However, the Goodricke Chess Academy teenager from Calcutta, may be tested tomorrow as he will play against N Sanjay of Income Tax, Mysore, in the important tenth round. Neelotpal requires just a draw in tomorrow's game to confirm his victory in the tournament, but the 23-year-old Sanjay (7.5) is expected to give a tough fight, considering his remarkable comeback from the fourth round loss to IM Lanka Ravi. Sanjay, today, drew with RK Mishra on the second board to be placed second.

Neelotpal (Elo 2422), with white pieces, had a slight advantage in the opening game after TS Ravi (Elo 2334) played a premature `d5' move on the 12th in the Queen's India defence. Thereafter, white built up a King Sideattack and with another weak play by black, gained control over the game. Neelotpal sacrificed his knight to later win black's queen on the 23rd move and forced Ravi to resign in 34 moves.

Ravi could have played a Pawn Ending game, but instead attempted a counter attack, in which he selected a weak move, which turned the game in the seed's favour.

N Sanjay could not gain much success with his double bishop advantage in the Sicilian Maroczy opening game. RK Mishra of Post and Telegraph office, MP, after letting Sanjay off the hook in time-pressure, defended well with white pieces and forced a draw on the 53rd move.

N Sudhakar Babu's lean patch continued today as well, as the International Master from Indian Bank lost to former world under-10 champion P Harikrishna from Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. The Bank of Baroda sponsored Harikrishna was a pawn and exchange up in the English opening, when Babu resigned on the 23rd move. Harikrishna is now on third place with seven points, joined by six others,including IM Lanka Ravi (ONGC), second seed Sandeepan Chanda (GCA) and GB Joshi (IAL).

Top seed IM RB Ramesh of IOC, along with IWM S Vijayalakshmi of Indian Airlines and five others are placed fourth with 6.5 points.

Important results (Round 9)

Neelotpal Das (GCA) 8.5 bt TS Ravi (IOC) 7; RK Mishra (MP) 7 drew with N Sanjay (IT) 7.5; Lanka Ravi (ONGC) 7 bt S Satyapragyan (Ori) 6.5; Sabdeepan Chanda (GCA) 7 bt Dinesh Sharma (UP) 6; Shankar Roy (E Rlys) 7 bt V Goswami (Raj) 6; Anup Deshmukh (LIC) 6 lost to GB Joshi (IAL) 7; P Harikrishna (AP) 7 bt N Sudhakar Babu (IB) 6; SS Ganguly (GCA) 7 bt IWM Nisha Mohota (WB) 6; IM RB Ramesh (IOC) 6.5 bt Dipanjan Das (WB) 5.5.; D Laxman Rao (TN) 5.5 lost to CS Gokhale (IAL) 6.5; R Bandopadhyay (WB) drew with SK Rathod (MP) 6; Sriram Jha (LIC) 6.5 bt Hari Om Sharma (UP) 5.5; S Soman (Mah) 6.5 bt Ketan Boricha (Del) 5.5; IWM S Vijayalakshmi (IAL) 6.5 bt N Rajsubha (Guj) 5.5; Rahul Shetty (Mah) bt 6 drew with S Meenakshi (TN) 6.