World Mind Sports Games

The World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) is a quadrennial multi-sport event created by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) as a "stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games (after the Summer and the Winter Olympics)".[1]

The inaugural 2008 World Mind Sports Games were held in Beijing from October 3 to 18, about two months after the Summer Olympics and one month after the Paralympics.[2][3][4] Five mind sports participated in the first Games: bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go (weiqi), and xiangqi (Chinese chess).[5][6] Thirty-five gold medals were contested by 2,763 competitors from 143 countries.[7]

The second WMSG were held in Lille, France from August 9 to 23, 2012, starting during the 2012 Summer Olympics and ending shortly before the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

In September 2016, the relevant bridge events were run as the World Bridge Games in Wrocław, Poland.[8]

In addition to the quadrennial WMSG, the International Mind Sports Association also organises the SportAccord World Mind Games, whose "first annual" edition was held in Beijing, December 2011. The SportAccord Games have fewer and smaller events with cash prizes.[9]

Sports

At the first two WMSG events, medals were contested in five different mind sports: bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go (weiqi), and xiangqi (Chinese chess).[5][6][10] The International Federation of Poker (IFP) is an observer member of IMSA, so poker has been mentioned as a possible future sport at the WMSG. Mathematical games are also planned to be present at 2012 WMSG, in the form of a contest between national teams. The Mahjong International League was accepted as the sixth member of IMSA in 2017.[11]

WMSG Sports
NumberSportOrganisationWebJoin
1ChessWorld Chess Federationhttp://www.fide.com/2008
2DraughtsWorld Draughts Federationhttps://fmjd.org/2008
3GoInternational Go Federationhttp://www.intergofed.org/2008
4XiangqiWorld Xiangqi Federationhttp://www.wxf.ca/2008
5BridgeWorld Bridge Federationhttp://www.worldbridge.org/2008
6PokerInternational Federation of Pokerhttp://pokerfed.org/2010 *
7MahjongMahjong International Leaguehttp://mahjong-mil.org/2017
8Card gameFederation of Card Gameshttp://www.fcgoffical.com/2018
  • Provisional

Continuing competitions

More than half of the 2008 participants were bridge players, partly because the World Bridge Federation transferred some important quadrennial competitions to the WMSG, especially the Open and Women flights of its World Team Olympiad.[lower-alpha 1] In 2004 there had been in the main continuing events 72 Open and 43 Women "Olympiad" entries (national teams-of-four with six players on most squads). Under the Minds Sports rubric in Beijing there were 71 and 54 entries, about 700 players. The one-time, similar tournament with a 28 years age limit attracted another 400 players.

Editions

The third edition of the games was originally planned to take place in Brazil. It was then moved to Baku, and then to Macau. It will no longer be held in 2016, but might take place in 2017. [12]

WMSG Hosts
NumberYearCityDatesEvents
12008 Beijing, China3–18 October35
22012 Lille, France9–23 August30

The Games were originally intended to convene sometime after the Summer Olympics (and Paralympics) in the same city or at least the same country, using some of the same facilities. The inaugural Games did use the Olympic Village in Beijing about two months after the Olympics and one month after the Paralympics. However, this intention was not carried out in 2012, as Lille was chosen as host of the WMSG for the year that the Summer Olympics were held in London, Great Britain.

For 2016, the Olympic host Brazil early on expressed an interest in hosting the third WMSG.[13] At the closing ceremony of the 2012 games, Rio de Janeiro was indeed announced as hosts for the 2016 event,[14] but as of May 2016 postponement until 2017 looks likely.

See also

Notes
  1. The third flight, contesting the Senior International Cup, also moved as a non-medal event sharing the same venues.

References
  1. World Bridge Games. World Bridge Federation. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
  2. "First World Mind Sports Games to be held in Beijing". www.chinaview.cn 26 September 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  3. "China to host Bridge Games" The News–International, Pakistan. Retrieved 2008-04-29. Archived September 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Beijing hosts first ^Mind Games^". Shirong Chen. BBC News, 3 October 2008. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  5. "The first international mind sports games ^IMSA Cup^". FIDE (chess) 22 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  6. "China to host 1st World Mind Sports Games". latestchess.com 4 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  7. "2008 WMSG Results". 2008WMSG. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  8. http://worldbridge.org/world-bridge-games.aspx
  9. "Great Success of the 2011 SportAccord World Mind Games". News (no date). IMSA. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  10. "2nd World Mind Sports Games: Lille 2012" (pdf presentation). IMSA. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  11. Mah Jong now a full member of IMSA. IMSA. Retrieved 2017-06-05.
  12. "World Mind Sports Games at Sensei's Library". senseis.xmp.net. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  13. "The Brazilian Mind Sport Association is founded: Brazil becomes a candidate to host the World Mind Sports Games in 2016". News (no date). IMSA. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  14. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
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