James Plaskett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jim Plaskett
Full name Harold James Plaskett
Country England
Born (1960-03-18) 18 March 1960
Cyprus
Title Grandmaster
FIDE rating 2495 (February 2014)
Peak rating 2529 (July 2000)

Harold James Plaskett (born Dkeliah, Cyprus, 18 March 1960) was British Chess Champion in 1990,[citation needed] awarded the International Grandmaster title in 1985,[citation needed] and is also a writer, blogger, sometime explorer/cryptozoologist and legal campaigner.[citation needed] Married in 1995 to writer Fiona Pitt-Kethley, they have a son, Alexander, born 1996, and live in Cartagena, Spain.[citation needed]

Biography

Generally known in the chess world as 'Jim', he has written nine chess books and also one quasi-autobiographical one, Coincidences. For some years in the 1990s he was chess columnist at The New Statesman.[citation needed]

He appeared unsuccessfully several times on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,[citation needed] and then drew on his 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?,[citation needed] 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?[1] Woffinden and Ronson had both been initially sceptical.

Plaskett may also be heard at Episode 29 of The Pod Delusion podcast being interviewed by political blogger, Mark Thompson, who was himself led by Plaskett's essay to take an interest in the case of The Millionaire Three.[citation needed]

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 of his lifelines en route to winning £250,000.[2] He was accompanied by friend and fellow Grandmaster Stuart Conquest.

He also 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.[3]

Plaskett is a critic of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory and a supporter of Intelligent Design.

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. 

See also

References

  1. ↑ Are the Millionaire three innocent? guardian.co.uk
  2. ↑ Charles Ingram and 'Who wants to be a Miilionaire?'
  3. ↑ Institut Virtuel de Cryptozoologie

External links

Authority control
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.