Gopal, Dhopade, Venkatesh in lead at National Chess C'ship

Seven players are in the joint second spot with 4 points each.

On the top board, Venkatesh and Gopal drew after a hard-fought battle over 44 moves in a Reti opening.

Dhopade kept his chances of maiden GM norm alive as he drew with Vidit Gujarati in 28 moves in a Queen's pawn opening.

P Kartikeyan held Deepan Chakravorty to a draw 33 moves in a Grunfeld defence.

Deep Sengupta of PSPB took his tally to 4 points with an impressive win against GM Sundarajan Kidambi also of PSPB.

Deep won a piece on the 21 move and won the game thereafter in 46 moves.

Amongst the local players, Dibyendu Barua drew against Bitan Banerjee while Neelotpal Das was held by G Akash of Tamil Nadu in a rook and pawn ending.

In a clash between two youngsters Diptayan Ghosh went down to S L Narayan of Kerala while IM Saptarshi Roy was upset by FM Anurag Mhamal of Goa.

National Women Champion Mary Ann Gomes drew her game against K Surya Praneeth in 26 moves in the Fiancheto variation of the King