Facing a similar opening set-up from his opponent and defending champion International Master Arun Vaidya, Ketan this time, having analyzed his yesterday's game well, was quick to play on even lines to Vaidya's Nf3 opening. Ketan opted for Nf6, a similar move, which gave him an equal opening advantage as well. However, Ketan tried to transform his play into the Nimzo opening but was denied by Vaidya, as the veteran player pushed his pawn to b3, thus making it an irregular opening.

Both the players exchanged two minor pieces on the 14th and 15th move, and thereafter Vaidya had a slight advantage with his pieces positioned on the centre. However, he gave away the advantageous position when he stood too defensively for one more minor piece in the middle game. This helped Ketan get a strong outpost for his Knight placed on c4 on the 21st move.

Thereafter, Vaidya lacked confidence. And Ketan went on dominating the board with his Knight. Vaidya soon resigned when he lost the `a4' pawn in the 26th move and faced a threat to his `b4' pawn.

Meanwhile, Chandrashekhar Gokhale continued to lead the field with three others -- Kiran Panditrao, Abhay Karnataki and qualifier Utpal Sasane with two points apices. Gokhale, with black, defeated Udayan Bapat in the 26th move, mainly capitalizing on the latter's dubious move of placing his Knight on h4 in the 9th.

Although the end game looked evenly poised with Gokhale having two Rooks, a Bishop and five pawns, compared to Udayan's two Rooks, a Knight and five pawns. However, Gokhale's Bishop was placed strongly on e7 threatening Udayan's pieces. On the 26th move, Udayan blundered in the exchange and soon resigned.

On the sixth board, qualifier Sandeep Gohad came from a position where all his pieces were blocked due to a wrong move in the opening to win against Prathamesh Mokal in the 41st move, while another qualifier Amruta Mokal lacked experience as she stretched her game a bit too much against Kiran Panditrao, thus losing in the 32nd move.

Arun Vaidya has withdrawn from the meet citing health reasons, informed chief arbitrator R Sagar.

Results: U Bapat (1) lost to CS Gokhale (2); (Q) A Joshi (1) lost to A Karnataki (2); (Q) U Sasane (2) w/o J D'Souza (1); (Q) A Mokal (0) lost to K Panditrao (2); IM A Vaidya (0) lost to K Khaire (1); G Wagh (1) bt C Dongre (0); Prathamesh Mokal (0) lost to (Q) Sandeep Gohad (1); (Q) Rajesh Sapkal got a bye.