Humpy's title chances strengthened when she got rid of Delhi's Tania Sachdev in 19 moves in the fifth round. Tania made a big mistake in the 16th move and then it was all over for her.

The under-12 boy's defending champion P Harikrishna suffered yet another setback, this time against the Goodrick National Academy's boy Saptrash Roy. Hari, who had two pawns up till the middle game, lost his control in the 29th move when he played C2 instead of H5. That would have only helped him to go for a draw as the Calcutta boy had the upper hand.

In the under-14 girls' group, Karnataka's Chitra Sreedharan and Maharashtra's Shradha Samani were the joint leaders with 4 1/2 points each.

Chitra could have beenthe sole leader had she not been held for a draw by Maharashtra girl Pannaga Magal in the fifth round. Pannaga obtained a slight advantage from the beginning, having won a pawn in the initial stages. But that was of little use as Chitra played a beautiful middle game. With time running out, Pannaga offered a draw which Chitra accepted gleefully as she too did not have the winning position.

In the under-14 boy's section. Calcutta's Arghya Dip Das and Gujarat's Valay Parikh were the joint leaders with 4 1/2 points each at the end of the fifth round.