Why did you choose Go? As far as I know when you started playing chess that were popular in Russia.
So, more that ten years ago it would be hard for me to answer such a question. But now, when time has passed and a kind of dispassionateness has appeared I can answer reflecting upon my deep motives. It is always interesting to answer questions honestly opening yourself. Otherwise there is no point of doing it.
I chose Go just because it was very unpopular at that time. It was the period of perestroika, when people were staggered and puzzled. In Moscow there were no more than three-four people who studied it. Maybe more… I admit I didn’t know all of them. But I don’t think there were more than a couple dozens of people who were thinking of Go and putting stones on the board… it was impossible to find books on Go, not for love or money. Let alone choosing the best of them, finding books on techniques and strategy. There were no books in English as well. Internet did not exist and information was very limited.
There was a lot of literature on chess. There were chess players, it was possible to find a partner to play with but I chose Go as there was some kind of enigma in it. At that time Go wasn’t a popular game at all. We played on the outskirts of the city in a small one-room flat, in the kitchen and the atmosphere of these meetings was energetic. We played in a small kitchen but we reflected greatly. We had an old Japanese Go board and old Go stones and it was creating an absolutely unexplainable atmosphere…
