Resignation
A player's voluntary concession of the game before checkmate, typically when the position is hopeless.
Traditionally signaled by tipping over one's own king, offering a handshake, or verbally conceding; in online chess it is a dedicated button. Resigning a clearly lost position is considered good etiquette at most competitive levels.
Etymology
English resignation is recorded from the late 14th century as resignacioun, “abdication, act of resigning.” In chess the term names the act of conceding before checkmate, conventionally signalled by tipping over the king. Edward Winter's survey of the practice's documentary history notes that resignation is hard to date precisely; the earliest firmly dated printed item he presents is a game played in Paris on 4 March 1846 against Kieseritzky, reported in The Chess Player's Chronicle of 16 October 1847 as “a remarkable termination, the winning player surrendering the victory!” Winter also records Blackburne's “Ah, now I resign” in the British Chess Magazine of May 1891, and Tartakower's discussion in Die Hypermoderne Schachpartie (Vienna, 1924).
First documented: 1847 — The Chess Player's Chronicle, 16 October 1847, p. 327 (reporting a March 1846 game)
Translations
| Language | Term | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic | الاستسلام (al-istislam) | Literally "surrender." |
| Dutch | opgave | Literally "giving up." |
| French | abandon | Literally "abandonment." |
| German | Aufgabe | Literally "giving up/surrender." |
| Italian | abbandono | Literally "abandonment." |
| Polish | poddanie się | Literally "surrendering oneself." |
| Portuguese | desistência / abandono | Literally "giving up/abandonment." |
| Russian | сдача (sdacha) | Literally "surrender." |
| Spanish | abandono | Literally "abandonment." |
| Turkish | terk | Literally "abandonment." |