Jamshedpur, Dec. 12: Abhishek Das of Jharkhand and Saurabh Anand of Bihar emerged joint leaders today after the round four of the 5th JRD Tata All India Open Chess Tournament 2015 in Jamshedpur.

Both the contestants garnered four points, maintaining a clean slate at the event being held at the eastern wing of JRD Tata Sports Complex. Abhishek defeated Harsh Manges H. Ghag of Maharashtra while Saurabh put it across Odisha's Samal Anshuman.

Abhishek, a resident of Sonari who has been working for the railways in Bangalore for the past two years, is an International Master (IM)-elect. His current Elo rating is 2,205 and needs to cross 2,400 to become an IM.

As many as nine players - Sahil Dey (Bengal), Malleshwara J. Rao (Andhra Pradesh), Shrutarshi Ray (Bengal), Rajesh Nayak (Odisha), Anurag Jaiswal (Bengal), M.S.R.K. Chakravarthy (Andhra Pradesh), Suvradeepta Das (Bengal), Baibhav Mishra (Odisha) and Alka Das of Jharkhand are closing in on the leaders with 3.5 points each.

Defending champion and Women FIDE Master Srija Seshadri of Delhi, Rajarshi Dutta of Bengal, T. Purshothaman of Andhra Pradesh and Samridha Ghosh of Bengal are placed third with three points each in their kitty.

Srija and Rajarshi played a draw. IM Krishna Teja of Andhra Pradesh is lagging behind on the fourth spot with 2.5 points. Teja lost to Bengal's Suvradeepta Das.

Sahil played a draw versus Rajesh Nayak while the tie between Malleshwara and Shrutarshi ended in a stalemate.

M.S.R.K. Chakravarty and Anurag Jaiswal broke a truce even as Alka Das defeated Odisha's Ashok Kumar Jaju. Baibhav Mishra, on the other hand, posted a comfortable win over Jharkhand's Manisha Masih.