Chanda, Joshi maintain lead

Roktim Bandopadhyay of West Bengal, Enamul Hussain of Bangladesh, IM Sharad Tilak of UBI and Vishveshwaran are in the second spot with 5 points.

On the top board, Chanda played the Queen8217;s Gambit. His opponent, Joshi did not take any risks and in an equal position, the game ended in a draw.

The second board game between Bandopadhyay and Sriram Jha of LIC also ended in a draw with the former, playing with white pieces, transposed the game into Catalan opening after playing the King knight as his first move.

The game moved into passive lines and the players agreed to a draw after 29 moves.

Bangladesh Nationalchampion Enamul Hussain played the King8217;s Indian defence in reply to Atanu Lahiri8217;s LIC d4 opening. Lahiri made a good sacrifice 8212; his queen for one rook and two minor pieces, but he faced pressure when he lost an exchange. In the end game, Hussain had one queen to Lahiri8217;s one knight and two bishops with equal number of pawns. Hussain captured his opponent8217;s pawns and simplified the ending by sacrificing his queen and won in 55 moves.

Satara8217;s Amardeep Bartakke of Maharashtra had a good result, drawing with IM elect Rahul Shetty of Indian Airlines.