27 Nov 2008 No Comments
Prologue
This is a blog about go in Australia, from the point of view of the AGJ editorial staff.
I’m Horatio Davis, aguido on KGS, OGS, and DGS, Horatio at the Brisbane Go Club, and “Hey! You!” at various Australian tournaments. I’m the technical editor for the AGJ, which means I keep the site running, play tag with Adobe Creative Suite, and do most of the other things that do not require actual go knowledge around the Journal. This is just as well, as I’m far too busy playing go to actually improve. At the time of writing, I’m at fifth kyu strength, plus or minus two stones depending on my blood sugar level and opponent (more chocolate = better play).
Over there is Amelia Gray. She’s the editor-in-chief. This means we feed her extra chocolate, and in return she shakes down contributors until they cough up articles, or kifu, or both. That’s where her career track as a linguist in Japanese comes in handy. She plays on KGS and OGS as Kifudancer, has represented Australia in the International Amateur Pair Go Championship, and cruises around third kyu in strength, unless she’s angry. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.
In the cage at the other end are our two contributing editors, Jason Mackay and Alexander Hanysz. Jason is studying at the University of Queensland to be Indiana Jones, and likes to play at second dan around the Brisbane go scene. He plays as Nighteyes on KGS. He gets to write the commentaries to the kifu, and also mans the video camera. We grimly suspect him of podcasting.
Alex is a professional pianist in Adelaide, and could in theory stop eating chocolate any time he wants. When he’s not being egged on by the rest of us to play pair go, he’s a quite strong second dan in the Adelaide go scene. Occasionally he’ll contribute news from the current reconstruction of the Adelaide go scene (like Canberra, players got a little thin on the ground a couple of years ago), a bit of local colour from the tournaments that he turns up to, and of course, commentaries on the kifu. He plays as xela on KGS and OGS.
This is what we’ll try to do: when something go-related happens in Oceania, one of us’ll blog it. Or at least blog about it. The best of that, distilled and edited for style, plus player ratings and tournament results and professional demonstration games and international go news and items of interest from the Australian Go Association, will be compiled into editions of the Journal. Those will certainly be published as PDF, free for the downloading. When the AGA has established an individual member base (mid-2009), we’ll think about distributing the same thing as a printed magazine for the membership.
We’re always interested in more people to blog here, and more contributors to write the good stuff for the Journal proper. Email amelia@go.org.au to volunteer. For your pains, you’ll get a spiffy email address@go.org.au, some good useful publicity for your club or your tournament, and a warm fuzzy feeling of connection to the rest of the Australian go community. If nothing else, we’re good for a game of three colour go whenever you spot us at a tournament.
Want in?
