Playing the white side of an off-beat variation of the Sicilian Defence Ramakrishna closed the queenside by precise play and launched a decisive king side attack with his major pieces. Mithrakanth had to give up the battle as Ramakrishna's rook invaded the seventh rank to win a piece.

The top two seeds of NLC International Masters Lanka Ravi and K Murugan were yet again held to draws by Arindam Mukherji (Railways) and C Natarajan (ICF), respectively.

The day's longest game was fought between IWM Mrunalini Kunte of IDBI and promising Sandipan Chanda of Goodricke National Chess Academy.Mrunalini gave a masterly display and pocketed the full point after 87 moves.