In the third round, on the top board, top seed IM Kaustav Kundu of West Bengal was pitted against Divyansh Singh Kathaaria of Madhya Pradesh. Kaustav tried to employ Sicilian Defense setup but Divyansh employed irregular setup. Both players played cautiously but Kaustav with his experience registered the victory in 45 moves. On the second board, the game between FM Arun Kataria of Rajasthan and Shivam Joshi from Madhya Pradesh lasted only 28 moves in favour of FM Arun Kataria.
The competition for top spot in the championship will gain momentum when the top players clash with each other in subsequent rounds. The event is being played in 11 rounds and has attracted 255 entries.
IA Ajinkya Pingle is the Chief Arbiter of the event who is being assisted by deputy chief arbiter FA Shiva Iyer, FA Amit Tembhurne, SNA Sham Agrawal, SNA Sagar Sakhare, SNA Prayas Ambade, SNA Shishir Indurkar and Prathamesh Machave.