JOIN USThejkumar, from South Western Railway, leads the table with nine points, one point clear of his nearest rivals Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay M of Maharashtra, International Masters from Southern Railway Rathnakaran and Murali Krishnan, Stany G A and Niranjan Navalgund, both from Karnataka.
Thejkumar, who held international master Rathnakaran of Southern Railway in 26 moves on the top board on Sunday, needs only a draw in Monday’s final round against Thipsay to bag the title.
While Thipsay made short work of C Praveen Kumar, Murali Krishnan defeated Sharad Tilak of Maharashtra. Navalgund humbled WGM Meenakshi in 37 moves to jump to joint second spot.
Important results (round 10): Thejkumar MS (SWR, 9.5) drew Rathnakaran K (SRly, 8); Praveen Kumar C (TN, 7) lt to Thipsay Praveen (Mah, 8); Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi (WB, 7.5) drew Ramnathan Balasubramaniam (ICF, 7.5); Murali Krishnan B T (SRly, 8) bt Tilak Sharad S (Mah, 7); Sanjay N (Kar, 7) lt to Stany G A (Kar, 8); Meenakshi Subbaraman (IA, 6.5) lt to Navalgund Niranjan (Kar, 8); Phoobalan P (ICF, 7.5) drew Shivananda B S (Kar, 7); Mithil Ajgaonkar (Mah, 7.5) drew Babu N Sudhakar (TN, 7); Vikram Saralaya (Kar, 7) drew Anilkumar O T (Ker, 7); Antonio Viani D'cunha (Kar, 7) bt Saravana Krishnan P (TN, 6); Arvind Shastry (Kar, 7) bt Agarwal Brajesh (LIC, 6); Nirmal E P (Ker, 6.5) drew Suraj M (Kar, 6.5); Gahan M G (Kar, 7) bt Yashas D (Kar, 6); Hegde Ravi Gopal (Kar, 7) bt Balasubramanian Rajaram (TN, 6); Vijay Keerthi K (Kar, 7) bt Gavi Siddayya (Kar, 6); Satvik M (Kar, 6) lt to Linda Rangarajan (Pud, 7).