James Plaskett

Harold James Plaskett (born Cyprus, March 181960) 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.

Plaskett 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. [ [http://perso.orange.fr/cryptozoo/actualit/2000/echecpoulpe_eng.htm Institut Virtuel de Cryptozoologie ] ]

He has written nine chess books and also one quasi-autobiographical one, "Coincidences".

He appeared unsuccessfully several times on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and then drew on his experiences to write a defence of Charles Ingram, his wife, Diana, and Tecwen Whittock, who had been found guilty in April 2003 of conspiring to help Ingram win the £1 million top prize by coughing to signal the right answers [ [http://www.portia.org/chapter14/major.html Charles Ingram and Who Wants to be a Miilionaire ] ] . [This essay led to an article by Bob Woffinden in The Daily Mail of October 9, 2004 - "Is The Coughing Major Innocent?", and also prompted a reconsideration of the case in The Guardian "Comment is free" blog on July 17, 2006 from Jon Ronson [ [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jon_ronson/2006/07/could_the_who_wants_to_be_a_mi.html Are the Millionaire three innocent? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk ] ]

Woffinden and Ronson had both been initially sceptical.

At last, in January 2006, [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2913 Chess Base] ] , he won £250,000. [ [http://www.mirror.co.uk/archive/tm_method=full%26objectid=16620070%26siteid=89520-name_page.html Daily Mirrow] ] [ [http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/showbiz/tm_objectid=16620070%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=exclusive%2d%2dpal%2dof%2dcheat%2dmajor%2dwins%2dmillionaire%2d-name_page.html Daily Mirrow] ] [ [http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16625030%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=bonus%2dfor%2dmillionaire%2dtv%2dcheat%2d-name_page.html Daily Mirror] ]

Karl Shuker, another Briton with an interest in both cryptozoological expeditions and unusual phenomena, had previously reached the same figure.

His brother, Allan, invented the snickometer device which is used globally to assist in umpiring decisions in cricket.

Bibliography

* "The English Defence" (with Raymond Keene and Jonathan Tisdall), 1987 ISBN 0-7134-1322-0

* "Playing To Win", 1988 ISBN 0-7134-5844-5
* "The Sicilian Taimanov", 1997 ISBN 1-901259-01-3
* "Sicilian Grand Prix Attack", 2000 ISBN 1-85744-291-1
* "Can You Be A Tactical Chess Genius?", 2002 ISBN 1-85744-259-8
* "The Scandinavian Defence", 2004 ISBN 0-7134-8911-1
* "Starting out: Attacking Play", 2004 ISBN 1-85744-367-5
* "The Queen's Bishop Attack Revealed", 2005 ISBN 0-7134-8970-7
* "Catastrophe in the Opening", 2005 ISBN 1-85744-390-x

* "Coincidences", 2000, ISBN 0-9509441-6-5

References

External links

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* www.jamesplaskett.com