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[aninterloper]

I guess we're doing the 24-hour hint thing, like in the movie thread? Well, here's my first hint: I did not take that picture.

[sixsidedsquare]

Riiiiight, well that explains why it was hard to find anything encoded in the placement, and why it looked so much like an actual game of Go. It is an actual game of Go.

And just some elaboration on how I found that page; by saying that they did not take the picture, aninterloper seemed to be hinting that they didn't have anything to do with the setup the board was in and I thought they'd likely just grabbed it from the internet somewhere. I did a google image search for the word 'go' and limited it to extra large pictures, and that one showed up on the bottom of the first set of results.

The only real changes to the original image are the removal of the name on the right (with an extra black piece added) and a few characters that were removed from the bottom left. That and the resizing and cropping from a 2048 × 1536 JPG to a 1800 x 900 PNG. The increase in file size seems about normal for a PNG vs a JPG.

So this leaves us with a lot less options than before. The file name 'danspiece' is an addition that seems to have come from nowhere else, so could be imporatant. I tried the trick of opening it as an archive (rar) which is something that can be done with JPGs and PNGs to embed stuff in them. And couldn't seem to see anything in any of the file info, but might have missed something. Do any of the classic image stegging programs support PNG?

[aninterloper]

Next hint: What was removed is not important, what was left might be, what was added is.

[sixsidedsquare]

I am still at a loss here. The only thing I can think of that the added piece changes is the total number of black pieces in the picture, but with the ambiguously cropped pieces you can only see parts of and the whole tub of black pieces in the top right, counting them seems silly. And counting them will only give two numbers (total of black and total of white) which seems like it could hardly give you any sort of answer you can be certain of. None the less, including the partial pieces and excluding the tub, I count 65 white pieces and 70 black. There is still the file name too, but that means nothing to me.

Anyway, I'm at the end of my stubbornness. I officially give up on this one, I've had enough endless paths of nothing.

[magnet0]

We certainly see the additional black stone. It appears that most of the text on the card underneath of it has been erased . The only word that remains is 'grade'.

I'm not a Go player, so I'm not sure who's turn it is. If black can play, then I think I see a spot for capture of 4 without creating a Ko.

[aninterloper]

OK, two hints this time:
* Size matters.
* There are still changes to the file you guys are missing.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

I know nothing about the game except what's on Wikipedia but I'd guess it has something to do with the Go ranking system were "Dan" is an expert or master rank.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_rank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_ranks_and_ratings

So, if it's not something fairly simple like "Black belt", "Black Stone", etc or a play on the word,"Dan" where since Carly is black and Dan must be white ("Whitestone"?), I have no idea.

[sixsidedsquare]

OK, I lied. My stubborness knows no bounds.

I think the change we missed was 20 pixels that are completely black. Their pixel coordinates are:

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Excluding the first 2 coordinates Six listed, the points are all on a (roughly) straight line from one player's "saucer"? to the other.
What that could mean, I know not.

[aninterloper]

Good job, guys. You're quite close. New hint: when I said size matters, I was talking about pixels, not bytes.
Also: That first set of coordinates isn't important; it was just to provide a starting spot.

[aninterloper]

Nothing? OK: "Dan", in the context of Go, is a degree system.

[argered]

upper right corner of the go board, next to it there is a brownish business card with a black stone on it. says "grade"? does that fit in somewhere?

[aninterloper]

Come on, you guys. Coordinates? Degrees? How are you not getting this?

[Rogi Ocnorb]

I'm sure we'll all be smacking our heads over this one.
I played around with the location differences and looking at the absolute pixel locations trying to find them on a list of numbers, applying moduli and a few other things, but got nowhere. Hadn't thought of trying anything beyond what is seen in the pic as coordinates due to the overall line look. Can't imagine how degrees would come into play except for the first few when done as geographic coordinates. But those wind up in oceans when I try.

[aninterloper]

You've done pretty well on the image changes and title. So far there's one piece of data you've discovered but failed to integrate, and I think it's the key piece that will lead to a breakthrough. I've hinted at it twice in my previous clues.