Budapest tournament, Round 11: Spielmann with win, Forgacs with draw now share lead; idle Tartakower stands 3rd; Marco 4th.

Rudolf Spielmann defeated Zoltan von Balla to join Leo Forgacs atop the score table after the eleventh round of the Austro-Hungarian Championship tournament in Budapest after Forgacs, the erstwhile sole leader of the tourney, could only draw his game with Miklos Brody.  The co-leaders now stand on 7 1/2 points, a full point ahead of the third place contender, Saviely Tartakower, who did not play in the 11th round as his originally scheduled opponent, Jeno Szekely, has withdrawn from the event.  In other contests, Georg Marco defeated Gyula Breyer to claim sole possession of fourth place with 5 1/2 points, while the games Reti-Barasz and Sterk-Asztalos were drawn.  Milan Vidmar had the bye.

With two rounds remaining the question of first place is still very much an open one, though Spielmann will be afforded an excellent opportunity to assume the lead alone in the twelfth round when he will face Zsigmond Barasz, one of the bottom markers in the tourney, while his rival Forgacs sits idle with the bye.  Dr. Tartakower, who will next meet Vidmar, will also surely look to narrow the gap between himself and Forgacs.  All three of the main contenders, Spielmann, Forgacs, and Tartakower, will be active in the thirteenth and final round, with Spielmann facing Breyer, Forgacs playing Vidmar, and Tartakower squaring off against Asztalos.

Scores after 11 rounds:  Spielmann, Forgacs* 7 1/2; Tartakower 6 1/2; Marco* 5 1/2; Asztalos*, v. Balla* 5; Breyer 4 1/2; Brody 4; Vidmar 3 1/2; Reti 3; Barasz 2 1/2; Sterk 1 1/2.       *Denotes those players who still have a free day remaining.

Our daily cable from Europe brought an odd assortment of tidings.  We have received only the first dozen moves of the game between Forgacs and Brody, a Sicilian Defense, which began 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Qb6 7.Nb3 d6 8.Be3 Qc7 9.a4 Nf6 10.0-0 Be7 11.a5 Nd7 12.N1d2 b5, and was later drawn.  We have also the moves of Marco's victory over Breyer and Spielmann's defeat of von Balla, although the latter score is clearly corrupt at the finish, leaving us in doubt as to its true concluding moves - see the commentary included below.