James Plaskett
Jim Plaskett | |
---|---|
Full name | Harold James Plaskett |
Country | England |
Born |
Cyprus | 18 March 1960
Title | Grandmaster |
FIDE rating | 2450 (May 2015) |
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 appeared unsuccessfully several times on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, 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?, 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?[2] Woffinden and Ronson had both been initially sceptical.
His collaboration with Woffinden led to the publication of their book - Bad Show: The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major on 29 January 2015. See www.bojanglesbooks.com/
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.
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.[3] He was accompanied by 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.[4]
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)
- ↑ Are the Millionaire three innocent? guardian.co.uk
- ↑ Charles Ingram and 'Who wants to be a Miilionaire?'
- ↑ Institut Virtuel de Cryptozoologie
External links
- James Plaskett player profile and games at Chessgames.com
- http://www.jamesplaskett.com
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