The first edition of the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing has been a great success. Thanks to the Beijing authorities, the Beijing Sports Bureau (BSB), the Beijing Olympic Development Authority (BODA), the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA), the five participating federations of Chess, Bridge, Draughts, Go and Xiangqi, and the official partners Rado and Samsung.
The three main objectives of the Games have been achieved: the full satisfaction of the players and international federations, the establishment of a worldwide TV coverage, and a large participation to the online tournament linked to the event.
Beijing TV, the host broadcaster of the 2011 SportAccord World Mind Games, in partnership with television company IEC in Sports, produced the world feed and satellite transmission on four continents; with four hours of daily coverage. Mainstream media and news agencies aired the Games. In addition, four web-portals including YouTube (www.youtube.com/thesportshubchannel), live streamed nearly 40 hours of content.
SportAccord World Mind Games Medallists
The first edition of SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing included competitions between world’s top players in Bridge, Chess, Draughts, Go, Xiangqi. We present the final list of medalists per sport, event, and medals (in order: gold, silver, bronze).
Bridge:
Individuals Open Series: WILLENKEN Christopher Jon (USA), LI Jie (CHN), MOSS Brad (USA)
Individuals Women Series: SEAMON MOLSON Janice (USA), SMITH Nicola (GBR), SOKOLOW Tobi (USA)
Pairs Open Series: HOU/ SHI (CHN), CHARLSEN/HOFTANISKA (NOR), GITELMAN/MOSS (USA)
Pairs Women Series: DEAS/ PALMER (USA), SUN/ FENG (CHN), CRONIER/ WILLARD (FRA)
Teams Open Series: Netherlands, United States, Norway
Teams Women Series: United States, Great Britain, China
Chess:
Men’s Blindfold: ALMASI Zoltan (HUN), VACHIER-LAGRAVE Maxime (FRA), HASHIMOV Vugar (AZE)
Women’s Blindfold: HOU Yifan (CHN), CMILYTE Viktorija (LTU), KOSTENYUK Alexandra (RUS)
Men’s Blitz: VACHIER-LAGRAVE Maxime (FRA), GRISHCHUK Alexander (RUS), MAMMADYAROV Shahriyar (AZE)
Women’s Blitz: HOU Yifan (CHN), STEFANOVA Antoaneta (BUL), MUZYCHUK Anna (SLO)
Men’s Rapid: WANG Hao (CHN), HASHIMOV Vugar (AZE), KAMSKY Gata (USA)
Women’s Rapid: KOSTENYUK Alexandra (RUS), LAHNO Kateryna (UKR), DZAGNIDZE Nana (GEO)
Draughts:
Men’s 100: GEORGIEV Alexander (RUS), VALNERIS Guntis (LAT), BOOMSTRA Roel (NED)
Open Series 64: KOLESOV Gavril (RUS), SKRABOV Vladimir (RUS), BILOSHEYEV Sergiy (UKR)
Women’s 100: FEDAROVICH Volha (BLR), GOLUBEVA Zoja (LAT), TKACHENKO Darya (UKR)
Go:
Mixed Doubles: China, Korea, Japan
Mixed Team: China, Korea, Japan
Xiangqi:
Men’s Individuals: JIANG Chuan (CHN), WONG Hok Him Vincent (HKG), WOO Tsung Han Alvin (SIN)
Women’s Individuals: JIN Hai Ying (CHN), NGO Lan Huong (VIE), LIU Bi Jun (AUS)
The future of SportAccord World Mind Games will focus on four goals;
1) development of educational initiatives in schools and universities in China and abroad;
2) development of internet competitions in China and internationally, selecting online winners to play with the top-players;
3) development of television programs focused on ‘edutainment’ for youth and promotion of the host city;
4) development of a ‘festival’ concept, allowing parts of the competitions to take place in local schools. SportAccord has already initiated contacts with prestigious educational institutions in Beijing for future editions.
SportAccord World Mind Games received a positive feedback from Beijing local authorities, which is very promising for the future of the event.