James Plaskett
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Harold James Plaskett (born 18 March 1960) is a British chess grandmaster and writer.<ref name="chessdom"/>
Biography
Early life and personal life
Plaskett was born in Dhekelia, Cyprus, on 18 March 1960<ref name="chessdom">Template:Cite web</ref> and was educated at Bedford Modern School, England.<ref>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)</ref> In the 1990s he was a chess columnist for the New Statesman<ref name="chessdom"/> while working various jobs in London.<ref name="roderick">Template:Cite book</ref> He is married to the poet Fiona Pitt-Kethley.<ref name="oxford">Template:Cite book</ref> They relocated to Cartagena, Spain in 2002.<ref name="penn">Template:Cite web</ref>
Chess career
At the European Junior Chess Championship 1978/79, which was won by John van der Wiel, Plaskett came third with 8 points out of 13 games.<ref>8th European Junior Championship 1978/79 Tournament, www.chessgames.com</ref> At the Junior EC 1979/80 Plaskett reached a shared fourth place with 8.5 points out of 13 games.<ref>9th European Junior Championship 1979/80 Tournament, www.chessgames.com</ref>
Plaskett achieved the title of International Master in 1981,<ref name="fide">Template:Cite web</ref> and became an International Grandmaster in 1985.<ref name="fide"/> At the Hastings tournament in 1986/87 he achieved 7 points out of 13 games, one point less than the winner Murray Chandler.<ref>Hastings 1986/87 Tournament, www.chessgames.com</ref>
He became British Chess Champion in 1990, with 9 points out of 11 games.<ref>British Championship Tournament 1990, www.chessgames.com</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998 he played in the 73rd Hastings tournament, which was won by Matthew Sadler; James Plaskett reached fifth place with 4.5/9.
As of 2025 he continues to be active in chess in Spain.<ref name="telejumilla">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="lasprovincias">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ideal.es">Template:Cite news</ref>
He has written nine chess books.<ref name="chessdom"/>
In 1987, at a top-flight chess tournament in Brussels, he presented an endgame study composed circa 1970 by endgame composer Gijs van Breukelen. As a result, the famous study is now known as Plaskett's Puzzle.
Coincidences
Plaskett has been recording his own experiences of coincidences since the 1980s. He has said that the coincidences have seemed to proliferate in response to his own study, and have been seemingly interlinked by recurrent themes or motifs, which he felt may be "an indicator of something glimpsed but yet to be clearly seen or understood."<ref name="roderick"/> He is the author of a semi-autobiographical book, Coincidences.<ref name="chessdom"/> and also maintains a record at his Blog; "Snapshots: A Coincidence Diary".
Giant Octopus
Another of Plaskett's interests has been the pursuit of the cryptid, the "Giant Octopus".<ref name="spectator">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="pretoria">Template:Cite journal</ref> He undertook a three-week expedition in search of it in the waters off the Bermudan coast in August 1999, in collaboration with Cliff Stanford of Demon Internet.<ref name="lake">Template:Cite book</ref>
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
After appearing four times at the qualifying stage of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,<ref name="ronson"/> Plaskett, who had arrived with fellow grandmaster and friend Stuart Conquest, got into the hot seat on the show broadcast on 21 January 2006. After becoming the seventh person to reach £125,000 without using any lifelines, he went on to win £250,000.<ref name="chessdom"/>
He has been public in his defence of contestants Charles Ingram, Diana Ingram, and Tecwen Whittock, who were found guilty of cheating to win the £1 million top prize by means of cough signals. Plaskett told journalist Jon Ronson that the alleged cough signals were simply nervous, responsive coughing caused by unconscious triggers, and that they had also occurred during the legitimate win by Judith Keppel.<ref name="ronson">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2015, Plaskett and journalist Bob Woffinden collaborated on a book asserting that the Ingrams were innocent.<ref name="telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref> The book, titled Bad Show: The Quiz, The Cough, The Millionaire Major, was published in January 2015.<ref name="wales">Template:Cite news</ref> Plaskett's book on the Ingram affair inspired a stage play by James Graham, called Quiz. That later spawned a three part TV Drama of the same name directed by Sir Stephen Frears.<ref name="standard">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="chichester">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="woffinden">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="hollywood">Template:Cite news</ref>
Bibliography
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- Plaskett, James, Woffinden, Bob (2015) Bad Show. Bojangles Books:Template:ISBN; ebook: Template:ISBN
- Plaskett, James (2021). Bread and the Circus