Mark Howard Horton (born 22 February 1950) is a British

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...

journalist and expert player, as well as a former archaeologist and

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

champion. He was the editor of ''

Bridge Magazine ''Bridge Magazine'' was a British monthly magazine devoted to the game of contract bridge. It was the oldest such magazine having been established in 1926 by A. E. Manning Foster. It was not published during World War II, so it had fewer issue ...

'' from 1995 until it ceased publication at the end of 2017, and then became the editor of its purely online successors, first ''A New Bridge Magazine'' and subsequently ''BeBRIDGE''. He currently lives in Bath with his partner Liz.

Chess accomplishments

Horton was a powerful chess player who as a Junior represented England and subsequently played for Great Britain in the European Team Correspondence Championship, winning the gold medal on his board as the team took the bronze. He penned a series of articles and booklets on Opening theory and American legend

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...

used one of his suggestions to win a game against Russian Mark Taimanov on his way to the World title. His one full-length book on chess, published in 1977, is ''French Defence 1''.

Bridge career

Horton developed an interest in

in the early seventies. Chess has taken a back seat ever since, and in 1993 he ended his law career to pursue bridge-related interests full-time. He was fortunate to live in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

, which was the home of '' International Popular Bridge Monthly'' and thus provided opportunity to listen, learn and play with the pick of England's players including Tony Sowter,

Tony Forrester Anthony R. (Tony) Forrester (born 1953) is an English bridge player and writer. He is a British and English international and a World Bridge Federation World International Master. Forrester was a bridge columnist for ''The Daily Telegraph'' fro ...

, Graham Kirby, Brian Senior and Sally Brock. On the advice of Forrester, Horton formed a partnership with Richard Winter and they rapidly rose to the top, winning in rapid succession a host of major events in Britain including the Life Master Pairs, the Grandmaster Pairs, Crockford's Cup and the Spring Foursomes. Their success earned them invitations to overseas events and they won both the famous Hoechst Team tournament and the Dunhill Cup. They represented England on numerous occasions and were on the "Great Britain" team in Albuquerque for the 1994 world teams championship ( Rosenblum Cup, not a national teams tournament). It was in that same year that Mark was asked by

Patrick Jourdain Patrick David Jourdain (1 November 1942 – 28 July 2016) was a British bridge player, teacher and journalist. Over six decades he played in more than seventy international matches for Wales, more than any other player. He was bridge correspond ...

to work at the European Mixed Championships in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

– the only snag was that it meant that he would not be allowed to play. He decided to accept and when Jourdain announced at the end of the event that he wanted to retire from working on the Bridge Bulletin, the

European Bridge League The European Bridge League is a confederation of National Bridge Federations (NBFs) that organize the card game of contract bridge in European nations. In turn the EBL organizes bridge competition at the European level. It is a member of the Europe ...

(EBL) appointed Horton its Chief Editor, a post he has held ever since. In 1995 he was invited to become Editor of ''

'', the world's oldest bridge publication (since in May 1926) and he has been doing that ever since. He started writing bridge books, and is now well into double figures. His latest, ''Misplay these Hands with Me'', has earned rave reviews and was short listed for the 2008

Master Point Press Master Point Press is a Canadian book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It grew out of Canadian Master Point magazine (1992–1997), which was published by Ray and Linda Lee. The company began publishing books in 1994. While ...

Book of the Year award, which his book ''I Love This Game'', with Sabine Auken, won in 2006. Although his partnership with Winter came to an end, Mark continued to play in international events. He has won events in numerous countries, including Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, the United States, Portugal, Egypt and Malta. It was in Malta that he met Rabbi Leonard Helman, and they formed a professional partnership until Rabbi Helman died in 2013. They were in the prize money in Malta, and ever since they have played in two or three events a year, at the ACBL Nationals and in some overseas events. A couple of years ago they won the Polish Team Championships in

Sopot Sopot is a seaside resort city in Pomerelia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is located in Pomeranian Voivodeship, and has the status of the county, being the smallest ci ...

along with their regular

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n teammates Vladi Isporski,

Valentin Kovachev Valentin (Val/Valio) Kovachev ( bg, Валентин Ковачев) (born May 6, 1964 in Sofia, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian professional bridge player who lives in Las Vegas. Career Kovachev has been playing professional bridge since 2003. Kovac ...

and Victor Aronov. He has been an editor for numerous Daily Bulletins at tournaments, including the World Team Championships in Shanghai in 2007. "No international tournament is complete without his presence as bulletin editor."

Publications

*''French Defence 1'' (about

The Chess Player ''The Chess Player'' (french: Le Joueur d'échecs) is a 1927 French silent film directed by Raymond Bernard and based on a novel by Henry Dupuy-Mazuel. It is a historical drama set in the late 18th century during the Russian domination of Poli ...

, 1977 *''Petroff Defence : A Line for White'' (about

, 1980, *''For Love Or Money'', with

Brian Senior Brian R. Senior (born 1953) is a professional bridge player and writer from Nottingham. He has represented Great Britain, England, Northern Ireland and Ireland in international competition and has won all the major English Bridge Union competit ...

, Master Point Press, 2000 * *''The Bridge Magicians'', Master Point Press *''The Hands of Time'', Master Point Press, 2004 *''25 Conventions for Acol Players'', Master Point Press 2005 *''I Love this Game'', with

Sabine Auken Sabine Auken ( Zenkel, born 4 January 1965) is a German bridge player. She has also played as Sabine Zenkel. Sometime prior to the 2014 European and World meets (summer and October), she ranked 24th among 73 Women World Grand Masters by world mast ...

2006 *''Bridge Master vs. Bridge Amateur'', Master Point Press, 2007 *''Misplay these Hands with Me'', Master Point Press, 2007 *''Duplicate Bridge at Home'', Master Point Press, 2008 *''The Pocket Guide to Acol Bridge'', Master Point Press, forthcoming in 2009 * * *

A revision of ''Step-by-step Signalling'' published by Batsford, 1994 A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

References

External links

* * * o service 2014-05-18; see WorldCat and LCCN, below {{DEFAULTSORT:Horton, Mark 1950 births British and Irish contract bridge players Contract bridge writers Living people Place of birth missing (living people)