Yeah, there's a reason behind it, too.

In the 9th tankoban, Hikaru won against Su Yon, which set the Koreans off in a riot because they believe that the top of the international go sphere is in Korea, and therefore there is no reason why a Japanse kid should be allowed to win against a Korean kid.

So to quell them, the author wrote that Hikaru lost against Yong Ha...but then that got the Japanese readers in a panty twist...

At that point, she just said "Fuck it" and then stopped it.