What I really liked about the anime, assume it's the case in the manga too, was the sheer number and diversity of regular, older people.

Obviously they weren't trying to paper over that it was mainly an old person's game in Japan at the time (I would assume it still is, too). But that didn't make it seem less appealing.

Also, the portrayal of foreigners in that series is worth a study in itself.

There was a chinese live action made that was pretty faithful

There is already a series of Hikaru no Go, albeit animated (from 2001 to 2003, running for 75 episodes)