Kasparov makes Mary’s dream come true

CALCUTTA, March 15: Gomes, a trainee at the Goodricke National Chess Academy here, was the lone Indian selected for this prestigeous meet ...

CALCUTTA, March 15: Gomes, a trainee at the Goodricke National Chess Academy here, was the lone Indian selected for this prestigeous meet organised by kasparovchess.com which is considered as the “ultimate chess portal”.

While the rest of Calcutta slept, the young hopeful played the Dutch defence against Kasparov’s d4. The world champion played an off-beat line of Bg5 in the second move and Gomes did not open her centre with a mandatory d5.

According to the Fritz 5, d5 would have landed Kasparov in trouble as most of the sub-variations show that the Grandmaster was clearly minus if Gomes went for the continuation.

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Instead, she went bust on a pawn taking spree on Kasparov’s queen-side. Kasparov sacrificed his exchange (rook) and on a piece accumulation spree on Gomes kingside.

Without any pyro-techniques, Kasparov regrouped his king-side pieces, rolled his h-pawn and put pressure on Gomes’ knight on f6. She cramped space sans d5 offered limited counterplay but showing nerves that defy her age she put up a skillful weaving along Nc6.

As Kasparov began a pawn-roll and applied pressure on f6, Gomes could muster few checks but faced with an impending loss of piece and the match, she resigned.

“Playing Kasparov was a dream come true and I hope that the preparations and the game will help me to improve in future. This experience will be invaluable as I am off to Teheran to play the Asian meet,” Gomes said after the match.

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Before the match against the world champion, Gomes had played two night-long demonstration games on the same portal of the internet and was on the verge of upsetting GM Boris Altermann in a match where her time-pressure and inexperience made the tie go the other way.