Playing safe in King's Indian defence game, Akash and Ghosh agreed to split points after 28 moves.
World Under-18 bronze medalist Debashis Das cut down the lead of Akash to half point after registering a comfortable win against CRG Krishna of Andhra Pradesh in the ninth round battle.
Das is at the second spot with seven and half points, while Ghosh is third with seven points. Only two out of top ten boards produced decisive results.
The bad run of defending champion Vikramaditya Kulkarni in the championship continued as he lost his ninth round match against Abhishek Kelkar of Maharashtra, while Andhra Pradesh youngster K Praneeth Surya shocked former national champion International Master P Konguvel of PSPB.(MORE)
