Chennai: Defending champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board joined overnight leader Tejas Bakre of Indian Airlines at the top with four points after the fifth round of the Velammal National A Chess Championship here Thursday.

Seven players were in second spot with 3.5 points each.

Ganguly defeated teammate Deepan Chakaravarthy, who suffered his second straight loss. Though Chakravarthy played well using the Sicilian defence, Ganguly’s moves were very sharp.

He offered his rook for a minor piece, which was not accepted by Chakravarthy. Playing under severe time pressure, he resigned after 41 moves.

Sudhakar Babu (BSB) shocked GM Neelotpal Das .

In a battle between two former national champions, Dibyendu Barua of Bengal got the better of Pravin Thipsay of BSB in a queen, rook and equal pawn ending. Thipsay blundered at the last minute and was about to be checkmated or had to lose his rook.

On the top board, Bakre was held to a draw by two-time national champion Abhijit Kunte (PSPB) in 44 moves.

Playing the white side of the Blumenfeld Gambit, Kunte, exchanging the rook for a knight and two pawns, failed to maintain the tempo after the queen exchange on the 26th move. In the rook versus knight end game, Bakre managed to extract half a point.

G N Gopal of PSPB split point with M S Thej Kumar of Karnataka.