India’s P Harikrishna routed former World champion Veselin Topalov 1.5-0.5 to jump to joint second spot after the fourth round at Bilbao Blindfold chess World Cup.

After losing to Norwegian sensation Magnus Carlsen from a position of strength, this was an excellent comeback by Hari who won one and drew one game to reach five points in the unique event where winner gets three points for a victory and one point is awarded for a draw.

Grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi, the lowest ranked player in the six-player double round-robin event, emerged as the sole leader on eight points after beating Carlsen 1.5-0.5.

Results (fourth round): P Harikrishna (Ind) bt Veselin Topalov (Bul) 1.5-0.5; Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) bt Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 1.5-0.5; Judit Polgar (Hun) lt to Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) 0.5-1.5.