The International master Thej Kumar of South Western Railway ended match his with his team-mate IM Ratna Kumar into a draw to take lead by one full point in the Karnataka Bank third FIDE-rated All India Open Chess Tournament at Mangalore on Sunday.

The match between Thej and Ratna lasted for 26 moves as both players were not taking risk and they decided to share the points among themselves.

Thej Kumar has been placed at the top position with 9 points while the second position has been occupied by five players including GM Thipsay of Maharashtra, IM Rathnakaran and IM Muralikrishnan and G A Stany and Navalgund Niranjan with 8 points each.

C Praveen Kumar lost his match to GM Praveen Thipsay of Union Bank after 26 moves due to passive play.

On another board, R Balasubramaniam (ICF) held IM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (Indian Railways) to draw in defence.