Niranjan, Kedar in joint lead

Second seed Niranjan, playing with black pieces, defeated Sameer Kulkarni of Belgaum in 34 moves. Kedar Umesh Vaze, seeded third, outplayed Vivekanand L from Mysore. Vivekanand made a crucial error in the 15th move and from then on it was cake walk for Kedar, who took the game on the 25th move.

Top seeded Antonio Viani Dcunha from Mangalore drew with Shreeshan S from Shimoga.

Important results (after round IV): Antonio Viani D'Cunha (Mangalore, 3.5) drew Shreeshan S (Shimoga, 3.5); Sameer Kulkarni (Belgaum, 3) lt to Niranjan Navalgund (Belgaum, 4); Kedar Umesh Vaze (Shimoga, 4) bt Vivekananda L (Mysore, 3); Gautam MD (Hassan, 3.5) bt Ninad V Prabhu Khanolkar (Belgaum, 3); Vedant Patil P (Belgaum, 2.5) drew Benadikar Shashank D (Belgaum, 3); Prabhanjan LS (Bangalore, 2) lt to Rakshith R Umesh (Shimoga, 3); Sandesh AK (Dharwad, 2) lt to Akash K Shetty (Chikmagalur, 3); Akshay V Halagannavar (Dharwad, 3) bt Sumanth Jois (Shimoga, 2); Avdhut Ashok Jadhav (Belgaum, 3) bt Srirang Abhay Kulkarni (Belgaum, 2); Srinivas T Kulkarni (Gulbarga, 2) lt to Chirag M Ramesh (Mysore, 3).