Fun thing I found out today: Umezawa Yukari (now Yoshihara Yukari), who was the consultant for Hikaru no Go (the manga and anime) and host of Go Go Igo (the go instructional short that followed each episode of the anime) made 6 dan this year.

I believe it was on April 14, but I might be wrong. The information was hard to track down and everything relevant is in Japanese. If someone knows Japanese and wants to confirm the date, here is the link to her NHK page: http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/player/htm/ki000346.htm If you want to see a game of hers, here is a 6p game on Go4Go - she won: http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/34119

EDIT: Thanks Splatted. It was in February.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

According her homepage she was promoted sometime in february.

http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/player_info/ ... t_134.html

26th February.

That game has a strange, almost-symmetric opening.

Congrats to her I guess.

But I wonder how many people actually learned go from that segment, after I watched the first 2 episodes I just gave wikipedia a read, seemed more convenient that waiting for half the series to get to know all the rules

I only read the manga, but I had to go out of my way to learn how the game was actually played.

I think HnG was meant as an inspiration for younger folks to go out and play Go instead of actually teaching them the game. It sure worked on me all those years back.

Yeah, the whole worked for me as well.

I was just referring to the segment after each episode, which was hosted by her, that was meant to teach how to play go but seemed kinda redundant^^.

Huh. That sounds excruciating.

I enjoyed the (drawn) series plenty for a while without knowing anything. I like that it motivates you to learn on your own instead of using the books as a means to teach directly. Probably the single best manga I've read, regardless of content.