The SportAccord World Mind Games was held in Beijing in 2011, and will be held in Beijing again in 2012. It followed the International Mind Sports Association’s games that immediately followed the Beijing Olympics.
They hold competitions in Chess, Go, Draughts, Bridge, and Xiangqi. The Chess talent isn’t anywhere near as prestigious as that which can be found in Istanbul this week. At least, there weren’t the quantity. There were some pretty prestigious names in Beijing last year, and several have committed for this year, but nowhere near the number as found at the Olympiad.
I like the concept, myself. Because of the multiple events, it just seems more “olympic” than the Olympiad.
But I was wondering just how obscure this event is. Have Chess players heard of it? Does it hold any interest whatsoever? As a Chess event, it seems a bit of a yawner, and will be unless lots more grandmasters decide to go there, but I like the idea of something that’s a bit more comparable to the olympics.
For the 1st World Mind Games (October 2008 in Beijing), the Team USA men included GMs Alexander Shabalov, Eugene Perelshteyn and GM-elect Josh Friedel. Team USA women were headed by WGM Jennifer Shahade. main.uschess.org/content/view/8814/343/
But I don’t believe Team USA has been as strong in subsequent World Mind Games.
There are actually two different sets of games being discussed.
The World Mind Sports Games, from an outfit called IMSA, were held after the Olympics in Beijing in 2008.
The SportAccord World Mind Games were held in Beijing in 2011, and will be again in 2012.
IMSA held another edition of the World Mind Sports Games in Lille, France last week, but they didn’t seem to be very well attended. I just found their web site, and it looked kind of feeble.
In 2011, Gata Kamsky was half of the US team at the World Mind Games. (I can’t recall who the woman was.) There were other world class players from other countries, but not all that many of them. I don’t know who will be attending for 2012.
Meanwhile, in googling I ran across something called the Mind Sports Olympiad. It has been held every year for 16 years. As best I can tell, it’s a game convention, although a fairly large one, and focused on intellectual pursuits. Still, it’s just a game convention.
If it takes hundreds of years, Chinese WILL dominate chess. China does not think in days, or even years. They think in centuries or even longer. IMO they will be considered THE chess power within 10 - 20 years if not sooner. Look how much progress they have made at the Olympic Games. Chess has the power and finances of the State. The Mind Games are just a small part of the Plan.
Chess (Rapid, blitz and blindfold) games begin December 14.
Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky play in the 16-player men’s field of 2700+ super-GMs.
IM Anna Zatonskih will be one of the lowest-rated in the 16-player women’s field, facing GM Yifan Hou in round 1.
In the Men’s Rapid swiss, Laurent Fressinet and and Hikaru Nakamura dominated the field with 5.5/7, a full point ahead of third-place, with Fressinet taking the gold medal on tie-breaks (Fressinet also won their head-to-head game).
In the Men’s Blitz, Sergey Karjakin (2877 pre-tournament Blitz rating) crushed the round-robin with 12.5/15, with Nakamura gaining another Silver medal with 11 points – two full points ahead of third place.