Much of the action today was seen in the Lodhi-Barua game. Barua had an edge in the endgame, but the Pakistani made three sacrifices to nullify Barua's advantage.

Thipsay took an hour and 15 minutes for his first 13 moves, but got opponent Zia-Ur-Rehman's queen for a rook and bishop and launched a strong queen-side attack to win the game in 48 moves.

Abhijit Kunte and V Saravanan are in second place with 4.5 points. Kunte deployed the Sicilian defence and devoured Enamul Hussain of Bangladesh in 32 moves, while Saravanan drew with Abdullah-al-Rakib in 60 moves. Theyreached an endgame where Saravanan had one pawn and rook while Al-Rakib had just the rook. After the rooks were exchanged, they settled for a draw.

Anup Deshmukh moved one point closer to his IM title when he defeated Badri Nepali. Anup needs three points from four rounds to claim his title.

Nisha Mohota definitely missed a winning opportunity with Bhagyashree under time pressure. Nisha had the better of an exchange but the miss proved decisive as Bhagyashree easily defended in an endgame where she had a bishop and knight to Nisha's rook.

Swati Ghate was a trifle lucky as Rani Hamid calculated wrongly and sacrificed three pawns for a piece. In time pressure, she was an exchange down and missed a mating move before succumbing in 34 moves.

S Vijayalakshmi benefited from Pallavi Shah's mistake to gain a definite plus. Pallavi had a double pawn on one file. Vijayalakshmi won in 36 moves.

Results

Men (seventh round): V Saravanan (2396, India) 4.5 points drew with Abdullah al-Rakib (2405,Bangladesh) 4; Anup Deshmukh (2430, India) bt Badri Nepali (2185, Nepal) 0; IM K Sasikiran (2535, India) 4 bt M Waqar (2240, Pakistan) 1; Enamul Hussain (2310, Bangladesh) 3 lost to IM Abhijit Kunte (2455, India) 4.5; GM Dibyendu Barua (2538, India) 5.5 drew with IM Mahmood Lodhi (2420) 3.5; GM Pravin Thipsay (2467, India) 5.5 bt IM Zia-ur-Rehman (2498, Bangladesh) 3.

Women (fifth round): IWM N Sarita Reddy (2231, India) 2.5 bt Shabana Parveen (2075, Bangladesh) 2 ; IWM Pallavi Shah (2230, India) lost to IWM S Vijayalakshmi (2329, India) 3; IWM Rani Hamid (2150, Bangladesh) 1.5 lost to Swati Ghate (2194, India) 3.5; IWM Nisha Mohota (2157, India) 2.5 drew with IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay (2235, India) 4.