Anup Deshmukh was in the lead with 5.5 points. He could be joined by his teammate, Sriram Jha, if the latter wins his battle against another LIC player Atanu Lahiri.

Top seed Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua was held to his third successive draw by Swayan Baran De but the GM was lucky to escape with half a point where he should have had none.

The other GM in the tournament, Pravin Thipsay, has withdrawn as his wife and IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay, who is also playing in the tournament, took ill last night and was admitted to the hospital according to the chief arbiter RH Sagar.

Anup Deshmukh and IM Sudhakar Babu of Indian Bank agreed to a quick 16-move draw on the top board. On the second board, Sriram Jha and Atanu were battling till the time of going to press. Jha had two extra pawns in a rook and King ending.

Barua faced the Petroff defence and was in abad position besides having a bishop and pawn to Swayan's extra rook. They agreed to a draw after 56 moves.V Saravanan, who suffered a shock defeat in the first round, notched up his fifth consecutive victory when he defeated Dilip Pagay in an English Opening game in 40.

Ponnuswamy Konguvel of ONGC won a long-drawn out match against Arghyadip Das after 60 moves. After the opening, both the players maintained an equal position on the board until Das made an unsound knight exchange. That opened the files for Konguvel and Das resigned.

Babu, Konguvel, Saravanan, Sahu, Sanjay, Neelakanthan, SJ Kamath and Hari Om Sharma are in the second position with 5 points.

RESULTS

IM Sudhakar Babu (2335) 5 points drew with Anup Deshmukh (2430) 5.5; GM Dibyendu Barua (2540) 4.5 drew with Swayan Baran De 4.5; IM Ponnuswamy Konguvel (2410) 5 bt Arghyadip Das (2170) 4; Dilip Pagay (2230) 4 lost to V Saravanan (2390) 5; IWM Nisha Mohota (2115) 4 lost to IM Shekar Chandra Sahu (2290) 5; N Sanjay (2285) bt SaptarshiRoy Choudhary (2190) 4; Puneet Jaiswal (2010) 4 lost to N Neelakanthan (2260) 5; SJ Kamath (2240) 5 bt Sujit Kumar Sinha (2120) 4; Hari Om Sharma (2125) 5 bt Dilip Golwankar 4.