IM Himanshu Sharma, the top seed, defeated Prasannaa in the fifth round to storm into sole lead in the Adyar Times FIDE-rated open chess tournament here on Thursday.
Himanshu, who won in 62 well-fought moves, leads with full five points.
In the second position on 4.5 points are P. Maheswaran, Harihara Sudan, R. Ashwath, B. Kumaran, K.V. Shantharam, Vasantha Ruba Varman and Karthikeyan Murali.
Four rounds remain to be played.
Important results (round five):
S. Prasannaa 4 lost to Himanshu Sharma 5; P. Maheswaran 4.5 drew with Harihara Sudan 4.5; R. Ashwath 4.5 drew with B. Kumaran 4.5; K.V. Shantharam 4.5 drew with Vasantha Ruba Varman 4.5; Karthikeyan Murali 4.5 bt S. Harini 3.5; P. Lokesh 4 drew with Sudhakar Babu 4; M. Aadhityaa 3.5 drew with C. Praveen Kumar 3.5; Naren Swaminathan 3 lost to Ram S Krishnan 4.
G.B. Prakash 3.5 drew with Ram Aravind 3.5; D.P. Singh 4 bt A. Abhishek 3; Ajay Krishna 3 lost to R. Balasubramaniam 4; Al Muthaiah 4 bt Chandika Divyasree 3. — Arvind Aaron
