg2 Rg8+ 30. Kh1 Bc8 31. Rf3 (Ng1 Bg4 32. Qf7 Qxd3) Qe2 32. Rg1 Bg4, leading to today’s diagrammed position.

The Black bishop, attacking queen, rook and knight, appears to be wreaking havoc, but White’s next move — RESIGNS?? — was, shall we say, premature. In fact, Nakamura could have turned the tables with 33. Rfg3!, when 33…Bxh5?? allows instant mate on g8. Even with 33…Qf3+ (Rg5 34. Qe8+ Rg8 35. Qf7 Rf8 36. Rxg4 Rxf7 37. Rg8 mate) 34. Rxf3 Bxh5 35. Rfg3 Rxg3 36. Rxg3, White ends up an exchange and a pawn to the good and converting the win for a player of Nakamura’s talent would be just a matter of technique.

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Resigning a won game may be the most galling defeat in chess, sparked typically when a player misses a saving tactic or when a lower-ranked player defers to the judgment of a higher-ranked opponent without studying the board closely enough.

Both factors were at play in the remarkable finale to a 2003 European Team Championship game between the late, great Russian-Swiss GM Viktor Korchnoi, twice a challenger for the world championship, and Belgian IM Geert van der Stricht. Black here concedes in the face of scintillating attack from Korchnoi, only to discover after the game that White’s “winning” combination contained a fatal flaw.

Before we get to the tragicomic finale, it’s actually a spirited contest in a transposed French Exchange line. Korchnoi as White allows his kingside pawns to be broken up, but gets the bishop pair and attacking lines to the Black king as compensation.

Black, perhaps a bit intimidated by his opponent’s legendary attacking prowess, gets into trouble overestimating the danger he faces: 31. Qh5 Qf6 32. Rg4?! (the White offensive  array — all pointed at the Black king — looks fearful, but the engines say Black should have called the bluff now with 32…Nxb2! 33. Bc2 Re2, defending by attacking in lines such as 34. Rh4 Rxc2 35. Be5 Rc1+ 36. Kg2 Qg6+ 37. Qxg6 fxg6 38. Bxd6 Nd3, boxing in the now-marooned White rook on h4 while also threatening 39…Rc2) Re1+?! 33. Kg2 Re8 34. Bg3 Rg8?! (tougher was 34…Qe6 35. Bf4 Qf6) 35. Be5 Qe6.

White’s attack is now genuinely menacing, and Korchnoi could have pressed his advantage with 36. f4!, with the nasty threat of 37. f5 Qe7 38. Qxh6 mate. Instead, he seeks a quicker way to victory with 36. Rg6??, leading poor van der Stricht to topple his king with 36….RESIGNS??

It turns out both players missed the huge hole in White’s tactic: 36…Nxe5!! (and of course not 36…fxg6?? 37. Qxh6 mate) 37. Rxe6 (Qxe5 Qxe5 38. dxe5 fxg6 39. exd6 Rd8 and wins) Nxd3! (crucially, 38. Rxh6+?? no longer wins because the Black g-pawn, no longer pinned by the bishop on e5, not only can recapture but now recaptures with check) 38. Re7 Nf4+ forks king and queen.

(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)

Nakamura-Carlsen, Chess.com Classic, May 2025.

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 b6 3. Bg2 Bb7 4. d3 c5 5. e4 d6 6. O-O g6 7. Ng5 h6 8. Nh3 Nc6 9. f4 e6 10. c3 Bg7 11. Qe2 O-O 12. g4 b5 13. g5 Nh7 14. gxh6 Bxh6 15. Qg4 b4 16. Qg3 bxc3 17. bxc3 Ba6 18. Nd2 Qa5 19. Bb2 Qb5 20. Nc4 Na5 21. Nxa5 Qxb2 22. c4 e5 23. f5 Qd2 24. fxg6 fxg6 25. Qxg6+ Kh8 26. Nb3 Qe3+ 27. Kh1 Rg8 28. Qh5 Rxg2 29. Kxg2 Rg8+ 30. Kh1 Bc8 31. Rf3 Qe2 32. Rg1 Bg4 White resigns.

Korchnoi-van der Stricht, European Team Championship, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, October 2003.

1. c4 e6 2. e4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. d4 Bb4+ 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Bd3 O-O 7. Nf3 Re8+ 8. Be3 Bg4 9. O-O Nbd7 10. Qb3 Bxc3 11. bxc3 Bxf3 12. gxf3 Nb6 13. c5 Nc4 14. Rae1 Qc8 15. Kg2 b6 16. cxb6 axb6 17. Bc1 Qa6 18. Bb1 h6 19. Rg1 Qc8 20. Qd1 Qd7 21. Kh1 Rxe1 22. Qxe1 Re8 23. Qf1 Kh8 24. Bf4 Rg8 25. Qg2 c6 26. Bc1 Qe6 27. Bd3 b5 28. Qg3 Ne8 29. Bf4 Ned6 30. Qh4 Re8 31. Qh5 Qf6 32. Rg4 Re1+ 33. Kg2 Re8 34. Bg3 Rg8 35. Be5 Qe6 36. Rg6 Black resigns.

• David R. Sands can be reached by email at davidrsands18@gmail.com.