Budapest tournament, Round 6: Szekely withdraws, his games annulled; Spielmann, von Balla now leaders

From an incomplete and somewhat garbled cable message we learn that Jeno Szekely has withdrawn from the Austro-Hungarian Championship tournament in Budapest.  We are unaware of the causes that led to the retirement of the Hungarian Master, and are equally uncertain whether his sixth round game against Georg Marco was played to completion.  Our sources inform us that the earlier games already played by Szekely have been annulled, the standard practice when a player quits a tourney before fulfilling at least one-half of the tournament program.  (Szekely's game with Marco, even if played to a decision, would make only his fifth of the scheduled twelve.)

The withdrawal of Szekely and the resultant cancellation of his score alter the tournament standings, with Breyer, Brody, and Barasz each losing a point already gained over the board, the first-named thereby falling out of a tie for the lead, and the last-named now finding himself at the rear of the pack.  Forgacs, on the other hand, sees his loss to the departed player stricken from the record.  Our score list below reflects these changed totals.  It should be noted that from this point forward two players will be free during each round, as in addition to the man with the bye, the competitor originally scheduled to face Szekely will find himself without an opponent.  As an unfortunate consequence, later in the tourney some players will at certain moments hold two games in hand over others, a circumstance likely to render the accurate estimation of their respective chances most difficult indeed.  To aid in this endeavor, our updated score list now indicates the number of free days remaining to each player.

For the first and, we sincerely hope, only time during this tourney we have received no complete game scores from Budapest.  Only the opening moves of the von Balla - Brody encounter, an unremarkable Sicilian Defense, were transmitted intelligibly by cable, and we give them here for the record: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be2 Nf6 7.0-0 Bb4 8.Bf3 d6 9.Nce2 d5 10.Ng3 dxe4 11.Nxe4 Be7 12.Nxf6+ Bxf6.  The game was later drawn.

Other results from the 6th round were as follows:  Sterk 0-1 Reti; Tartakower 1/2-1/2 Forgacs; Barasz 0-1 Breyer; Vidmar 0-1 Spielmann.  As noted above, the exact status of the Szekely-Marco game is not known to us.  Asztalos had the bye.

The revised scores after Round 6, reflecting the withdrawal of Szekely, are as follows:  Spielmann*, v. Balla** 4; Asztalos*, Tartakower*, Forgacs* 3 1/2; Breyer* 3; Marco*, Vidmar** 2 1/2; Reti*, Brody* 1 1/2; Sterk* 1; Barasz* 1/2.        *The number of asterisks following a surname denotes the number of free days for that player over the remainder of the tournament.

The 7th round will be played tomorrow.