GM tv performances in the 90s and a documentary from the 80s

[Neil_Hickman]

Question, Jim.
If you have already got sufficient money not to need to worry, is getting a lot more money going to make you happier? Is Rishi Sunak happier than Liz Truss?

[James Plaskett]

I´ll tell you when I´m rich...

Meanwhile, I do recall a simul I gave in Bedford in 1985 when you played..Q(d1)-h5+, expecting a draw by repetition but to be taken aback by my response of N(g6) - h4 , placing itself en prise to a g5 pawn, but which enabled me to win...

[Neil_Hickman]

Blimey.
The fact that nearly 40 years later you can correctly recall an incident from an insignificant game does underline why you were a GM and British Champion and I...
...decidedly wasn't.
Though Stockfish, as is the way of things, does a fair amount of violence to the game, reckoning that if I had played ...Rd6 instead of taking your knight, I might not have lost. Seems to assume Black finding quite a few "computer moves" along the way, though.

[James Plaskett]

If you would be so kind, please DO post the game on here!

[Neil_Hickman]

If you would be so kind, please DO post the game on here!

I'll PM you. Not sure it would be a kindness to inflict the play of the Hickman of 1985 on the world at large

[Nick Burrows]

Not sure it would be a kindness to inflict the play of the Hickman of 1985 on the world at large

Don't think the world at large will tune in - just a few English chess sickos

[James Plaskett]

He´s too modest.
In his Memorable Games of British Chess, he cited this game as my best - https://www.thearticle.com/shakespeare- ... s-immortal

Gracias, caballero!

In my opinion it´s better than Belyavsky-Vs Nunn, Wijk aan Zee 1985 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1103322 and should either displace that in Nunn´s co-authored World´s Greatest Chess Games OR be included alongside it.
I say this because Nunn´s 15...Qf4? blundered a winning position to result in one where he was clearly worse. Whereas my 27 N(h6)-f5+?, by contrast, merely blundered to turn a won position into a drawn one.
The eyes of Stockfish16 spot NO Point after my sacrifice of my queen for a bishop and three pawns - Vs an opponent ranked ninth in the world - where it is possible for him to show clear superiority.

[Neil_Hickman]

Thank you for the link to the Keene article on "Plaskett's Immortal" (not my name for it, but not a description with which I disagree at all).
BTW, did the PM reach you? My computer both claims that it was sent and claims that it is sitting in my outbox.

[MJMcCready]

He´s too modest.
In his Memorable Games of British Chess, he cited this game as my best - https://www.thearticle.com/shakespeare- ... s-immortal

Gracias, caballero!

In my opinion it´s better than Belyavshy-Vs Nunn, Wijk aan Zee 1985 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1103322 and should either displace that in Nunn´s co-authored World´s Greatest Chess Games OR be included alongside it.
I say this because Nunn´s 15...Qf4? blundered a winning position to result in one where he was clearly worse. Whereas my 27 N(h6)-f5+?... by contrast merely blundered to turn a won position into a drawn one.
The eyes of Stockfish16 spot NO Point after my sacrifice of my queen for a bishop and three pawns - Vs an opponent ranked ninth in the world - where it is possible for him to show clear superiority.

Did your game attract much attention at the time James? As ridiculous as it may sound, not all games with queen sacrifices do, even if they work and win you the game. I distinctly remember Gawain Jones delivering one in Round 5 of the 2016 Olympiad in Baku, and the commentators barely mentioned it, focusing on more important games. There is a link to the game here, in case that queen sac has already been forgotten about. You will need to scroll down a bit though.

https://en.chessbase.com/post/2016-baku ... illiancies

[James Plaskett]

Both Nunn and Seirawan (Yasser, btw, would later cite Belyavsky Vs Nunn as THE game of the 1980s) were present in Lugano.
In a piece for BCM, Nunn described my game as "the most mind-boggling of the tournament" whereas the day after I played it GM Keene published it in The Times describing it as "perhaps the most brilliant game ever played by an Englishman."

And, yes your PM I got, Neil -

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bg5 Bg7 4. Nbd2 d5 5. e3 h6 6. Bh4 Nbd7 7. Bd3 g5?! I was obsessed with trying to get the two bishops; but at least it gives Black something to do.) 8. Bg3 Nh5 9. O-O Nxg3 10. hxg3 c5 11. c3 c4?? (Back in the 1980s I didn't begin to understand the extent to which releasing the central tension was a serious mistake.) 12. Bc2 Nf6 13. Ne5 O-O 14. e4 b5 15. a4 Bb7 16. axb5 Qb6 17. exd5 Bxd5 18. Ndxc4 Qxb5 (And after some careless and loosening play by Black, Stockfish has White at +4.5...) 19. Ne3 Qxb2 20. Nxd5 Nxd5 21. Qd3 Rfd8 22. c4 Nb4 23. Qh7+ Kf8 24. Bg6!! (Stockfish now has White at +7.3) fxg6 25. Nxg6+ Kf7 26. Rfe1 Nc6 27. Ra6 Qd2 28. Re4 (Stockfish reckons this chucks White's advantage) Qd1+ (I gave this a "??" at the time, but Stockfish reckons it's ok and that the position is now level) (Stockfish gives 28... Rxd4 29. Rxd4 Qe1+ 30. Kh2 Nxd4=) 29. Kh2 Qh5+ 30. Nh4 (Best, but shouldn't win. Black's reply is a boner.) gxh4?? (30... Rd6 seems to hold - 31. Qf5+ Kg8 32. Rxc6 Rxc6 33. Qd5+ Kh7 34. Qxc6) 31. Rxh4? (31. Rxc6!) 31... Qg5?? (After 31... Rh8 White has still got a lot of work to do. I had intended 31...Qg6,realising at the last minute that 32.Rf4+ would then be fatal. White now finishes convincingly) 32. Rxc6 a5 33. Rf4+ Ke8 34. Rf5 Qd2 35. Qg8+ Kd7 36. Qe6+ 1-0

[Neil_Hickman]

Superb as Plaskett-Miles is, I don't think it's quite up there with Zukertort-Blackburne, Alekhine-Yates, Parr-Wheatcroft, because it does have holes in it. But as I wrote in my book,
"Plaskett's brave play was sufficient to take the full point from one of the best players in the world, a brilliant tactician in his own right. That is its entirely sufficient justification".
And it's one of the games that (to quote my own introduction) is part of a British player's heritage.
As is Gawain Jones' head-spinner, which I hadn't seen before.

[MJMcCready]

It's not the only game Gawain Jones has sacced a queen in. He did it against Carlsen once-but it didn't do very much except gain respect from Carlsen who said it was a serious move after the game.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessga ... =10&comp=1

[James Plaskett]

Superb as Plaskett-Miles is, I don't think it's quite up there with Zukertort-Blackburne, Alekhine-Yates, Parr-Wheatcroft, because it does have holes in it

All I argued was that Nunn ought to have included it in his Best Games book instead of or at least alongside his game with Belyavsky.
Because it's better than Belyavsky Vs Nunn.

[MJMcCready]

Well the good news is that literature has already been superseded by the internet as the primary medium for chess these days and we can all encounter your game on chessgames.com, chessbase, youtube or alternatively buy that DVD of yours, I think we can safely say they are both very impressive games but I thought some of your moves were more subtle and less forcing than GM Nunn's, and of course queen sacrifices tend to rank more highly than all other sacrifices and are generally speaking harder to convert (apologies for the over-simplification there). Maybe you should write a book James, the world's best -and worst-queen sacrifices!

[James Plaskett]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1560103