Almost every day that I witness and proceed the following dialog:
-I play go.
-?
-Mmm… It’s an ancient Chinese game, a bit like “dots” (“dots” is a favorite timekiller of careless Russian schoolboys)…
-Aha, it’s the Chinese chess!
-Not at all. It’s ‘much more complicated than chess. It’s played with black and white chips – we call it “stones”.
-Something like backgammon?
-Oh no! Psychology means a lot in Go – not luck.
-Ok, something like poker?
-&*%! Better show than explain.
Why do we begin our Go-stories with the word “no”? “Not-chess”, “not-backgammon”, “not-poker”, “not-casino”… It seems that instead of Go-game we play a “No-game”! :0
Shan’t we say “yes”?! O yes, we play the Go-game. Yes, it’s both backgammon, and chess, and dots, and poker, and theater 
– taken together. Go is the “quinta essentia” of all games invented by human kind for human beings. Go-game means nimble mind and passion, strategy and chance, ruse and beauty, psychology and self-discovery.
Go is an affirmation, not a negation.
i_shi aka Irina Shimanskaya
