In the 7th round, my opponent was a pupil of the Moscow section, Maxim Lavrik-Karmazin. Already at the age of 13 he was first dan (and according to the results of the tournament he received the second), and this game with him will be a nightmare for me for a long time to come.

Maxim is well acquainted with the theory and I faced a difficult choice in setting up the opening – to play 3B or something more neutral. As a result, I decided to bet 3B on co-op, in case he changes color, I could bet one of the fourth moves, which he knows extremely poorly, if he himself bets the main option, I would get an advantage through the right to choose a color, which basically suited me. Maxim really set the main fourth move in order to play the usual theory, ordering two fifth moves. I took the white color, the second fifth he put the main one (5-7), and, of course, there was no point in leaving it. The further play is generally accepted, 9-10 is also possible, but this translates into a weaker variant for Black. Maxim played very carefully, as they say – more reliable, not wanting to take unnecessary risks. 27 it was better to close the three on the other side, 27-30, although the resulting position in the game cannot be said to be strongly for White. carried away by the attack, I missed the opportunity for Black to seize the initiative and discovered it at the most inopportune moment. Hoping that my opponent would also miss it, I made the 34th move. 35 the move should have been moved to the right by a point from 37, this closed the designation of white and gave its own designation to black from above! After that, Black had a win, but Black missed. The 37th move, again, should have been made a little to the right, with a designation. White’s attack ran out of steam, the position was terrible, the top and left flanks were practically black and it was not easy to defend. In addition, I only had about 15 minutes left, compared to 35 for my opponent. On move 38, I offered a draw, which was sensibly rejected. Moves 40 and 42 seemed to me a lesser evil and a good attempt to score a flank on the left, but Black still had a win from above. However, Black fell for White’s attempts to flank and forgot about his resources from above. 49 should have been played at 54, perhaps after that Black still had chances to win. After move 55, Black offered a draw, which was rejected this time by White. Black lost the pace, and White had a ready base for an attack from below, which he opened with move 56. Due to lack of time (we played without a Fischer) I decided to mark a 4×4 foul from above in order to have time to calculate the attack from below. But move 58 turned out to be extremely unfortunate, as Black accumulated a dangerous group and formed a designation miraculously pinned up. Not noticing this joke, Maxim went to win back the fours (he had only about 5 minutes left and the lost position from below, so there was nothing else left). After the 86th move, White formed a designation, which they placed. At the end of the game, White had 9 seconds left, and Black – 20. A very nervous game that ended in mutual time trouble. One of the most combative and interesting games of the tournament.

In the two remaining rounds, there were slightly less interesting games against beginner Rybinsk renjists, who had everything ahead of them. Game of the 8th round with Anna Glibina

Anya put 8V with three, I took black. The fifth player in the game is the main, the strongest. but its implementation with White’s accurate play requires caution and advanced knowledge of theory. Three of a kind 15 should have been closed on the other side, 16-18, this would have created a little more difficulty for Black.

The last round is a game against Anton Mityagin.

And again 7D with 6. Anton left one of the winning fifth moves, and instead of the most stubborn defense 6-7 and 8-14 he played too boldly, and as a result, Black won very quickly.

Commented by Anton Golomarev