Top seed Diptayan Ghosh bounced back into joint lead after a tactical win over Pranav Vijay of Tamil Nadu in the boys section of the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship here today.
Overnight leader and sixth seed B Kumaran split points with seventh seed Sidhant Mohapatra, while Murali Karthikeyan outwitted Ritviz Pranab on the third board.
Three players -- Murali, Kumaran and Diptayan -- shared the lead with six points each after seven rounds.
Third seed Arvind Chithambaram (5) also kept himself in contention after a draw with Aradhya Garg (5).
Diptayan played his favourite English opening and built up some advantage in the mid-game by sacrificing his knight and a similar one in the end game caught Vijay (5) in the wrong position, where he had to concede the game in the 31st move.
In the girls section, top seed and overnight leader WFM M Mahalakshmi (6.5) struggled to earn full point against Divya Garg (5) of Maharashtra in a four and half hour battle.
With a win against Rutuja Bakshi (5) of Maharashtra, second seed WFM GK Monisha (6) of Tamil Nadu remained as one of the title contenders.
