It turned out to be another good day for most of the higher ranked players and Gupta's Reti opening came good against Bajaj who failed under pressure in the early middle game.
At the top of the table, Martyn Kravitsiv of Ukraine had a field day at the expense of International Master Himanshu Kumar. Playing white, Kravitsiv showed his middle game prowess to emerge victorious.
International Master V Saravanan held Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa of Philippines to a draw. Playing white, Saravanan was close to winning in the endgame but with his clock ticking away could not find the forcing continuation.
In other important games of the day, local hopeful Grandmaster Sahaj Grover scored a clean victory against Abhimanyu Puranik to maintain a clean slate.
Also Read
Playing the black side of a Ruy Lopez Grover won a pawn in the middle game and then digested it well to reach a won endgame.
Former Commonwealth champion M R Lalith Babu also scored his second victory in the event by beating International Master S Nitin.
Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri, who recently won the bronze medal in the world under-18 chess championship at Al-Ain in UAE, recovered some lost ground after winning the second round game against talented P V Nandhidhaa. Suri scored his first victory after a shock defeat at the hands of N Surendran in the first round.