While on the top board, Amardeep Bartakke (Satara), who had already confirmed his title yesterday, agreed for an early draw offered by Prathamesh Mokal (7), thus clearing the latter's part to get selected.

Pallavi Shah (7.5), seeded 11th here, defeated Mumbai's VKN Solanki (6) on the next board to gain the second place. But Pallavi, who already has a national ranking, will get a direct entry to the National `B', which means that Ketan (6.5), who finished fifth, will be promoted to the fourth spot.Meanwhile, Nashik's Vinod Bhagwat (7) beat Nagpur's Saurabh Khadekar (6) to take the third place.

Khaire, desperately seeking a win, went a pawn up in the opening. Number 13Prasad, with white pieces, opted for an early attack, exchanging Rook. However, he did not have too much success against Khaire's strong defence.Khaire committed the mistake of giving away two pawns for a Rook on the 34th move and lost the position mid-way.

THE QUALIFIERS: Amardeep Bartakke (Mumbai), Pallavi Shah (Kolhapur), Vinod Bhagwat (Nashik) Pratemesh Mokal (Pune), Ketan Khaire (Pune), Ramkrishna Kashelkar (Mumbai).

RESULTS: Amardeep Bartakke (Mumbai, 8) drew Prathemesh Mokal (Pune, 7), Pallavi Shah (Kol, 7.5) b V K N Solanki (Mumbai, 6), Saurabh Khardekar (Nagpur, 6) lost to Vinod Bhagwat (Nashik, 7), Ketan Boricha (Mumbai, 5.5) lost to Yashraj Aidasani (Mumbai, 6.5), Prasad Deshmukh (Mumbai, 4.5) lost to Ketan Khaire (Pune, 6.5), D Ravishankar (Mumbai, 5.5) lost Ramkrishna Kashelkar (Mumbai: 6.5), G Balaji (Mumbai, 5.5) lost to Sashikant Kutwal (Pune, 6.5), Udayan Bapat (Pune, 6.5) beat Saurabh Chitre (Kolhapur, 5.5), Rajesh Sapkal (Pune, .5) lost to Umesh Pangude (Nagpur, 6),Abhijit Joshi (Pune) lost to Rashmin Puleker (Mumbai, 6).