Dindigul: Five players shot into lead with four points each at the end of round IV of the PSNA College of Engineering & Technology 45th National B chess championship here on Wednesday.

Seventeen players are trailing behind by half a point.

The game between the former National A champion P. Konguvel of PSPB and Abhishek Das of BSB was notable.

Konguvel, playing with white, made a long side castling and the king side of Das looked vulnerable. Later, Konguvel played a good positional game and posted his queen and bishop at a7 and c6 respectively. Das tried in vain to counter attack and gave up the fight after losing his knight.

J. Ramakrishna of BSB employed the classical variation of Sicilian defence against the former u-13 National B champion Adhiban of Tamil Nadu. Double IM norm holder Adhiban was on par with Ramakrishna up to 20 moves and slowly lost tempo. He offered a draw, which was not accepted by Ramakrishna, who in turn built up an advantage. (PTI)