International Masters Lanka Ravi, K Murugan (both NLC) and Ravi Hegde (BSB) are sharing the third spot with three points each.

Barua played his favourite Petroff defence with black pieces against the king-pawn opening of Saravanan (PSCB) and they agreed for a draw after twenty moves.

Thipsay gained a piece on the 25th move but was forced to play the full seven hours and ninety moves to win against young Sasikiran, the National B champion from Tamil Nadu. It was a Ruy Lopez game in which Thipsay had white pieces.

Reigning champion A P Kunte (IOC) pocketed his first full point today by posting a 36-move win with his Sicilian defence against Shankar Roy of the Railways.

Unlike yesterday when only two games were decisive, today five games ended with fullpoints going to one player.

Fifth round results: D Barua (3.5) bt DV Prasad (1.5); Thipsay (3) bt Sasikiran (1.5); N Das (2.5) drew Vishal Sareen (2); Lanka Ravi (2.5) drew Murugan (2); Anup Deshmukh (2.5) bt GB Joshi (0.5); RG Hegde (2.5) drew DK Sharma (1.5); S Roy (1.5) lost to AP Kunte (1.5); Konguvel (2) lost to Saravanan (2); S Saha (2) drew V Koshy (1.5).