A bug on the Dojo and Games pages showed some players a message saying an unpublished game met the 1st Dan (black belt) conditions when it did not.
It appeared for wins played from a custom position — including the sample endgame on the Getting Started page — while 1st Dan actually requires a win from the standard starting position with the board kept hidden throughout (up to 5 peeks).
Only the message was wrong: since July 24 the rank itself has been granted by a server-side check that does require the standard starting position, so publishing such a game could earn 1st Kyū at most. A few 1st Dan ranks granted before that date would not meet today's requirement, and I have decided to leave those as they are.
This is now fixed. Sorry for the confusion, and thanks to the player who reported it.