Swapnil Dhopade, Swayams Mishra joint leaders

Topseed Dhopade, playing black in round four, got the better of WGM Padmini Rout after he obtained an effective break-through in the centre in a Caro-Kan defence.

In the next round, the talented Bengal youngster, Prantik Roy, tried to spring a surprise on Swapnil by opting for the Tarrasch defence.

But Swapnil, a Central Railway employee, changed tracks by side-stepping into a little played variation.

Prantik lost a pawn as well and lost the momentum to go down.

In an earlier round, Prantik had upset WGM Mary Ann Gomes in a sharp tactical battle.

Former World U-12 champion, Sayantan Das of Bengal went down rather tamely to second seed, Swayams Mishra of Orissa, who got a positional advantage in a Cambridge Springs defence and wrapped up the game with ease thereafter.

In the U-16 event, Raunak Mondal emerged as the sole leader with five points as he beat Debangshu Chakraborti in an interesting struggle.

Suvankar Maity trailed the leader with 4.5 points while the visually-impaired Yudhajeet Dey is in the joint third spot with Debangshu Chakraborti and Tista Pal Chowdhury.

The final round will be played tomorrow afternoon.