Building on his recently acquired Grandmaster norm, Deepan Chakravarthy emerged as the sole leader with a thumping victory over S Arun Prasad at the 43rd National 'A' chess championship in Visakhapatnam.
A former Asian junior champion, Chakravarthy took his personal tally to 10 points out of a possible 13 and is now ahead of nearest rivals defending champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Koneru Humpy by half a point.
But the two challengers have played one game less in the event so far.
International Master P D S Girinath put brakes on the dream run of IM-to-be D P Singh in the major upset of the 13th round. Girinath has not been in his best form in the event but against Singh he gathered enough ammunition with white pieces.
As a result, Singh slipped a little in the standings as he was pushed to the fourth spot on 8.5 points where he is now followed by International Master M R Venkatesh who has 8 points in his kitty.
Grandmasters Abhijit Kunte, Sandipan Chanda and GM norm holder S Kidambi are next on 7.5 points. All of them are in contention for a place in the top three with 8 rounds still to go in this 21-player event.
Woman Grandmaster Swati Ghate continued with her superlative display in the 32nd Women's championship being held simultaneously and downed veteran Women International Master Anupama Gokhale in a one-sided game.
Swati was in top form in this encounter and benefited from some lacklustre play by the former national champion to win easily with her white pieces.