Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran drew against GM Abhijit Kunte to maintain his sole lead with 8.5 points after the 11th round in the 40th National 'A' chess championship in Mumbai on Friday.

The top seed from Tamil Nadu drew his match against the third seeded Kunte (7 points) of Maharashtra in just eleven moves, disappointing chess lovers.

In another 11th round match, International Master R B Ramesh of Tamil Nadu split the point with GM and seventh seed Pravin Thipsay of Maharashtra. The duo took their points tally to 4.5 and 5.5 respectively.

In the tenth round matches, which was also played today Sasikiran had defeated IM V Sarvanan; GM and fourth seed Surya Sekhar Ganguly of Bengal defeated Survarjit Shah of Bengal and took his tally to 5.5 points while IM Tejas Bakre defeated Arvind Shastry to increase his tally to five points.

In the 29th Women's National 'A' championship being held simultaneously, reigning champion R Aarthie of Tamil Nadu maitained her lead with 5.5 points when she drew her seventh round match against second seed Swati Ghate of Maharashtra.

Krutika Nadig of Maharashtra managed to score her first win of the championship when she beat J E Kavita of Tamil Nadu in 54 moves while WGM and top seed Vijayalakshmi of Tamil Nadu drubbed young WIM Eesha Karavade of Maharashtra in 44 moves.