Pallavi, who led the field with Amardeep Bartakke (Satara) and PG Date (Mumbai) yesterday, has now slumped to joint third place with 4.5 points.

Her loss strengthened top seeded Amardeep's hold in the tournament which means vying for the top four slots as he defeated Date on the top board to gain sole leadership with 5.5 points. Pallavi, seeded 11, had a chance to draw her game on the second board in the 25th move by playing perpetual moves. However, she refused the opportunity and instead attacked Ketan seeking a win. Initially, she controlled the game well with an e4 opening advantage.

However going in for the kill, she had to sacrifice a Bishop and then a Knight on the 17th and 18th move.Pallavi, thereafterplaying with two pieces less and a pawn up, went on marking Ketan's King in the next eight moves.Ketan a powerful player in defence finally had to sacrifice his f6 Rook to avert the mate. Pallavi missed a chance of equalising her position, if she had played Kd6 on the 27th. But, the 18-year-old, instead opted for Kg7. Ketan (5) has now jumped to joint-second place with Umesh Pangude of Nagpur and Ketan Baricha of Mumbai. Pallavi is on third spot along with Date, Prasad Deshmukh (Mumbai), Raju Sonecha (Mumbai), Prathamesh Mokal (Pune) Ramkrishna Kasholkar (Nagpur) and G Balaji (Mumbai).On the top board, the 23-year-old Amardeep Bartakke gained a slight advantage in the 20th move with better piece positioning as Date, with white had two week pawns on d4 and a3.

RESULTS (6th round): P G Date (Mum, 4.5) lost to Amardeep Bartakke (Sat, 5.5); Pallavi Shah (Kol, 4.5) lost to Ketan Khaire (Pn, 5); Umesh Pangude (Nag, 5) bt Sashitank Kutwal (Pn, 4); Vinod Bhagwat (Nsk, 4) lost to Ketan Boricha (Mum, 5);Yashraj Aidasani (Mum, 4) drew with Prasad Deshmukh (Mum, 4.5); Prathamesh Mokal (Pn, 4.5) bt Dinesh Bhandarkar (Mum, 3.5); Ramkrishna Kasholkar (Nag, 4.5) bt Omkar Patwardhan (Sgl, 3.5); Raju Sonecha (Mum, 4.5) bt Udayan Bapat (Pn, 3.5); Rashmin Pulekar (Mum, 4) drew with Sourath Khardekar (Nag, 4); G Balaji (Mum, 4.5) bt Arjun Oberio (Kol, 3).