Suggesting your opponent resign

As a matter of etiquette, telling your opponent to resign is generally considered rude; if done regularly it may be considered a bad habit.

Exceptions:

1. Your opponent’s time has expired
2. You are teaching a beginner

This may be provoked by another bad habit, namely Continue while dozens of points behind.

Discussion

This page started with this discussion

DeathWind: It is very impolite to tell your opponent that he or she should resign, even if you are leading the game by a lot. Such suggestions can trigger anger and can be a blow to the esteem of the player who receives it. I have had people telling me to resign when I was behind by 10 points. I find it very insulting and intentionally manipulative. It also reflects a deliberate act of arrogance on the suggester’s part.

If you must point this issue out, discuss it with the player tactfully after the game is over.

Tarka: Yeah, no question, this is to my mind the single most rude and impolite thing you can possibly do in Go. Never, never do this.

Actually, I recently had a situation where an OBSERVER said I should resign! I was playing an even game with my opponent and the observer said “Black hasn’t got anywhere near enough, it’s game over”. This observer was much much stronger than either of us two players, but it really was very insulting to me. I immediately resigned. What made things much worse was that, during the count-up (we counted anyway, as we were in yose), we found I had lost by only 9 points. The observer remarked that it was much closer than he thought it was. 9 points is recoverable in yose. Thanks a lot! But regardless of whether I could have won the game or not, it was just really, really insulting.

tapir: See also Continue while dozens of points behind.