Though they drew their matches, the day's results could prove crucial for the fancied players' prospects.

The biggest surprise of the day was caused by Sashikant Kutwal of Maharashtra who wore out Sriram Jha of LIC in 38 moves to gain a full point. Indian Airlines' Rahul Shetty lost to Rashmin Pulekar of Mumbai.

Sashikant Kutwal, an attacking player and a protege of Joseph D'Souza Chess Academy, Pune, played his natural game. Jha (Elo 2336) made the only mistake of not sustaining pressure on his opponent. However, Kutwal developed his attack through queen and bishop and after exchanging heavy material, finished the game with a checkmate.

IM Sudhakar Babu (Elo 2349) went out of the hall in total disbelief afterdrawing with Arif Ali. Babu was well in position in the middle-game but played in uncharacteristic fashion to lose the advantage. The draw was agreed on the 54th move.

Sandeepan Chanda, who recently earned an IM norm in the Commonwealth Championships at Bikaner, gained a slight advantage in the opening after employing an anti-Sicilian defence technique against West Bengal's Pranjal Das. But in the middle-game, Pranjal equalised with a piece exchange and reached the game in a theoretical draw with opposition bishop ending in the 51st move.

Shetty (ELO 2308) took his chances by opening with the Kings Gambit, the theory which he had prepared recently for this meet. However, the Indian Airlines employee could not come to terms with his theory, making a wrong move at the start to lose the initiative.

Rashmin, a third-year BCom student from RA Poddar College, Matunga, went an exchange up in the 20th move and developed a pass pawn on e file. Rashmin sacrificed Queen on the 27th for a rook and threatened with apass pawn. Rahul resigned on the 32nd move.

Another draw was witnessed on the ninth board with Shantanu Laheri coming into time trouble went for a forced draw with IM elect Anup Deshmukh in 60 moves. after the middle-game being even, Laheri gained the upper-hand being a pawn up. However, he selected a wrong piece to capture Anup's knight and seeing no chance ahead agreed to share the point.

RESULTS (Round-II)

CJ Arvind (TN; 1) lost to IM RB Ramesh (IOC; 2); Sandeepan Chanda (1.5) drew Pranjal Das (WB; 1.5); Pradeep Pathak (UP; 1) lost to Neelotpall Das (WB; 2); CS Gokhale (Mah; 2) b Niladri Bhattacharya (WB; 1); Kiran Panditrao (Mah; 1) lost to IM Lanka Ravi (ONGC; 2); SK Rathore 2 b VN Solanki (Mah; 1); Kantilal Dave (1) lost to Shankar Roy (Rly; 2); Surarjeet Singh (Rly; 1.5) drew Gopal Krishna (IB; 1.5); Shantanu Lahari (WB; 1.5) drew Anup Deshmukh (LIC; 1.5); IM Sudhakar Babu (1.5) drew Arif Ali (1.5); Suptarish Roy (2) b Vishal Sareen (Del; 1); SS Ganguli (WB; 2) b S Satyakum (1); SashikantKutwal (Mah; 2) b Sriram Jha (LIC; 1); Paul Brown (Scotland; 1) lost to SS Soman 2; Sajit Sinha (UP; 1) lost to S Vijayalaxshmi (IA; 2); Rahuil Shetty (IA; 1) lost to R Pulekar (Mah; 2); Kiran agarwal (UP; 1) lost to Roktim Bandopadhya (WB; 2); P Harikrishna (AP; 2) b Arjun Oberoy (Mah; 1); Swati Ghate (Mah; 2) b SH Patil (Mah; 1); Nisha Mohota (WB; 2) b Biswabhushan Nag (Ori; 1); Pranab Nath (WB; 1) lost to Prathamesh Mokal (Mah; 2); TS Ravi (TN; 1.5) b Amrish Nayak 1.