Budapest tournament, Round 2: Breyer wins sharp game, assumes sole lead

Gyula Breyer, playing sharp chess with the Black pieces, defeated Jeno Szekely in the second round of the Austro-Hungarian Championship in Budapest to assume sole lead in the event.  After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6, Breyer replied to 3.Nc3 with 3...e5, a gambit first played, if we recall correctly, by Winawer against Marshall at Monte Carlo in 1901.  The second player conducted the struggle with imagination and verve, winning a piece with the paradoxical retreat 11...Bc8! and making efficient work of matters thereafter.  The reader will find this sterling encounter at the head of our selection of games, given below.  Other winners on the day were Forgacs, Tartakower, and Vidmar.  Spielmann had the bye.  Today being a free day, the third round will be played tomorrow.

Scores after 2 rounds: Breyer 2; Asztalos, Forgacs, Tartakower 1 1/2; von Balla, Barasz, Vidmar, Spielmann* 1; Sterk, Brody, Marco 1/2; Reti*, Szekely 0.       *Denotes those players who have already had the bye.

The games of the round, with brief summaries:

Szekely 0-1 Breyer.  Szekely unwisely captured the Black b-pawn with his Queen at the 7th move, only to find the lady trapped by Breyer's 11...Bc8!, a predicament from which she could be extricated only at the cost of a piece.  The first player, it is true, temporarily obtained 4 pawns in return, but Black's  far superior development allowed Breyer to conclude matters virtually without a struggle.  In the final position Black has a forced mate.

    

Reti 0-1 Forgacs.  Forgacs as Black in a Ruy Lopez outplayed Reti in the endgame, infiltrating with his Rook to win a piece.

Tartakower 1-0 Barasz.  The versatile Tartakower employed Bird's Opening 1.f4 against Barasz and gained a victory on the Queen-side after the second player allowed his c-pawn to become an object of attack.

Vidmar 1-0 Marco.  Vidmar, playing White, gained a promising position against Marco in a Queen's Gambit Declined, scoring the game to his credit immediately when the veteran Master blundered at his 22nd turn, as shown in the diagram below:

Asztalos 1/2 - 1/2 von Balla.  The two Masters played a quiet Exchange Variation of the French Defense, willingly trading pieces and concluding peace in an endgame in which neither side had ever seemed likely to prevail.  We omit the score of this game, certain that the two players will furnish much more palatable fare as the tourney progresses.

Sterk 1/2 - 1/2 Brody.  A Sicilian Defense in which Sterk was required to display much ingenuity in order to draw.  We would in particular call to our readers' attention the move 36.Rc6!, the clever caging of Black's Rook after White's 43.Kc1, and the saving maneuver initiated by 57.Nh1.