... and freeing yourself from the obsession of winning.

Don't you like to win a game? Doesn't it feel good to win a game? Then why call it obsession? I am starting to get angry about this whole 'rank obsession' and 'winning obsession' talk.

If you overlook a tesuji and you feel angry, isn't that just natural? Why would you want to change your feeling? I doubt you can.

This anger can be turned into something positive because it helps you to memorize the tesuji that you overlooked. And indeed this game that made you angry is more valuable than a game that you won and from which you gained nothing but the joy of winning.

Why not learn to appreciate the mistakes? Things like topazg's game is IMHO rather funny and at the sdk level a game is mostly a comedy of errors anyway.
Laugh if you play a self-atari and laugh harder if your opponent misses it.

I just played a very embarrassing game last night which I lost due to a bunch of groups being dead. Funny thing was, he had a group that was in the middle that I thought I'd killed ages ago that meant all my groups were alive, and he'd rescued it in a snapback which I'd forgotten about. So we both played about 150 moves (it was an early event!) wondering what on earth the other player was doing

I saw a similar low dan (2 dan against 1 dan I think) game in Tampere. There was a group in the middle that was not obvious whether dead or seki. Each player was so confident about his own judgement that he could not understand why the other one still continues the game.

At the end of the game there was a dispute and they even had to call the referee. The referee could not figure it out either. While they were thinking about calling Seijo-sensei, they thought it would be embarassing and decided to play it out to see the outcome
I don't remember the result but finally they could reach an agreement.

now..i am really curious what this dispute is.
i can not imagine any shape that ref can not figure out.

I saw a similar low dan (2 dan against 1 dan I think) game in Tampere. There was a group in the middle that was not obvious whether dead or seki. Each player was so confident about his own judgement that he could not understand why the other one still continues the game.

At the end of the game there was a dispute and they even had to call the referee. The referee could not figure it out either. While they were thinking about calling Seijo-sensei, they thought it would be embarassing and decided to play it out to see the outcome
I don't remember the result but finally they could reach an agreement.

I don't remember the exact shape but it could be reduced to the flower shape (rabbity six). They just played it out but I don't think they were 100% convinced of the outcome themselves. Maybe they also didnt played the correct moves. Obviously the referee was also not very strong maybe they should have called one of the pros indeed.

they should not call pros but play it out themselves, at 2d, they can still fail to live an alive group or fail to kill a dead group.

Recently one of my opponents in an online game found a wonderful endgame tesuji and won the game I was ahead. My first reaction was getting angry against myself because I failed to see that tesuji, which is a normal reaction I believe.

The level I want to reach is the point where my first feeling in such situations will be appreciation of the move instead of the anger.

The opposite with stupid mistakes, overlooking an atari etc. Feeling the same way (probably anger) with the opponents simple mistakes as with my own simple mistakes. Just because they spoil the game, even if the opponents mistakes let you win.

I think then I will have learned something about life from go. Seeing the big picture, being conscious enough not to forget that this is just a game to enjoy and freeing yourself from the obsession of winning.

What do you guys think about that? Is it bullsh.. or do you feel the same way? Can one reach such a level of wisdom without losing the enthusiasm towards the game?

But the victory felt hollow, because after the game, my opponent only talked about his mistakes, and in particular his game losing mistake and how he should have won that game.