Not only was the quality of the play considered higher than in many of the previous Hastings events, it had, for that time, the unusual, but most welcome, participation of Russian Grandmasters and it was a success for the British as C. H. O’D. Alexander tied for first with the redoubtable David Bronstein. Alexander was the only British player ever to have won the first prize outright in a Hastings which he dis in 1946-47.
An unusual situation in this tournament was the custom of having five British players and five foreigners, which had previously been the norm, was abandoned.The reason was that only a few of the leading British masters were available to participate.
The two other British players were Robert Wade, winner of the British Championship in 1952, and Dennis Horne, who had done very well at the 1952 International Team Tournament at Helsinki where playing on first reserve board he had won a silver medal with a 5.5-3.5 score. Hector Rossetto of Argentina took the gold on that board with an 8-2 score.
The last place finish of, by now forgotten, Dennis Horne (October 19, 1920 0 May 3, 2015, 94 years old) was disappointing.
In his college days he was a strong player at Oxford University which he entered immediately after World War II in which he served in the Army. Prior to Helsinki and Hastings Horne tied for second behind Golombek in the 1949 British championship.
I could not locate a photo of him, but he was described as having a “military style mustache”, smoked a pipe and enjoyed solving the Times crossword puzzles. The King's Regulations state that, "If a mustache is worn, it is to be trimmed and not below the line of the lower lip." In my military days were were once told that we could grow beards and mustaches, but they had to be kept shaved as close to the skin as possible.
Outside of chess Horne was a prep school master and due due a growing interest in bridge he devoted less time to chess and this Hastings tournament was his last top flight event. The last event I was able to locate that he played in was the 1987 Guernsey Open, but a crosstable was not available. Chess metrics estimates Horne’s best ever rating to have been 2494 in 1952.
In the following game from Hastings, Horne managed to break his run of defeats when he scored against a young 18 year old Fridrik Olafsson. The game was equal until Horne erred on his 27th move, but Olafsson failed to take advantage of it and instead made a blunder that lost the game.
Dennis M. Horne–Fridrik Olafsson1–0C35Hastings 1953/544Hastings ENG02.01.1954Stockfish 16
C35: King's Gambit Accepted 1.e4 e5 2.f4 A favorite of Horne. exf4 3.f3 e7 Does black intend to play ...Bh4+? 4.c4 This is by far the most
common move here. f6 4...h4+ is usual and it leads to some
interesting play after 5.f1 5.g3 is not quite so good because after fxg3 6.0-0 gxh2+ 7.h1 7.xh2 d5 8.xd5 f6 is best met by 9.xf7+ xf7 10.h5+ with a wild position. 7...d5 black has a promising position. 5...d5 6.xd5 f6 7.b3 This is a relatively unexplored position. Black has
tried 7...Bg4 and 7...Ng4, but 7...Nh5 looks interesting. g4 5.e5 g4 6.d4 d5 Black could still play 6...Bh4+ if he wanted to. 7.exd6 Best xd6
Threatening ...Qb4+. 8.c3 Not at all bad, but white usually plays 8.O-O e6 9.d3 e3 10.e2 c6 11.e4 d7 12.xe3 fxe3 13.c3 0-0-0 14.xe3 f5 15.f2 It would have been more precise to transfer the N to the Q-side with
15.Ned2 intending to go to b3. f6 16.0-0 h6 17.fe1 he8 18.e5 This
results in white getting a slightly inferior position. Better was 18.Bc2 which
clears the square d3 for the NB on f2. xe5 19.dxe5 d5 20.f4 f8 21.ad1 g5 22.a4 White is hoping to play e6 at teh appropriate time. e7 23.b5 c5 24.b4 Black gets a distinct advantahe after this. 24.c4
is correct. e4 25.e6 xd1 26.xd1 26.xd1 a6 27.xc6 xc6 Black is
better thanks to the weak e-Pawn. 26...d8 27.c1 e8 28.b4 d4 29.xc6 xc6 30.d1 b6 with slightly the better game. 24...xc3 25.xc6 xc6 25...xc6 secures a significant advantage... 26.xa7 xd1 27.xd1 b6 28.a6+ b8 29.e2 xb4 and white;s weak Ps addure black of decisive advantage. 26.xa7 b6 27.e6 This is not advisable at this point. 27.c1 keeps
things even after b7 28.a4 xg2 29.e6 fe8 30.c2 e7 31.a4 f4 32.a5 d5 33.e5 bxa5 34.bxa5 a7 35.a6 g4 36.c5 xc5 37.xc5 The
complications are great, but the chances are equal. Five Shootouts d\from this
position ended in draws. 27...xe6 A logical looking move, but
it's a game losing blunder. 27...fe8 ua a winner. 28.a4 xe6 29.a6+ b8 30.xe6 xe6 31.a5 e8 32.axb6 e1+ 33.f1 xf1+ 34.xf1 cxb6
with a won ending. 28.c1 ...and wins! d6 This loses outright but
trhere was nothing that comes close to saving the game. 29.xe6
A nifty conclusion. f4 The q has to guard c7 30.ec6 f7 31.a8+ d7 32.d1+ Black resigned 1–0
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