Playing it safe, IM Krishnan Sasikiran agreed to a draw against RB Ramesh in the 10th round of the BPCL 36th National A Chess Championship being played here.

Sharing a point with his closest rival helped sole leader Sasikiran maintain a one-point gap between him and Ramesh, who has eight. IM Abhjit Kunte (7) continues to be third, while Pravin Thipsay improved his standing with a win over local player Anup Deshmukh. The GM is on fourth spot with 6.5 points.

In-form Ramesh (white) opened with his K-pawn. Sasikiran played the Caro-Kann defence. Both were prudent while exchanging at regular intervals and drew the game on the 29th move.

Abhijit Kunte opened with K-pawn opening which saw Verghese Koshy defend with his pet Pirc. Then followed a keen middle-game. In the end, both had one knight each, while Kunte had three pawns to Koshy's two. As the pawns had no advantage to offer, the point was split on the 46th move.

Deshmukh's (white) exchangevariation against Thipsay's Kings Indian Defence fetched nothing. Deshmukh lost a piece and Thipsay forced a win by the 30th move.

IM Neelotpal Das suffered yet another loss. Beaten in the previous round by Sasikiran, he opened with e4 against Suvarjit Saha. Then he blundered a pawn and miscalculated the tactical sequence in the offing. Saha won the game in 31 moves after a brilliant exchange sacrifice.

Tejas Bakre prevailed over V Saravanan (white) in a Sicilian defence battle.

IM NK Mishra's Catalan opening played in original fashion gained him a resounding victory over TS Ravi.

Results of tenth round: RB Ramesh (8) drew K Sasikiran (9), Abhijit Kunte (7) drew V Koshy (3.5), Anup Deshmukh (4) lost to PM Thipsay (6.5), RG Hegde (3.5) lost to GB Prakash (6), DV Prasad (5) drew Shankar Roy (2.5), P Konguvel (5) bt SK Rathore (3.0), V Saravanan (5) lost to Tejas Bakre (4), Neelotpal Das (5) lost to Suvarjit Saha (4.5), NK Mishra (4) bt R S Ravi (4.5).