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Hikaru Author to Attend Congress

Hotta Yumi, author of the best selling manga series Hikaru no Go is confirmed for the US Go Congress.  Hotta will meet fans, sign autographs, and answer questions at the Go Symposium on Sunday, and will be a celebrity judge for the official Hikaru no Go Trivia contest in the Youth Room on Monday.  When Hotta was learning to play go, she got frustrated at never being able to beat the professionals who taught her. "So I thought, wouldn't it be great if I had a strong supernatural ally, maybe then I could beat a pro someday," she told the E-Journal in an earlier interview. The result was the best-selling manga and anime series Hikaru no Go, which is credited with renewing or sparking interest in go worldwide in recent years. "I had no idea how popular it was outside Japan until I went to the European Go Congress two years ago and met so many people who told me they learned about go through Hikaru No Go," Hotta said, laughing. -Paul Barchilon with Chris Garlock, photo by John Pinkerton.