As many as eight players were leading the table with three points each on the second day of the 5th JRD Tata All India Open Chess Tournament on Friday.

Abhishek Das (Jharkhand), Saurab Anand (Bihar), Shrutarshi Ray (Bengal), Malleshwara J. Rao (Andhra Pradesh), Harsh Mangesh Ghag (Maharashtra), Samal Ansuman (Odisha), Anuraj Jaiswal (Bengal) and Rajesh Nayak (Odisha) played well to outwit their opponents after the third round at the eastern wing of JRD Tata Sports Complex.

Defending champion and Women FIDE Master Srija Seshadri (Delhi), International Master (IM) Krishna Teja from Andhra Pradesh and Suvradeepta Das of Bengal are close behind with 2.5 points each.

Abhishek, from Jamshedpur but staying in Bangalore currently, defeated Bengal's S.K. Mukherjee in the second round while Saurab outwitted Jharkhand's C.B. Singh.

Shrutarshi clinched a comfortable victory over Bihar's Kumar Gaurav, while Malleshwara got the better of Jharkhand's Kaushal Kumar Jha.

Harsh beat local lad Anshul Nigam and Samal defeated Tuhin Dutta of Bengal.

Anuraj drubbed Y. Sai Kiran of Andhra Pradesh while Rajesh had the last laugh against Gujarat's Sneh Dave.

Srija, who displayed good touch on the opening day, was forced to play a draw versus Suvradeepta from Bengal.

Sai Kiran, Sneh and Anshul were placed third with two points each.

Five-year-old Lakshyesh Mohan Gupta of Madhya Pradesh is the youngest participant of the tournament being jointly organised by East Singhbhum District Chess Association and Tata Steel.