Did I miss an obvious path to mate?

Hello.

As per my profile, I'm no Spassky.

I was playing a slightly higher rated opponent, and things were going quite well. I was a knight up and had a decent grip on the middle of the board.

Then he resigned.

...but I'm not certain why. Yes I had a slight advantage but the game seemed quite open. He was in check, and whilst I might have made a little trouble with my advanced knights, I can't seem to see a solid route to checkmate from here.

Can you?

@486DX

You're a piece ahead, and you're about to to win a pawn while opening a path for your rooks. Meanwhile, his own pieces are rather cramped. Hardly deadly at our level yet, but no fun to defend at all.

@Shallow-Blue

Thank you. I thought this must be the case. I'm also one to resign a bit early, but even I thought he still had a good chance.

BTW, that is an excellent username!

@486DX

Since you have already analyzed the position on your own, now it might be worthwhile for you to play the final position against a computer, with you defending the white side.

After a few games, the computer will have dismantled any of your defensive attempts, and show you how to win in what will probably be the most efficient manner.

It will probably also introduce you to some tactical themes that you did not consider, but which will prove useful in your future games.

It will be a tough sparring partner, but you will learn a lot from it.

@Paul-Leggett

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't own any software, but I did paste the PGN into the chess.com 'play the computer' engine.

At first, I played with the besieged white pieces and I couldn't understand why but I kept beating the computer. Then I realised the default setting on the chess.com engine is 2 out of 10 difficulty.

I cranked it up to 7 out of 10, and as you rightly predicted, watched as the engine repeatedly dismantled me as both black and white. It did point out a number of plays that I wouldn't have considered, some of them very strange (there were times when it made moves that seemed so abstract that it appeared to be blundering) - but later turned out to be part of a long sequence that was far beyond my level.

I'll certainly be using this tool again for post-mortems following the conclusion of games. Thanks for the tip!

@486DX
Like they said, a piece up already and another pawn to fall soon with pieces bearing down on the white side was enough for him to throw in the towel.
BTW,, you like those old CPU's? What about the REAL stuff, you know, Commodore 64's and the like? ( I used to work for Commodore in Horshem Park north of Philly back in the day. I think I still have a couple of then in the basement buried somewhere😉
BTW, I liked your first game here against 'Horn, he didn't know what hit him😉

@486DX
"Strange moves" are the beginning of chess wisdom. Every queen sac looks silly, until the subsequent moves reveal the point. A good sign for you, I think!

After 22. Ke1 for example
...Nxd3+ wins a pawn and facilitates the doubling of Rs on the D file.
Every game doesn't end in mate. Just the positional inequity can make playing on painful.