Distraction

The name of a novel by Bruce Sterling.

The references to Go are minor, but highly enjoyable (the following isn't cited, just from memory).

After the game has been described through someone teaching it to someone else, one of the new player's comments is: "such a modern, networking game!". Answered with: "It's 4000 years old!"

Later on the game is used mainly in allegories ("... he felt the loss like for a big, dead group of Go stones"). I especially like the one where two people are quarrelling about their next actions, and one criticizes the other's thinking by saying "You think just like you do in Go. You know all the dirty tricks in the corners, but you're not looking at the whole board!".

-- Mark Wirdnam