In 2013, Nie Weiping, a Chinese nine-dan Go master known as the "chess saint", was diagnosed with rectal cancer, and it was already in an advanced stage, and the situation was not optimistic.
Considering that Nie's elderly condition is high and his condition is serious, the hospital recommends conservative treatment and does not operate easily.
But Elder Nie thought that conservative treatment was to sit still.
At the critical moment, he took out the attitude of a hero on the chess field with a broken wrist and a salary drawn from the bottom of the pot, insisted on surgical treatment, and finally successfully escaped the disaster, and to this day cancer has not come to the door again.
The road to "chess saints"
Nie Weiping was born on August 17, 1952 in Shen County, Hebei Province.
Influenced by his father's love of chess, Nie Weiping liked Go at a very young age, and officially began to receive his father's Go enlightenment education at the age of 9.
Later, his father sent him to Zhang Futian, Chen Zude and other Go players to study.
Nie Weiping is quick-witted, flexible, and accurate in calculating the road, and his talent in Go is in everyone's eyes.
Because of this, the masters all liked him.
At the age of ten, Nie Weiping won the Beijing Children's Go Championship.
After becoming an adult, Nie Weiping went to the countryside to join the team for 6 years, during which time he had never been exposed to Go, but the Northern Wilderness tempered his spirit and will, and his chess skills did not advance and retreat.
In 1972, Nie Weiping returned to Beijing after ending his life as a young man, and soon joined the newly established Chinese Chess Academy, becoming a professional Go player, and officially opened his brilliant life in the Weiqi world.
In 1975, Nie Weiping won the Chinese Weiqi Championship for the first time, becoming a rising star in the Chinese Weiqi world.
What really made Nie Weiping a household name for him was the Sino-Japanese match from 1975 to 1979.
In 1976, Nie Weiping visited Japan with the Chinese delegation, and personally won a record of 6 wins and 1 loss, and in the process, he even cut down The Japanese first-class chess player Yoshio Ishida.
In the history of sino-Japanese confrontation, Japan had never encountered such a person who could fight a good war, so it gave Nie Weiping the title of "Nie Whirlwind".
In the following years, China and Japan held several exchange competitions.
Nie Weiping played a total of 30 games against Japan's top chess players, including 17 wins, 11 defeats and 2 draws.
In China, Nie Weiping also played invincible hands, almost winning all the championships of the National Go Championship and the "New Sports Cup".
Therefore, the domestic Go community refers to these years as the "Nie Weiping era".
And this is just the beginning, Nie Weiping has not yet ushered in his peak moment, the game that really made him a hero in the hearts of the Chinese people, but also the Sino-Japanese Go tournament in the 80s.
In mid-August 1985, the first Sino-Japanese Go Tournament was officially launched.
Nie Weiping, as the main general, led a group of Go masters to meet the battle.
In the game, koichi Kobayashi, a first-class chess player on the Japanese side, played well, and lian ke our six big players.
In a critical moment, Nie Weiping stepped forward, cut Kobayashi Koichi under the horse, and two days later defeated The Japanese throne champion Masao Kato and successfully moved back to the disadvantage of the Chinese team.
In the ring in November, Nie Weiping shot again, fighting with Hideyuki Fujisawa, who had the title of "Lifetime Chess Saint", for several hours, and finally won.
Nie Weiping's victory not only helped the Chinese team win the ring, but also broke the spell that Chinese chess players could not defeat Japan's super-first-class chess players.
The following year, the Mid-China-Japan Go Tournament was held as scheduled, and Nie Weiping took charge for the second time.
In the game, he won 5 Japanese generals in succession, helping the Chinese team to establish a huge score advantage in one fell swoop, and finally cut the Japanese team down again.
In 1987, the Sino-Japanese confrontation came again, and the two sides fought until the last moment.
As the Chinese vice-marshal Ma Xiaochun folded under the Japanese coach Masao Kato, the score between the two sides was tied, and finally only the two sides of the coach were left to play.
In the end, it was Nie Weiping who successfully leveled Masao Kato and helped the Chinese team win the first three Sino-Japanese confrontations.
The three consecutive victories of the Chinese team have set off a wave in the Chinese chess world and even the entire society, and have also let countless Chinese people know this "hero" in the Go world, and Nie Weiping's reputation reached its peak in that year.
At the same time, Nie Weiping's feats on the playing field have also inspired a large number of young Chinese people to love and learn Go, setting off a wave of Go in China.
Chang Hao, Zhou Heyang, and others who later grew up to be the mainstays of the Chinese Go world were inspired by Nie Weiping at that time and began to learn Go.
In recognition of Nie Weiping's contributions to Chinese Go, the State Sports Commission and the China Weiqi Association awarded Nie Weiping the title of "Chess Saint" in March 1988.
Both the body and chess skills began to decline
Perhaps because he began to focus on the cultivation of a new generation of chess players in the motherland, or because the peak has passed, after experiencing the glory of the 80s, Nie Weiping's chess luck has ushered in a turning point.
With the defeat of South Korea's Cho Hwan-hyun in the first Ying Cup in 1989, Nie Weiping's downward spiral could no longer be reversed.
Since then, no international competitions have been won, and even after 1995, they have not reached the finals of the World Series.
However, the decline in chess luck is still good, after all, winning or losing is a common thing, and no one can always maintain the peak state.
What was even more difficult to accept was that Nie Weiping's body began to have problems.
Due to work reasons, Nie Weiping spends most of his day sitting, which can easily breed anorectal diseases.
On the other hand, Nie Weiping, like most chess players, likes to drink, and everyone likes to sit together and drink a few drinks after each game.
There is a saying in the Go circle that "wine power is directly proportional to chess power." "Nie Weiping is even more massive among the chess players.
In addition, Nie Weiping often stayed up late, or even studied chess games all night, and the extreme irregularity of work and rest also led to the decline of Nie Lao's immunity.
All this combined, causing Nie Weiping to become seriously ill.
In 2013, Nie Weiping vaguely felt some discomfort in his body, especially in the lower abdomen, which often had cramping pain, and sometimes the stool would be bloody.
Nie Weiping, who had always been careless about his body, did not care, only thinking that it was a small problem such as catching fire.
In July, Nie Weiping felt obvious discomfort, but in order to spread The Go culture at that time, he still participated in the Go cultural activities in Shanxi Qizi Mountain.
After returning, he immediately participated in a competition held in Taizhou, but his body could not hold on in the middle of the competition, and he was immediately sent to the hospital for examination and treatment.
Nie Weiping insisted on surgical treatment
Before going to the hospital, no one expected nie Weiping to suffer from rectal cancer, and it was already advanced.
"The human rectum is about 15 centimeters long, and my tumor has grown to 10 centimeters." Recalling the situation when he was first diagnosed, Nie Weiping said calmly.
At this time, Nie Weiping's body had lost more than 20 pounds due to the torture of the disease, and he was skinny and skinny.
Because the rectal cancer has reached an advanced stage, the condition has reached a very serious point, and Nie Weiping is old and his body is relatively weak, so doctors have recommended conservative treatment.
But in Nie Weiping's cognition, conservative treatment means giving up and waiting for death.
He was not born a person who liked to sit still, so he tried his best to get the doctor to operate on him and completely eradicate the source of the disease.
Before the operation, the doctor explained to Nie Weiping the possible consequences of the operation:
First of all, there is a certain probability that you will not be able to get off the operating table, and you may lose your anus and bladder, and live by urine bags in the days to come.
But these did not scare Nie Weiping in the slightest, "Waiting for death is definitely not my style!" He said to the attending doctor, Professor Zhou Zhixiang.
After the news of Mr. Nie Weiping's serious illness came out, his children, relatives and students came to visit.
When he heard about Nie Lao's decision on the treatment of his condition, many people also persuaded him to consider conservative treatment, but Nie Weiping, who was stubborn and strong, could not listen to it at all.
He played countless games of chess in his life, and every game and every move was made after his own careful consideration.
In the face of the big chess game of life, Nie Weiping will still firmly follow the true thoughts in his heart.
At the same time, he who is well versed in chess also understands that this move must be decisive, and he must come up with the attitude of a strong man breaking his wrist and drawing a salary from the bottom of the pot in order to turn the tables and win.
Therefore, on November 5, 2013, at nie Weiping's strong request, he was pushed into the operating room for surgical treatment.
Fortunately, Luck sided with him this time, and Nie Weiping's surgery ended smoothly after more than 4 hours.
A week later, Nie Weiping returned to a normal diet.
After two months, his body was almost back to normal level.
What is even more surprising is that since the operation, it has been 9 years since nie lao's cancer has never recurred, and his body has remained healthy.
In August 2021, on the occasion of Nie Weiping's 69th birthday, four go masters, including Kobayashi Koichi, Lin Haifeng, Masaki Takemiya, and Hero Otake, sent their blessings.
In addition to thanking his relatives and friends for their blessings, Nie Weiping also blogged to share his daughter's birthday celebrations.
"This year's birthday present is to take a picture with baby daughter Fifi! Thank you to my little cotton jacket for the birthday surprise prepared for me every year. ”
Previously, her daughter Fifi sent surprises for three consecutive years. It can be seen that Nie Weiping's daughter is also very filial piety.
In 2022, Nie Weiping is already 70 years old, but he is still active in the chess world, and he himself serves as the vice chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Association.
In addition to opening his own Go dojo and training a younger generation of Chinese chess players, he sometimes participates in some competitions on a whim.
In 2018, Nie Weiping also won the runner-up of the Shaoxing International Go Masters; in the 22nd Nongshim Xin Ramen Cup World Go Team Championship Invitation Tournament in 2021, Nie Weiping joined hands with his disciple Chang Hao to defeat the old rival Japan team on the field.
In addition to Go itself, Nie Lao has also written two books in recent years, "My Way to Go" and "Nie Weiping's Self-Combat Hundred Games", recording his lifelong feelings and experiences of Go for future generations' reference.
For Go, he once said: "As China's national culture, Go is not only an elegant competitive sport, but also integrates the wisdom and connotation of art, science, culture and other pluralism, and is a very effective way of education to improve our comprehensive quality such as concentration and critical thinking ability." ”
In September last year, the TV series "Who Gives Me Chess" was broadcast, and the go consultant of this TV series was Nie Lao.
Although it is difficult to win honors and contribute to the cause of Chinese Go through international competitions, Nie Lao is still continuing to burn himself for the development of Chinese Go through other means.
epilogue
Nie Weiping has spent most of his life in the chess field, lifting and falling countless times, experiencing victories and tasting defeats.
Fortunately, in this game about the life of the family in his later years, Nie Lao resolutely fell and made the most important step in his life.