http://shop.way-of-go.com/shop/premium/item_296/

This is a bit strange for me...
Is having a fancy set of go stone justification for cutting up Mammoth tusks, and rhino horns? Also the price is not listed on the website, but I am curious how much these went for. Any thoughts?

Either fake or illegal is my guess.

Mammoth tusk is actually a common, legal and fairly inexpensive material. Rhino horns are almost certainly illegal.

As a Russian, I'm a bit embarrassed by the stuff Igor Grishin is doing and the image he is trying to create for go in Russia.

If Google Translate is accurate, the rhino ones are also from old fossils.

Way cool. If a bit...extreme.

What do you mean? The whole "New Age" feel that you get listening to his lectures? A lot of Russians nowadays have that going on (many business owners talk about "auras" and "personal space" as some new secret business techniques brought from abroad). Unfortunately, it's an ancient Russian malaise -- to copy the West and the East.

(I am originally from Russia too, btw.)

Well, there are plenty of other Grishin antics... his starting a personal go federation (does it still exist?), his untested, likely slightly optimistic, but certified rank, his posing with karate black belt... in short the Gionata Soletti of Russia.

I just don't understand why and how those people stay on top for so long and why someone with genuine merits like breakfast caters to him.

These are nice:

http://www.algorithmicartisan.com/gosto ... tones.html

What tapir said. New age is bad enough on its own, but Grishin combines it with unwarranted self-importance and "new russian"-like fake esthetics (consider these mammoth stones).

For the self-importance, just look at http://way-of-go.com/club/members/grishin.htm :

"Первым в мире вывел Го из области соревнования и спорта."
"Первый объяснил идею написания «Го» на русском языке с большой буквы. Автор афоризма «Го учит видеть»."
"В 2006 году происходит знаменательное событие для истории всего российского Го: Игорь Гришин публикует в издательстве «АСТрель» первый учебник на русском языке ... "

The only other place I see this kind of language is North Korean official press talking about Kim Jong-Il.

But yeah, it's mostly the new age mystique that gets me. You'd think anyone would get over that by the time they're SDK...

In case you guys wanted a translation

"Первым в мире вывел Го из области соревнования и спорта."
"Первый объяснил идею написания «Го» на русском языке с большой буквы. Автор афоризма «Го учит видеть»."
"В 2006 году происходит знаменательное событие для истории всего российского Го: Игорь Гришин публикует в издательстве «АСТрель» первый учебник на русском языке ... "

"The world's first withdrew from the field of competition Go and sports."(this first line is a literal translation, i didnt really understand it)
"The first proposed the idea of ​​writing a" Go "in Russian, with a capital letter. Igor authored the proverb," Go teaches us to see. '"
"In 2006, an important event took place in the Russian Go world: Igor Grishin, published the first textbook in Russian ..."

Here, I'll try a more idiomatic translation to convey his megalomaniac tone better.

"First person ever to make Go something more than a competitive sport"
"First to explain the idea of writing 'Go' with a capital letter. Authored the proverb, 'Go teaches us to see'".
"2006 was a momentous occasion in the history of Go in Russia: Igor Grishin published the first textbook..."

Being the "first to explain the idea of writing 'Go' with a capital letter", perhaps he'll try to trademark 'Go' as his unique marketing name for this fascinating game.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Good luck trying to trademark anything in Russia.

Anyway I don't know anything about Igor Grishin, and I won't form an opinion from heresay, but I know one thing, I really like his jacket...does anyone know where to get one ?