Introducing John Fairbairn

3 April 2000
Our go editor John Fairbairn is originally from Newcastle upon Tyne but has long lived in London, whe
been blessings to his interest in board games.

Specialising in Oriental languages, he has been able to mine one of the most fruitful areas of researc
summits he has been fortunate enough to study many games in their natural habitats.

He has written perhaps the best, and best selling, English book on shogi (Shogi for Beginners; 2nd e
year stint with The Shogi Association filling their magazine with translations and original research on th

During this period he also worked on what was then the world's strongest shogi program, and also a xi

But he has been a go player since before university days, over 30 years ago, and it is still his first lov
features in Go World. These include the first substantial expositions of ancient Chinese, ancient Korean

He has also translated over a dozen go books for Ishi Press, Kiseido and Yutopian, and is author of

In his younger days, he taught, at Newcastle University, a Japanese course based on computer researc

He writes go software and collects games with friend Mark Hall for an informal partnership called Game
made available on this site.