Tuesday, July 23

Debrecen tournament, Rounds 7 and 8: Reti, Asztalos now tied for lead; Breyer 3rd

The seventh round of the Hungarian Championship tournament at Debrecen saw the four leaders of the event draw their games, as Richard Reti shared the point with Zsigmond Barasz and Gyula Breyer did likewise vs. Lajos Asztalos.  Only the Jeno Szekely-Karoly Sterk encounter finished decisively, with the latter emerging victorious. The cable message carrying this news arrived in rather fragmentary form, and thus we can report only the bare results of the games, along with the first 9 moves of the Reti-Barasz contest, which were as follows: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Nc3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a4 b4 9.Nd5.

Standings after 7 rounds: Reti 5, Asztalos, Breyer 4; Barasz 3 1/2; Sterk 3; Szekely 1 1/2

The tourney's eighth round proved more dramatic, as Reti for the first time since the second day of play now finds himself sharing top position on the score chart.  The erstwhile sole leader fell to Sterk in a Ruy Lopez and was overtaken by Asztalos, who defeated Szekely in convincing style.  The day's final game, between Barasz and Breyer, finished in a draw.  The race to the finish is likely to prove most thrilling indeed, as a single point now separates the first five players with just two rounds remaining. Only Szekely, who has lost three consecutive games to begin the second half of the event, is completely out of the running, and is in fact certain of finishing in last place.

Standings after 8 rounds: Reti, Asztalos 5; Breyer 4 1/2; Barasz, Sterk 4; Szekely 1 1/2

The scores of the eighth round's two decisive games were transmitted to us, and we present them below.

    



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