The publisher of Abstract Games magazine writes as follows:

I grew up in Surrey, England. While reading Sid Sackson's book "A Gamut of Games" when I was about 14 I experienced an epiphany, and I've loved abstract games ever since. I lived in Japan from 1985 to 1989, where I had plenty of opportunity to play Shogi. But my game interests have always been too varied for me to settle down and concentrate on one game. Some of the games I am particularly fond of are Epaminondas, Mentalis, Wari, Lines of Action, and some of the Shogi variants. I moved to Vancouver in 1994. I had trouble finding other game fans (this was pre-internet for me), so I got involved with NOST. I played and studied Lines of Action quite a lot through NOST. Then in February last year we got online, and I quickly discovered Richard's PBeM Server -- a wonderful resource for gamers.

In September my wife, Connie, and I decided to "seize the moment" and start Abstract Games. Despite the internet we felt there could still be sufficient interest in a print magazine about abstract strategy games. In fact, bucking the trends does have its own advantages. I had always treasured information about strategy and tactics of the lesser known games. There must be tens of thousands of books on Chess, for example, but hardly a handful on the dozens of other beautiful games that rival, or even exceed, Chess in strategic depth. In addition, with the lesser-known games there is still plenty of opportunity for the amateur gamer to discover orginal strategic and tactical ideas. This was the motivation behind Abstract Games: to cover some of the great lesser-known games in as much depth as reasonably possible. This would usually necessitate a series of articles. The response from the gaming community has been very heartwarming.

Kerry will be chatting live at http://www.msoworld.com/chat.html on Sunday 21st May between 9pm and 11pm BST (US times: 1pm - 3pm Pacific Daylight Time, 4pm - 6pm Eastern Daylight Time). If you can't attend, we invite you to send your questions to us at chat@msoworld.com and look here after the event for a full log of the chat session.