I remember the standard question, which many people asked me, when I studied Baduk in Korea
- Where are you from?
- I am from Kazan, Russia
- Kaza ¡| –hstan?
- No, It's a Kazan city, 800 kilometers away from Moscow
- ?
Nobody knew about it.

Nowadays, I believe that situation changed a bit. Our city pays big attention to different kind of sport events and we usually have big budget for sport. Maybe you already heard something about Kazan.

We will have Universiad-2013. Our football team Rubin won the Russian Football championship several times. We represented Russian football in International events and once we even beat Barcelona from Spain – one of the strongest teams in the world! Our Hockey team is best team of Russia. Our volleyball team is the strongest one too.
We don't have best chess players of Russia, but usually we have money to invite chess stars. Few years ago legendary Garry Kasparov (many time World Chess champion) played for Kazan Chess team!

In Baduk the results of Kazan players are even more impressive. 11 from 12 last European Baduk Champions are Kazan players! Ilya Shikshin, Svetlana Shikshina, Alexander Dinerchtein, Andrey Kulkov – we are all from the same city! I believe, we can even beat best Baduk countries on 4-5 boards, like Romania or Germany. I am not talking about single cities ¡|

The main reason is sport budget, for sure. You can study Baduk, chess, everything else free of charge – even with best trainers. City budget pays for you.
You can travel a lot, play tournaments  - city budget pays for you

I played my first tournament outside of Kazan, when I was 15-kyu and 8 years old. Can you imagine, that even such a weak players are supported by the Sport Ministry?
If you see that you can get more tournaments, more money and more support by reaching 10-kyu, you reach it very fast! Trust me – I remember that feeling!

I will introduce you one of our veterans – Ivan Detkov. 6-dan from Kazan, Soviet Union Baduk champion 1986. He moved to USA 15 years ago and stopped playing Baduk. Why? In USA Baduk is just a rare board game. Nobody cares about Baduk. But here in Kazan everyone respected him, because of his achievements. He was a superstar! Russian Baduk Champion!

Did you have a plan to study Baduk in Asia, when you were younger?

I did not have such plans. I found the rules when I was 15 and was not interested in the game before 21. My level was about 6-kyu at the time.
When I started my post graduate study in mathematics, I quickly realized that it was a mistake and pure mathematics is not for me. It created emptiness and a lot of free time. I spent next 3 years studying Baduk keeping my mathematical studies on a minimally acceptable level. I never become a PhD, but I won the first Russian Baduk Championship instead, and it changed my life forever. The idea to study in Asia could not materialize in my Communist propaganda washed brains before 25 and then it was too late because I married and started to work as a software engineer.

How do you think, is it possible to reach pro level, while staying in Europe or USA?

To reach a professional level you normally should be a pro or have it as a career goal. The amount of time and efforts is humongous and there is no guarantee for success. A stream of money circulating in European and American Baduk is a small creek. It does not provide enough incentives for people to spend enough efforts for study and it is cannot support a critical mass necessary to create a professional league that will make support and production of professionals self-sustainable. I do not see how it could change in a visible future. It is a lack of interest because of lack of money and a lack of money because of deficit of interest.

What was the biggest Baduk prize you won?

I do not remember my biggest price. It was probably something like $1000. Even modest price of $300 was big money in Russia around 1990. One could live for a half of a year on it. For many years I was semi-professional making more from Baduk than from my permanent job as a software engineer. It started to change closer to 1996 when I moved to US.

In 80's and early 90's we had lot of Russians travelling from one European Baduk tournament to another. Nowadays Russians attend mainly EGC and some tournaments in Finland, just because it's very close. How do you explain such changes?

The reason of changes in attitude of Russian players is purely economical. The value of a foreign currency was totally different in Russia in 80's and early 90's and there were not many chances to prosper. The World is now open for Russia and people have more opportunities. Many talents decided to spend their time doing something else in 21-st century. When I saw a chance to make a career in US in 1996, I went for it without second thought. It is pretty much impossible to do two things on a very high level when you are approaching 40. As painful as it was, I left Baduk. I could not even imagine I can do it just months before it actually happened. If I grew in Russia today, I would hardly be a strong Baduk player. I am giving you very straight answers here and sorry if it sounds too discouraging.

You represented Russia several times on WAGC. What do you think about the tournament system, where pro-level amateurs and double digit kyu players compete in the same group (with equal chances at the start of the competition)?

I am praying for the tournament survival after the last unfortunate events in Japan. I keep memories about my trips to Japan deeply in my heart as one of the best things that happened in my life. It was always a holiday. Surely, I am not alone. Those tournaments always were a huge stimulus for me to study Baduk and to play better. The system does not matter. Just like a pair Baduk championship, it is not a great tournament from a purely sportive point of view. I do not care. It is a precious cultural phenomenon that promotes Baduk and build dreams all over the World.

I heard that you meet Chang Hao in one of such tournaments. Was it clear for you, that he will become World top pro in future?

I remember a very small Chinese boy who had beaten everybody on WAGC in 1990 in Hiroshima very well. He was 13 and his head was just above the table when he was playing. Looking from my 190 cm, I was wondering how he can see a position. Time to time a little hand emerged from under the table and put a stone on the board. It was looking pretty funny.
There was a press conference after the tournament. Somebody was wondering how it is possible to get such an overwhelming power for such a young child. The answer was unforgettable. Chang Hao said that it is nothing special and he is learning Baduk in a peloton of other young players like him. There was a very dense silence in the room for a few seconds after this answer. It was humble, it was scary, and as we all know now, it was very much true. Was it clear for me if he can be a World top pro in future? He definitely had everything for it but this is a very competitive sport.

Can you tell us about the famous story: your draw with Alexey Lazarev, 6-dan (Russia)?

It was a New Year Grand Prix tournament in London. The organizers decided to do something special. They excluded 0.5 from the komi. A draw granted 0.5 of a point to each player, just like in chess. I was leading the tournament together with Alexey before the last round game. A draw guaranteed our split win.
We decided to make this result by several reasons. Our team had been discussing a possibility of such situation before the tournament and the conclusion was it is bad for the game. We did not like the rule and we were planning to demonstrate it to officials very clearly. Split win was also a great result for our team. The last but not least reason was challenge to our abilities to make a draw in a game that was very closely watched by public. Officials warned us about possible consequences, but we were in a bit of a hooligan mood.
The game was developing very nicely. It had several mini-battles with complications, several small size ko-fights, and more. We were keeping the balance very close, calculating the territory pretty much after every move. The result was prearranged (within the limits of our abilities) but the game was not. There were no really bad moves in the game; just the level of risk was constrained.
Our rivalry with Dutch players, who were still the best in Europe at this time, was on the peak. I do not remember the name of the guy who was the secretary of EGF. He participated in the tournament and he was very unhappy about this draw. A huge campaign started right at the tournament ended in our disqualification – European Baduk Federation even asked us to return back the prizes. We already could fight with Dutch on the board successfully but we were no match in politics.
Whatever happened after the game, it was one of the moments in my life, which I am especially proud of. It was a truly professional level and it was done in a tournament under serious pressure. I am sure that many of you will have a totally different view of this story.