The eight round today saw emergence of a new sole leader Tejas Bakre (Elo 2358) who stunned overnight leader Atanu Lahiri (Elo 2385) on the top board taking his tally to 7 points. Atanu (Black) employed the French Defence , Winawer Variation and sacrificed a pawn without any realistic compensation.  To make things worse  he played some hasty moves unnecessary  gifting  the game to Bakre in 37 moves . When asked whether he fancies his chances for Title , Bakre who is still undefeated in this event said " There's a long way to go , Five rounds."

Sriram Jha (Elo 2409) made a good comeback after his first round draw against Jaydev Saha by holding fourth seed Neelotpal Das (Elo 2410) on the second board.  Playing with the black pieces  Jha adopted the Sicilian Paulsen system  and won two minor  pieces for a Rook.  However Jha faltered when Neelotpal was in time pressure and gave up his 'e' pawn  after which he had nothing better than perpetual checks.  Neelotpal while analysing his game with Jha quipped "I was lucky today".

On the fourth table, G.B.Prakash (Elo 2429) won comfortably  against Nisha Mohota (Elo 2275) in 40 moves of the Semi-Slav  Defence. K. Shantaram (Elo 2233) holds P. Konguvel (Elo 2377) in a Rook Queen Vs. Rook Queen ending where Shantaram had a extra pawn.

K. Murugan (Elo 2377) played a short draw against Ravi Lanka (Elo 2371) in just six moves.  Sudhakar Babu (Elo 2365) and Vishal Sareen (Elo 2303) also decided not to take undue risks and split points in nine moves.