The wheel of fate continues to turn at the Austro-Hungarian Championship tournament in Budapest, bringing new leaders to the fore with each successive round. Standing now atop the score table are Zoltan von Balla and Lajos Asztaslos, the former by virtue of defeating Gyula Breyer in a long and complicated struggle and the latter after recording a victory over Miklos Brody. In other contests, Rudolf Spielmann, with a game in hand on the leaders, crept to within half a point of first place by dispatching Richard Reti in only 17 moves, while the hitherto scoreless Jeno Szekely at last opened his account by taking the full point from Leo Forgacs. The games Barasz-Vidmar and Marco-Sterk were drawn. Dr. Tartakower had the bye.
Scores after 5 rounds: Asztalos, v. Balla 3 1/2; Tartakower*, Spielmann*, Breyer, Forgacs 3; Vidmar, Marco 2 1/2; Brody 2; Barasz 1 1/2; Sterk*, Szekely* 1; Reti* 1/2. *Denotes those players who have already had the bye.
We have three games to share with our readers today, as our sources in Budapest continue to file incomplete, albeit regular, reports. Here, against Breyer, von Balla as second player in a Queen's Gambit Declined obtains play with the lively pawn sacrifice 25...e5. A tactical skirmish beginning at the 33rd move leads to an endgame in which Black holds an extra exchange in return for a pawn, with the position nevertheless remaining roughly in balance owing to White's central pawn mass. But Breyer seems to have missed a number of opportunities thereafter, in particular at his 46th and 51st moves, thereby allowing von Balla to infiltrate on the Queen-side and decide the contest in his favor.
Spielmann, playing Black in a Ruy Lopez, took swift advantage of a momentary lapse by Reti, whose plausible but disastrous 15.Rd2?? not only left his Queen with no good means of escape after 15...f3, but also placed the Rook on a most unfortunate square, as an examination of the possible variation beginning with 18.Ne2 will make readily apparent. Reti's decision to resign after Black's 17th move was well justified.
The third and final score to come to hand is that of the Barasz-Vidmar game, a relatively quiet Ruy Lopez drawn in 41 moves:
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