World Mind Sports Games


The World Mind Sports Games was a multi-sport event created by the International [Mind Sports Association] as a "stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games ".
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. Five mind sports participated in the first Games: bridge, chess, draughts, go, and xiangqi. Thirty-five gold medals were contested by 2,763 competitors from 143 countries, using the Olympic Village in Beijing.
The sophomore 2012 World Mind Sports Games were held in Lille, France, from August 9 to August 23, 2012, with 30 events. It started during the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, England, and ended shortly before the 2012 Summer Paralympics. At the closing ceremony of the 2012 games, Rio de Janeiro was announced as hosts for the 2016 event, but that did not happen and no further games have been held.

Sports

At the first two WMSG events, medals were contested in five different mind sports: bridge, chess, draughts, go, and xiangqi. The International Federation of Poker is an observer member of IMSA, so poker has been mentioned as a possible future sport at the WMSG. The Mahjong International League was accepted as the sixth member of IMSA in 2017.
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
6Poker2022
7MahjongMahjong International Leaguehttp://mahjong-mil.org/2017
8Card gameFederation of Card Gameshttp://www.fcgofficial.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. In 2004 there had been in the main continuing events 72 Open and 43 Women "Olympiad" entries. 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.