Thejkumar retains lead

Results, eight round: Praveen Praveen (Mah, 6.5) drew Thejkumar (SSW, 7.5); Laxman R (ICF, 6.5) drew Navin Kanna (TN, 6.5); Satyapragyan Swayangsu (IA, 7) bt  Tiwari Arjun (WR, 6); Phoobalan P (ICF, 5.5) lt to Sangma Rahul (Del, 6.5); Kunal M (TN, 6.5) bt Abhishek Das (SWR, 5.5); Maheswaran (TN, 6) drew Hegde Ravi Gopal (UBI, 6); Babu N Sudhakar (IB, 6) drew Sriram Sarja (Kar, 6); Koshy Varugeese (ONGC, 6.5) bt Arvind Shastry (Kar, 11); Saravana Krishnan (TN, 5.5) lt to Balkishan A (Kar, 6.5); Shanmuganathan TR (TN, 5.5) lt to Anilkumar OT (Ker, 6.5); Praveen Kumar (ICF, 5) lt to Muralidharan MB (Ker, 6.5); Bhattacharya Niladri Shekhar (WB, 6) bt Venkatesh MR (BPCL, 5); Deepthamsh Reddy M (AP, 5) lt to Murali Krishnan B (SR, 6).

Seventh round: Rahul Sangma (Del) 5.5 lt to Thejkumar MS (SWR) 7; Navin Kannan (TN) 6 drew Satyapragyan Swayangsu (IA) 6; DP Singh (SWR) 5 lt to Laxman RR (ICF) 6; Shashikant Kutwal (WR) 5 lt to Praveen Thipsay (Mah) 6; Neelotpal Das (ONGC) 6 bt CRG Krishna (AP) 6; MR Venkatesh (BPCL) 5 lt to Meghan Gupte (Mah) 6; Kunal M (TN) 5.5 drew Maheswaran P (TN) 5; Arjun Tiwari (WR) 6 bt Kathmale S (Mah) 5; Ravi Hegde (UBI) 5.5 drew Sudhakar Babu (IB) 5.5; MB Muralidharan (KER) 5.5 drew Koshy V (ONGC) 5.5; Murali Krishnan BT (SR) 5 drew Shardul Gagare (Mah) 5; Shivananda BS (Kar) 5.5 bt Vikram S (Kar) 4.5; Sriram Sarja (Kar) 5.5 bt Udeshi Aditya (Mah) 4.5; Abhishek D (SWR) 5.5 bt Malleswara Rao (AP) 4.5; Ramakrishna J (Andhra Bank) 5 drew Pankaj Joshi (WR) 4; Gupte Meghan (Mah, 6) lt to Neelotpal Das (ONGC, 7); Phoobalan P (ICF, 5.5) lt to Sangma Rahul (Del, 6.5); Premnath R (TN, 5.5) lt to Shivananda BS (Kar, 6.5).