A player contemplates his next move at South Point School in Guwahati on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Dec. 4: Seventh seed Rupankar Nath of West Bengal led the tally with 6.5 points after the seventh round today in the 3rd Jugal Kishore Newatia international open rating chess tournament under way at South Point School here.

In the seventh round top board, Nath today held his nerve to hold position against second seed Debashis Das of Orissa and drew the game after a prolonged encounter of wits.

Das was trailing in second slot along with 11th seed Laltu Chatterjee of West Bengal and Deepak Katiyar of Bihar. They have garnered six points each.

Fifth seed Vipul Subhashi of Bihar is in third position with 5.5 points.

Badrilal Nepali of Nepal, who was in tremendous form, could not sustain his giant killing spree and bowed to Laltu Chatterjee in the seventh round second board.

Local boy Trailokya Nanda had a hard fought battle with Deepak Katiyar but could not outwit him and lost the fight after a gruelling 47-move game.

Tenth seed Pritam Singh also managed to hold third seed former champion Arjun Tiwari to a draw in the seventh round today.

Another home lad, Bidyut Bikash Handique, seeded 18th, displayed great form on the board and held fourth seed Himal Gusain to a draw.