KGS founder Bill Shubert has handed over management of KGS — the largest Western-based international go server in the world — to a new team. “Building and running KGS was incredibly exciting, and I’m very proud of how popular it is and how many people enjoy and use it every day,” said Shubert in a recent post. “But in recent years I haven’t been able to give KGS the attention and effort that it deserves. I’m thrilled that the AGF and the new KGS management team are ready to take it over! With their resources and skills we can all expect great changes for KGS.” The American Go Foundation has assumed stewardship of the server, and, according to the post, plans to stabilize it financially and support the upgrades needed to make KGS even more accessible and more usable to the go world.
“We’d like to thank Bill for his contribution to the game of Go and the Go community in the years he’s dedicated to this service,” said the KGS admin team, comprised of head Administrator Akane Negishi (KGS sweety), Lee Schumacher (KGS lelliot), who will handle KGS operations and Oren Laskin (KGS oren), who will focus on development. “We hope to continue to uphold his high standards and continue to make KGS the best go server.”
“This is a big moyo move for the AGF.” said AGF President Terry Benson. “To reach more kids and more players we need to build the community of online players into a force to spread the game.”