Chinese grandmaster (GM) Bu Xiangzhi maintained his sole leadership on Friday after defeating Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna 6-0 at Blindfold World Chess Cup Bilbao-2007 held in northern Spain's Biscay province capital Bilbao.

 

Bu thus increased his lead by two points and is now virtually the tournament winner since none of the five other world class players participating in the event could surpass his 18-point score.

 

Even if Bu loses his next two games on Saturday against Hungarian GM Judith Polgar, he will win due to the tiebreak system.

 

Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen is the only one that can possibly equal Bu's current score, but to do so he has to defeat former world chess champion Veselin Topalov from Bulgaria on Saturday.

 

Meanwhile, in the other plays on Friday, Carlsen defeated Polgar 4-1, Topalov tied 3-3 against Ukrainian GM Sergei Karjakin in the 7th and 8th rounds.

 

The standings now are as follows: Bu, 18.0 points; Carlsen, 12.0, Karjakin, 11.0, Polgar 9.0, Topalov, 8.0 and Harikrishna, 6.0 points.

 

The pairings for the 9th round on Saturday to start at 17:30 local time (19:30 GMT) are as follows: Bu-Polgar, Karjakin-Harikrishna, and Carlsen versus Topalov.

 

And the pairings for the 10th round on Saturday at18:30 local time (20:30 GMT) are as follows: Polgar-Bu; Harikrisna-Karjakin, Topalov versus Carlsen.

 

This 10-round event will conclude on Saturday and it is being played at Bilbao's Sheraton hotel.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2007)