How long are you willing to stay obsessed about this fascinating game?
Me personally, since January 2018 after watching Hikaru no Go. Had to take multiple breaks for other stuff, but haven’t let go of the obsession yet, and I will be obsessed till the end of my time it seems.
I’m pretty sure there are people here who have been obsessed over a decade.
I could only do about 1 year…
Played a year on my own, made it to 15k. Then I went hard since I had 8 months off due to a 4 month internship in university, so I got coaching and lessons and studied as hard as I could for about 6 hours a day.
I reached my goal of 2d, and then basically stopped due to burnout. Now I’m probably 5k at best. It was fun while it lasted though snd I’ll never have that opportunity again.
I don’t think I could ever really study Go again though, just because of how much effort it took, ho wmuch the gmae has changed and how all my friends moved on.
I ll pass away as go player, my last will a game please
To me obsession is too strong a word, but there are certainly games that are fascinating (semi-obsessed?) when I play them. Afterwards I stop playing for a minute or so, to fully enjoy what just happened. And then onwards to the next game or household chore.
So the answer to the question is a few minutes max.
Haha
I wouldnt say that i’m obsessed or anything like that, but…
134 months in a row, and still counting >___>
I’ve had peaks and valleys, but this is the only board game I’ve been consistently interested in. Approaching a decade (alphago was my spark)
Perhaps i should say “obsessed” about a year. That was 2018 when i found a club and started playing online like many games a night.
Well, Go drives my life to a big part since 1983. And I guess it will so in the future.
I remember some months ago, when I stumbled over the question what is my favorite board game.
After a few minutes of pondering the question I realized that Go also falls in this category.
For me Go isn’t just another board game.
“Over a decade”? How about decades?
It’s been 20 years, which is also 2/3rd of my life…
The obsession is not getting anywhere anytime soon.
I think this is love for the rest of my life. Unless I find something more captivating. I’m currently taking an interest at shogi, but it’s no fun at all because I’m totally suck at it (I’m suck at Go too, but less).
I’ve had other time-consuming hobbies in the past, that lasted about a decade. On the other hand I started go a bit less than a decade ago and haven’t lost interest yet. There is still a lot to learn about the game.
I was born in 1957, played first some time in my teens in the 1970s (albeit being totally clueless at the time), tried to hook my friends but unsuccessful … then in my 20s again, still cluelessly, for about a year or so … then in my 30s, STILL cluelessly … and only in my early 40s it really stuck with me, when I discovered Go on the internet.
So… I guess I can say that I’ve been playing more or less regularly (often less rather than more, esp. when I was fully immersed in work) for the past 25 years.
Rank obsession? I think it was not more than ~3 years.
Don’t undertstand how someone can get to 2D, and then rank down 7 stones
It all depends what you undrstand as obsessed. For me obsessed is when you only think about Go. Right now, I left other hobbies in favor of Go. While I’m not working (well, and sometimes while working too 
)I do Go related things, read, videos, play, social on Discord and so on….how much time this will last,no idea, until I burnout I guess, meanwhile, is my main hobby and not planning to stop because I enoy all this stuff a lot.
It’s funny because - to other Go players - I’m a very slow / casual player. I play 4-5 games per year at most. Some years it might be 1 game or less, and it can take a long time for my rank to change. I’ve been playing for almost 20 years now, and I seem to be in no hurry to rank up past low SDK (currently 8 kyu-ish…)
However, most of the non-Go players I interact with would agree that I appear OBSESSED with this game. I can’t stop talking about it, learning more, writing about how to help beginners learn, posting to this forum about it, etc. I’ve gotten better at gauging when people have zero interest, and stopping my Go rant early - but I still try with just about every new person I encounter. Have they ever heard of this game? Are they perhaps curious to learn more? I can’t help myself!
Will it continue to hold my interest in the decades to come? Probably… I have so much more to learn…
The last time I played was pre-alpha go. I have no idea about any AI moves, and I haven’t done any reading problems for nearly 10 years.
If you think I’m anywhere close to an active 2d you’re crazy.
This is not a problem 
every time i play someone with only pre-AI knowledge, they whoop my butt
Most of us are just cargo culting
Well everyone have different meaning for same words.
But my question mainly gears toward being obsessed with any part to the game, could be a game phase, tsumegos, meeting players etc.
Burnout happens, I just take a break and switch my playstyle each time but not letting go of this obsession.
I may starve to death because of this obsession someday but idc
My highest was 1d, but now maybe around 1-2kyu. Mainly cause I don’t care about rankup anymore, I just try to enjoy playing and doing related stuff.
