Kasparov makes Mary's dream come true

Kasparov makes Mary's dream come true
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

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

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.

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.