With the result, the PSPB player lost his one point lead and he now shares the pole position with three others -- Vidit Gujrathi, Deep Sengupta and Akash who was gifted one point by Venkatesh.
Venkatesh said he was "stuck in traffic" as he arrived at 2.33pm but with zero tolerance rule, chief arbiter R Anantharam gave walkover to Akash.
Akash of Tamil Nadu, who was paired against Venkatesh, took his tally to 7.5 after winning the game by default.
After the completion of 11th round, Venkatesh, Akash, Gujrathi and Sengupta were in the lead with 7.5 points apiece.
Playing white, Gujrathi got the better of G N Gopal in a rook ending in 57 moves.
Sengupta had the advantage of double rook versus rook and bishop against Neelotpal Das but the latter defended well and the game was drawn in a record 134 moves.
Deepan Chakraborty and GM Abhijit Kunte drew in 18 moves by repetition of moves in a Sicilian defence.
Anurag Mhamal of Goa, who completed his GM norm in this meet, lost to IM Swayams Mishra of Odisha in an English opening.
IM Swapnil Dhopade drew a long game in 85 moves against top seed GM B Adhiban in a King's Indian Defence. MORE
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