The Errant Knight

After White's 19th move we reach the sort of position that often comes up in the closed Ruy Lopez--only there it's usually a Black knight on b7 stymied by a White pawn on b4.

Then--as here--the whole game tends to revolve around Black's attempts to activate his one remaining disadvantaged piece:

Through the engine's many numerical vicissitudes, one thing at any rate seems a crucial consideration to the human player (and it remains a theme lurking in the background the whole time): if only Black can finally get that hopper into play, he should be doing alright!

It's clear enough that--if Black means to engage his minor piece in the battle directly--he really only has two ideas, once he gets the thing over to f8. He can either play it to g6 and hope to attack White pawns and stir up some action there, or he can move the h-pawn to h6, play Nh7 and go for the g5 push.

Or he can wait: trying to consolidate and improve the rest of his position and hoping that a place for the horsie will be found eventually. Fortunately for him, White doesn't have all that much play himself to take advantage of the knight's peregrinations, so Black's disadvantage is not a huge one here.

At last (right at the end of what used to be called the first time control!) Black feels free to move the knight into play. Perhaps he was thinking of h4...or else he had in mind the maneuver e7-d5.

No matter. And yes, there was a fair measure of irony in the knight finally attaining its freedom only to cost the Black king his own. :)

Still, that mate was an accident. What's noteworthy is that, as White's knight readies itself to take the decisive plunge into d6, Black's steed is still scrambling around, looking for somewhere else to go (that might actually matter).

It's also an example of how thinking schematically, even when there are still a fair number of pieces on the board--not referring to variations so much as seeing the long-term features of the position--can lead to a bit more understanding.