Akash, who was awarded one point after overnight leader Venkatesh arrived three minutes late yesterday because of traffic snarl, was paired with the same player today and the youngster won to emerge as the sole leader with 8.5 points.
The Tamil Nadu player is followed by Vidit Gujrathi, Deep Sengupta, S Arun Prasad on eight points apiece as Venkatesh, who led the tournament for four rounds on the trot, slipped to third position after yesterday's setback.
The higher-ranked Venkatesh (Elo 2511) was clearly under a lot of pressure against Akash (Elo 2343) as the latter won in a Ruy Lopez opening.
Both the players made errors under time pressure but Akash clinched the issue in 42 moves.
On the top board, Deep Sengupta drew against Vidit Gujrathi in a Reti opening.
S Arun Prasad won a piece on the 36th move against Deepan Chakravarthy after which the latter resigned.
G N Gopal drew a long game against M R Latith Babu in 79 moves in a rook versus knight ending.
Dibyendu Barua drew against Mary Ann Gomes in 33 moves in the Pelikan variation of the Sicilian defence. MORE
