James Plaskett
| Jim Plaskett | |
|---|---|
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| Full name | Harold James Plaskett |
| Country | England |
| Born |
18 March 1960 Cyprus |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2450 (February 2016) |
| Peak rating | 2529 (July 2000) |
Harold James Plaskett (born Dhekelia, Cyprus, 18 March 1960) was British Chess Champion in 1990, awarded the International Grandmaster title in 1985, and is also a writer, blogger, sometime explorer/cryptozoologist and legal campaigner. Married in 1995 to writer Fiona Pitt-Kethley, they have a son, Alexander, born 1996, and live in Cartagena, Spain.
Biography
Plaskett was educated at Bedford Modern School.[1] He has written nine chess books and a quasi-autobiography, Coincidences. For some years in the 1990s he was chess columnist at The New Statesman.
He organised and led a 1999 National Geographic expedition to Bermuda to follow up reports of "Octopus giganteus" near the island, but was unsuccessful in filming it.[2]
He then appeared unsuccessfully several times on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and drew on these experiences to write a defence of contestant Charles Ingram, who along with two supposed accomplices had been found guilty of cheating to win the £1 million top prize.
This essay led to an article by Bob Woffinden in The Daily Mail of 9 October 2004 – Is The Coughing Major Innocent?, and also prompted a reconsideration of the case in The Guardian Comment is free blog on 17 July 2006 from Jon Ronson – Are the Millionaire three innocent?[3] Woffinden and Ronson had both been initially sceptical.
His collaboration with Woffinden led to the publication of their book - Plaskett´s eleventh - Bad Show: The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major on 29 January 2015.
Plaskett finally got into the hot seat on a show broadcast on 21 January 2006, becoming the seventh person to reach £125,000 without using any lifeline en route to winning £250,000.[4] He was accompanied by fellow Grandmaster Stuart Conquest.
He is a Deist, a dualist and a vitalist. He is also a critic of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory.
His brother, Allan, invented the snickometer device which is used globally to assist in umpiring decisions in cricket.
Bibliography
- Plaskett, James; Keene, Raymond; Tisdall, Jon (1987). The English Defence. Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-1322-9.
- Plaskett, James (1988). Playing to Win. Rowman Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7134-5844-2.
- Plaskett, James (1997). The Sicilian Taimanov. Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-901259-01-8.
- Plaskett, James (2000). Sicilian Grand Prix Attack. Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-291-5.
- Plaskett, James (2000). Coincidences. Tamworth Press. ISBN 978-0-9509441-6-6.
- Plaskett, James (2002). Can You Be a Tactical Chess Genius?. Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-259-5.
- Plaskett, James (2004). The Scandinavian Defence. ISBN 0-7134-8911-1.
- Plaskett, James (2004). Starting Out: Attacking Play. Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-367-7.
- Plaskett, James (2005). Catastrophe In The Opening. Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-390-5.
- Plaskett, James (2005). The Queen's Bishop Attack Revealed. Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-8970-5.
- Plaskett, James, Woffinden, Bob (2015) Bad Show. Bojangles Books:ISBN 978-0-9930-7552-0; ebook: ISBN 9780993075537
See also
References
- ↑ School of the Black And Red-A History of Bedford Modern School, by Andrew Underwood (1981); reset and updated by Peter Boon, Paul Middleton and Richard Wildman (2010)
- ↑ Institut Virtuel de Cryptozoologie
- ↑ Are the Millionaire three innocent? guardian.co.uk
- ↑ Charles Ingram and 'Who wants to be a Miilionaire?'
External links
- James Plaskett player profile and games at Chessgames.com
- http://www.jamesplaskett.com
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