Padmini Rout leads the tournament with a full point!
At the end of fifth round it was a three way tie at the top. Padmini Rout, Nandhidhaa and Meenakshi Subbaraman were on joint lead with 4.0/5. The results that followed paved way for Padmini to become the sole leader of the tournament. Firstly the girl from Odisha did a great service to her chances by beating Nandhidhaa, while her friend Soumya beat Meenakshi and paved way for Rout to be the sole leader at the end of six rounds.
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 12 | 2159 | WGM | Kiran Manisha Mohanty | 0 - 1 | Ghosh Samriddhaa | 1988 | 9 | |
| 2 | 10 | 2190 | WIM | Nandhidhaa Pv | 0 - 1 | IM | Padmini Rout | 2324 | 8 |
| 3 | 11 | 2165 | WGM | Meenakshi Subbaraman | 0 - 1 | WGM | Soumya Swaminathan | 2320 | 7 |
| 4 | 1 | 1885 | Pandey Srishti | 0 - 1 | WGM | Swati Ghate | 2277 | 6 | |
| 5 | 2 | 2333 | WGM | Gomes Mary Ann | ½ - ½ | Bala Kannamma P | 2058 | 5 | |
| 6 | 3 | 2311 | WGM | Kulkarni Bhakti | 1 - 0 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | 2248 | 4 |
Samridhaa Ghosh had three losses and two draws before this game. At the National Premier one of things that every player has to be careful about is not getting into a situation where all the participants single you out as the weak link and put all their energy to defeat you. It happened to GM Himanshu Sharma at the National Premier 2017 and it could happen to just about anyone. It speaks volumes about Samriddhaa Ghosh's fighting abilities that she managed to score her first win of the event against Kiran Manisha Mohanty. And it was a smooth victory.
