Top seed Koneru Humpy continued to dominated and remained the sole leader with five points at the end of as many rounds in the 30th National Women's 'A' Chess Championship in Kozikhode on Tuesday.
After getting the better of S Meenakshi in a Reti opening in 48 moves in the fourth round earlier in the day, the Asian women's champion maintained her winning streak by outplaying Koneru Chandrahawsa in the next round.
Engaging the Nimzo-Indian defence to Chandrahawsa's Queen-pawn opening, Humpy won the game in 31 moves.
Trailing the leader in second spot are six-time champion and second seed S Vijayalakshmi, who is fast returning to form, WGM Nisha Mohota and defending champion and fourth seed Aarthie Ramaswamy with four points each.
Tamil Nadu's Vijayalakshmi, who earlier beat state mate Y Prathiba convincingly, took advantage of her opponent Eesha Karvade's rook blunder in the 40th move in a Reti opening game to seal the issue in 66 moves.
Mohota, the latest entrant to the WGM title, found the going tough against the experienced Bhagyashree Thipsay after employing Sicilian defence and settled for a draw in 29 moves.
Earlier, Mohota beat Sai Meera.
Runner-up in the Asian women's meet, Dronavalli Harika split points in both the rounds to push herself to third position with 3.5 points. After she was held to a draw by Tania Sachdev earlier, Harika, adopting English opening, opted for another truce against Aarthie in only 12 moves.