In another major surprise of the tournament world number one Magnus Carlsen suffered his second defeat with white pieces in the tournament bowing to Russia champion Ian Nepomniachtchi in a hard fought game.
The other two over night leaders – Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Levon Aronian of Armenia played out draws with Dutch duo of Jan Smeets and Anish Giri respectively to remain a half point behind the two leaders.
Meanwhile in the ‘B’ group Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly rose back with a fine win against Friso Nijboer of Holland to take his tally to four points.
The lead positions changed here as Zahar Efimenkov of Ukraine joined Wesley So of Philippines in the lead on 6.5 points.
Tania Sachdev played out a draw with Benjamin Bok of Holland in the ‘C’ group to take his points to five. Daniele Vocaturo of Italy continued to lead this section with a full point on 7.5 points.