The first World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) were held in Beijing, China from October 3 to 18, 2008, about two months after the Olympic Games.[1][2][3] They were sponsored and organised by the International Mind Sports Association with the General Administration of Sport of China and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport.[4][5]

UK players for the Individual Women's Go competition at the first World Mind Sports Games, 2008 in Beijing

Five mind sports participated in the first Games: bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go (weiqi), and xiangqi (Chinese chess).[6][7] Thirty-five gold medals were contested by 2,763 competitors from 143 countries.[8]

According to the World Bridge Federation, it incorporated the World Team Olympiad (1960–2004) and some established youth events in the Games "as the stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games (after the 'regular' Olympics and the Paralympics)".[9]

Events

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Bridge

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The World Bridge Federation organized eleven events in Beijing that constituted the "World Bridge Games" including nine WMSG medal events. Six were among the established world bridge championships contested in even-number years.[a] The other three were for "youth" under age 28, a one-time compromise.[9][b] More than 1400 players participated, about half of all players in the Games. Entries from European Bridge League countries[c] won 22 of the 27 medals, led by Norway with six medals including two gold.

Event Gold Silver Bronze
WMSG medalists in bridge
Open Teams   Italy   England   Norway
Women Teams   England   China   United States
Open Individual   Tor Helness   Geir Helgemo   Andrey Gromov
Women Individual   Catarina Midskog   Anne-Fréderique Lévy   Yan Ru
Youth Individual   Salih Murat Anter   Radu Nistor   Lars Arthur Johansen
Youth Pairs   Mehmet Remzi Şakirler / Melih Osman Şen   Lotan Fisher / Ron Schwartz   Joanna Krawczyk / Piotr Tuczyński
under-28 Teams   Norway   Poland   China
under-26 Teams   Denmark   Poland   Norway
under-21 Teams   France   England   China

Two other events were continued by the WBF from its quadrennial "Olympiad" program, as part of its new "World Bridge Games" but separate from the WMSG (non-medal events sharing the facilities). Japan won the third Senior International Cup, for national teams of seniors (age 58+). 'Yeh Bros' from Chinese Taipei won the second Transnational Mixed Teams, for teams of any nationality comprising mixed pairs, one man and one woman.[10]

Chess

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The World Chess Federation organized ten events in Beijing, all of them in rapid or blitz chess.

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's Individual Blitz   Martyn Kravtsiv   Yuriy Drozdovsky   Hristos Banikas
Women's Individual Blitz   Alexandra Kosteniuk   Antoaneta Stefanova   Hou Yifan
Men's Individual Rapid   Bu Xiangzhi   Anton Korobov   Zhang Zhong
Women's Individual Rapid   Antoaneta Stefanova   Zhao Xue   Huang Qian
Mixed Pairs Blitz   Carlos Matamoros Franco / Martha Fierro   Krishnan Sasikiran / Tania Sachdev   Valeriy Aveskulov / Tatjana Vasilevich
Mixed Pairs Rapid   Ni Hua / Hou Yifan   Đào Thiên Hải / Lê Kiều Thiên Kim   Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami / Atousa Pourkashiyan
Men's Teams Blitz   Hungary   China   Ukraine
Women's Teams Blitz   Russia     Vietnam
Men's Teams Rapid     Ukraine   Iran
Women's Teams Rapid     Ukraine   Russia

Draughts

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Under the auspices of the World Draughts Federation 288 players participated in five medal events in Beijing. There was a strong regional showing as twelve of the fifteen medals were won by players from Russia, Latvia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Event Gold Silver Bronze
International Draughts 100sq (Men)   Alexander Georgiev   Alexander Getmanski   Guntis Valneris
International Draughts 100sq (Women)   Zoja Golubeva   Tanja Chub   Tamara Tansykkuzhina
Russian Draughts 64sq (Women)   Viktoriya Motrichko   Elena Miskova   Julia Romanskaia
Brazilian Draughts 64sq (Men)   Oleg Dashkov   Ion Dosca   Sergey Belosheev
Checkers (Mixed)   Alex Moiseyev   Ron King   Raivis Paegle

Under the auspices of the International Go Federation 560 players participated in six medal events in Beijing. South Korea won half of the 18 medals and all were swept by competitors from Eastern Asia.

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's Individual   Kang Dongyun 7p[d]   Park Jungsang 9p   Li Zhe 6p
Women's Individual   Song Ronghui 1p   Lee Minjin 5p   Pak Chi-eun 9p
Open   Jo Tae-Won 7d [11]   Ham Youngwoo 7d   Lee Yong Hee 6d
Men's Team   South Korea    
Women's Team     South Korea  
Pair Go   Huang Yizhong 7pFan Weijing 2p   Chou Chun-Hsun 9pHsieh Yi-Min 4p   On So Jin 4pLee Ha Jin 3p

Xiangqi

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Xiangqi, or "Chinese chess", was the fifth sport to participate in Beijing, where 125 players participated in five events. Although the World Xiangqi Federation was not a member of IMSA at the time, the sport was included in the Beijing games as a traditional Chinese sport with a large number of players, especially in China. The host country won all five gold medals.

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Rapid (Men)   Wang Yang   Jiang Chuan   Zhao Ruquan
Individual (Women)   Wang linna   Zhao Guanfang   Ngô Lan Hương
Individual (Men)   Xu Yinchuan   Hong Zhi   Look Kongdwa
Team (Women)     Australia   Vietnam
Team (Men)     Vietnam   Hong Kong

Medals

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Teams from the host country China won one-quarter of the 105 medals, including one-third of the gold.

  *   Host nation (China)

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  China (CHN)*128626
2  Russia (RUS)4138
3  South Korea (KOR)2439
  Ukraine (UKR)2439
5  Norway (NOR)2136
6  Turkey (TUR)2002
7  England (ENG)1203
8  Bulgaria (BUL)1102
  France (FRA)1102
10  Latvia (LAT)1023
11  United States (USA)1012
12  Denmark (DEN)1001
  Ecuador (ECU)1001
  Hungary (HUN)1001
  Italy (ITA)1001
  North Korea (PRK)1001
  Sweden (SWE)1001
18  Vietnam (VIE)0235
19  Moldova (MDA)0213
  Poland (POL)0213
21  Australia (AUS)0101
  Barbados (BAR)0101
  Chinese Taipei (TPE)0101
  India (IND)0101
  Israel (ISR)0101
  Netherlands (NED)0101
  Romania (ROU)0101
28  Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF)0022
  Iran (IRN)0022
  Japan (JPN)0022
31  Greece (GRE)0011
  Malaysia (MAS)0011
  Singapore (SIN)0011
Totals (33 entries)353535105

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ World-level bridge competition comprises some series contested every two years, some every four years, thus in odd-number or even-number years but not both.
  2. ^ Youth events are defined by age under 26 (U26) and age under 21 (U21).
    • A mid-summer notice implies that one-time compromise will be extended to feature U28 youth at least once more in 2012. See the main article for more information. Clarification is anticipated for mid-November.
  3. ^ Several national bridge organizations from the Mediterranean and Western Asia are members of the European Bridge League Archived 2012-05-05 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ The numbers and letters after the players' names refer to their professional or amateur ranks.

References

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  1. ^ First World Mind Sports Games to be held in Beijing. news.xinhuanet.com
  2. ^ China to host Bridge Games Archived 2008-09-28 at the Wayback Machine The News–International, Pakistan.
  3. ^ Beijing hosts first 'Mind Games', BBC News, 3 October 2008, by Shirong Chen. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  4. ^ A successful first edition of The World Mind Sports Games Archived 2011-03-22 at the Wayback Machine. International Mind Sports Association.
  5. ^ Introduction of the 2008 World Mind Sports Games Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine. British Go Association. No date. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  6. ^ The first international mind sports games "IMSA Cup" Archived 2008-04-26 at the Wayback Machine. FIDE (chess).
  7. ^ China to host 2008 World Mind Sports Games Archived 2012-07-09 at archive.today. latestchess.com
  8. ^ 2008 WMSG Results. 2008 WMSG. Confirmed 2011-05-25.
  9. ^ a b World Bridge Games Archived 2013-12-20 at the Wayback Machine. World Bridge Federation (WBF). Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  10. ^ 2008 World Mind Sports Games Archived 2012-05-07 at the Wayback Machine. WBF coverage of the bridge competitions. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
  11. ^ "British Go News – Overseas Results". British Go Association. 2008-10-10. Archived from the original on 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2012-06-02.
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