Defending champion Grandmaster R B Ramesh of Indian moved into joint lead with three others after defeating Railways' Suvrajit Saha in the fourth round of the Parsvanath International Chess tournament in Delhi on Friday.
Ramesh scored a comfortable victory on the top board in 46 moves to share the lead with top seed Pavel Kotsur of Kazakhstan, Saidali Iuldachev of Uzbekistan and International Master Nassir Wajih.
In a fifth round game between two toppers, Ramesh will take on Kostur.
Just half a point behind the leading bunch are 17 players including Woman Grandmaster Arthie Ramaswamy and former Commonwealth champion Atanu Lahiri.
In a Sicilian Pelican defence game, Arthie, who was in a better position from the start, accepted the draw after 17 moves.
Among the winners was former British championship winner Manthan J Chokshi, who shares the second spot. Chokshi beat Varghese Koshy in a Pirc opening. He sacrificed two pawns for a piece and traped Koshy in a mating-net before the latter surrendered.
Woman International Master Dronavali Harika and Tejas Bakre also signed a peace pact, in an irregular version game when the two were equally placed, in 39 moves.
Harika, playing black, correctly pushed her pawns to the centre to equalise. The two have three points each after four games.
Grandmasters Koneru Humpy and Dibyendu Barua also had good outing today.
