The Ginger GM crew have decided to shut up shop early today and head on down to sunny Canterbury. We have convinced our trusty driver Packley to take part in the weekender where we expect him to WIN! Nothing less will do. We will have a good stock of DVDs with us so as the ice cream man says ‘Stop me and buy one!’

To while away the hours whilst waiting for the home time bell I found out some pretty useless facts about Canterbury which I will share with you. None of which I made up.

St Martin’s Church, Canterbury, is the oldest parish church in England and has been in continuous use since at least the 6th century

King John and his bride Isabella were crowned in Canterbury, in 1201 AD.

There is no evidence that 14th century writer Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the “Canterbury Tales”, ever visited the city.

In May 1830 the world’s first ever scheduled passenger rail service opened between Canterbury and the coastal town of Whitstable, 6 miles to the north.

Mary Tourtel (née Caudwell) who created Rupert Bear was born in Canterbury and is buried in the churchyard of St Martin’s.

James Bond creator Ian Fleming (1908 – 1964) lived near and died in Canterbury.

102 former archbishops of Canterbury are deceased. Of those, three were murdered: St Alphege (1011), St Thomas Becket (1170), and Simon Sudbury (1381). In addition, Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake (1556) and William Laud was beheaded (1645).

We will off course bring you a full report next week of our weekend activities and look forward to seeing you in Canterbury if you are there.

The Ginger GM crew have decided to shut up shop early today and head on down to sunny Canterbury. We have convinced our trusty driver Packley to take part in the weekender where we expect him to WIN! Nothing less will do. We will have a good stock of DVDs with us so as the ice cream man says ‘Stop me and buy one!’

To while away the hours whilst waiting for the home time bell I found out some pretty useless facts about Canterbury which I will share with you. None of which I made up.

St Martin’s Church, Canterbury, is the oldest parish church in England and has been in continuous use since at least the 6th century

King John and his bride Isabella were crowned in Canterbury, in 1201 AD.

There is no evidence that 14th century writer Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the “Canterbury Tales”, ever visited the city.

In May 1830 the world’s first ever scheduled passenger rail service opened between Canterbury and the coastal town of Whitstable, 6 miles to the north.

Mary Tourtel (née Caudwell) who created Rupert Bear was born in Canterbury and is buried in the churchyard of St Martin’s.

James Bond creator Ian Fleming (1908 – 1964) lived near and died in Canterbury.

102 former archbishops of Canterbury are deceased. Of those, three were murdered: St Alphege (1011), St Thomas Becket (1170), and Simon Sudbury (1381). In addition, Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake (1556) and William Laud was beheaded (1645).

We will off course bring you a full report next week of our weekend activities and look forward to seeing you in Canterbury if you are there.

At long last, the wait is finally over! The 97^th annual British Chess Championships has now started and Mr GingerGM himself, Grandmaster Simon Williams, is in full action. In round 1, he defeated Ryan Rhys Griffiths, a talented young player from Ireland who seems to be improving year in, year out. Simon, on the black side of a symmetrical English, managed to break down White’s solid defence using his tactical prowess. Check out 27… Nxe4 in the diagram position!

Shortly after, an ending was reached whereby Simon had the bishop pair and an extra pawn against his opponent’s bishop and knight combo. He successfully managed to convert his advantage and the game ended on move 50. Simon now faces IM Paul Littlewood in round 2. Here’s hoping for another successful day!

I am afraid to announce that there is going to be a slight delay in the release date for the Killer French DVD’s.

I have just been told that the replicator had a slight problem that took a bit of unexpected time to overcome.

This means that the new release date for DVD 1+2 will be the 1st August – For Europe

15th of August – For the USA and Canada.

I must sincerely apologise for this. The delay has annoyed me somewhat but the product must be perfect before we send it out. I hope that you will agree that it is worth the wait.

Well, I had another French Defence today against a talented, young, Swiss player. It was an interesting battle but unfortunately the game ended in a rather premature draw.

My opponent played a very interesting and unique idea in the opening which is well worth investigating. So far I have played 4 juniors out of 5 games which is starting to make me feel like an old man! Where did all those years go? (do not answer that!)

That leaves me on 4/5 and half a point off the pace, which means I need to up my game and finish with a big score to have any chance of winning the event.

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  I am currently up in the mountains playing the Swiss Open Championships. Luckily I was able to watch the World Cup final. No surprise that England were not there…

Anyway well done Spain!

So far I have had the chance to play two French Defences, both with good success. I have left some brief annotations below. I will do a bigger and better report when I have more time!

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Ginger GM is pleased to announce the release of its second DVD: Killer French with GM Simon Williams.

This two-part DVD is scheduled for release on 15 July. Each part has a running time of roughly 5 hours!

More details here, including rough DVD contents and an illustrative game annotated by Simon.

Pre-order your copy now via our shop. Customers buying this product through Ginger GM will receive a free e-book of the DVD material 3 months after the release date!