Dhopade opted for the Benko Gambit to upset GM M R Lalith Babu. He had active play on the queenside and by move no 30 won a pawn and had better position as well.
Lalith Babu resigned when he saw that he was losing yet another pawn.
City-based Saptarshi Roy held top seed GM B Adhiban to a creditable draw in a long drawn rook and pawn endgame.
On the top board, GM Neelotpal Das drew against GM G N Gopal in the exchange variation of the Slav defence in 25 moves. IM Swayams Mishra created a stir as he scalped GM S P Sethuraman in a marathon battle.
Swayams had drawn against top seed, B Adhiban in the first round, and held GM Abhijit Kunte in the second.
IM Debashis Das held GM Sahaj Grover to a draw after a tense struggle in a Bishop and Knight versus Rook ending.
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Thirteen-year-old Aravindh Chithambaram held veteran GM Praveen Thipsay to a draw in a Guico Piano defence while Bitan Banerjee held GM Abhijit Kunte.
S L Narayanan of Kerela, too, caused an upset of sorts, holding GM Deep Sengupta, who is rated 200 points above him.
Round 3 results:
GM Neelotpal Das (2.5) drew with GM G N Gopal (2.5), GM M R Lalith Babu (1.5) lost to IM Swapnil Dhopade (3), IM Saptarshi Roy (2) drew with GM B Adhiban (2), GM Sahaj Grover (2) drew with IM Debashis Das (2), FM Anurag Mhamal (1.5) lost to GM M R Venkatesh (2.5), GM S Arun Prasad (2) drew with Abhilash Reddy (2), IM S Satyapragyan (2) drew IM P Kartikeyan (2), GM S P Sethuraman (1) lost to IM Swayams Mishra (2), S L Narayanan (1.5) drew with GM Deep Sengupta (1.5), GM Deepan Chakravarthy (2) bt WGM Mary Ann Gomes (1), Bitan Banerjee (1.5) drew with GM Abhijit Kunte (1.5), Murali Kartikeyan (1) lost to IM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (2), GM Sundarajan Kidambi (2) bt Pratik Patil (1), FM Aravindh Chithambaram (1.5) drew with GM Praveen Thipsay (1.5), FM V A V Rajesh (1.5)drew with Sagar Shah (1.5), K. Praneeth Surya (1) lost to GM Dibyendu Barua (1.5), FM Diptayan Ghosh (1.5) bt Arindam Mukherjee (0.5), Shasikant Kutwal (0.5) lost to G Akash (1.5), IM Atanu Lahiri (0.5) lost to S Ravi Teja (1.5), Sohan Phadke (1) drew with IM B T Muralikrishnan (1), Suvrajit Saha (0.5) drew with C R G Krishna (0.5), Ram S Krishnan (0) lost to C Praveen Kumar (1).