
In the 1980s, Nie Weiping went on a blistering 11-game winning streak in the China–Japan Go Challenge, defeating Japanese elite players such as Koichi Kobayashi , Hideo Otake and Masaki Takemiya He led the Chinese team to three consecutive titles in the competition, delivering a powerful boost to national morale. Go subsequently swept the country, nurturing generations of Chinese enthusiasts. To this day, those players remain the backbone of China’s Go community, with an influence that has endured for more than four decades.