Four players — Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Isha Sharma from Dakshina Kannada, Grand Master (GM) M.S. Thejkumar, International Master (IM) Girish A. Koushik (both from Mysuru) and IM G.A. Stany — shared the lead with 7.5 points each from eight rounds and are placed from one to four in the rankings, in the Akshayakalpa Karnataka State Open Chess Championship 2018, played at the Woodlands Hotel premises in Bengaluru yesterday.

Playing on the top board with white pieces, GM M.S. Thejkumar beat Aravind Shastry in the eighth round, while IM G.A. Stany beat D. Yashas. IM Girish Koushik beat A. Augustin while WCM Isha Sharma beat N. Sanjay.

The tournament concludes today. Other Mysuru players — Arnav Muralidhar (6.5 pts-16th place), L. Vivekananda ( 6 pts-42nd place), Chaitanya Ganesh (6 pts-53rd place), M. Shivanth (6 pts-64th place), H.R. Manasa (5.5 pts-95th place) and Krishnamurthy (5.5 pts-149th place) — also fared well.