Indian Grandmaster Sasikiran, having the advantage of the white pieces, outplayed Grandmaster Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam in 60 moves.

The Vietnamese opted for the Slav defence and was soon under pressure. Sasikiran pushed his passed pawn on the ‘a’ file to win a piece, and after that, it was a cakewalk for the top seed. International Master Saptarshi Roy lost to Humpy to shatter his chances of making his maiden GM norm. Saptarshi seemed to have done enough to ensure the draw but lost his concentration to blunder away the game. Humpy however maintained her lead.

City-based Grandmaster Chanda exerted pressure throughout his game against Ziaur Rahman to eventually romp home in 39 moves. The Bangladeshi tried out the Modern defence and was put under pressure by Chanda’s central pawn, which eventually decided the issue.

Grandmaster Laznicka of the Czech Republic also remained at the top with an exciting victory over Grandmaster Alberto David of Luxembourg. Even though the Czech had the black pieces he employed the Sicilian defence to slowly consolidate his position. After he got equality he counterattacked to eventually net the full point.

Grandmaster Vladimir Dobrov of Russia had a slugfest against International Master Sundararajan Kidambi of India to leap to the joint second position. The Russian had the advantage of the white pieces and opted for the closed variation against the Indian.