The 2012 World Mind Sports Games were held in Lille, France, from 9 to 23 August 2012.[1] The meeting started during the 2012 Summer Olympics and ending shortly before the 2012 Summer Paralympics, both in London. This was the second rendition of the World Mind Sports Games, which was inaugurated in 2008 in Beijing. The mind sport games had about 2000 players from 95 nations[1]—down from 2,763 competitors and 143 countries at the 1st Games. More than half of the gold medals were contested at draughts and Russia, with the strongest draughts squad, won the most gold and most overall medals. China won five gold medals—all five events contested at Xiangqi. Chinese Taipei won four gold medals—four of the five events contested at go.
There were only three WMSG medal events at contract bridge in the 2012 Games, down from nine for the 2008 World Mind Sports Games. One other World Bridge Federation (WBF) event with world championship status was contested on site, the World Mixed Teams Championship for transnational mixed teams, which field male–female pairs only. The main events were parallel tournaments for open, women, and seniors national teams, 4 to 6 players, some with a non-playing captain and/or a coach (that is, the events of the quadrennial World Team Olympiad, 1960 to 2004, retrospectively termed the 1st to 12th World Bridge Games). They were conducted over the full 14 days of competition; the mixed teams over the latter 7 days, alongside the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final matches of the main events.
Seven WMSG medal events from 2008 were not repeated as part of the "2nd World Mind Games, 14th World Bridge Games" (as WBF called the meet). Open, women, and youth individual events and under-28 teams were not repeated anywhere. Youth pairs, under-26 teams, and under-21 teams were contested at separate all-Youth meets—along with u-26 Girls Teams, which was not part of the 1st Games.
The world championship for national seniors teams (World Team Olympiad#Senior International Cup), which had been a WMSG non-medal event alongside the open and women flights in 2008, was now a WMSG medal event. Beside the mixed teams world championship, there were lesser side events.
Only 60 and 43 nations entered the open and women flights, down from 71 and 54 at the 2008 Games. The seniors field, now a WMSG medal event as well as WBF world championship, increased from 32 to 34 entries.[3][4]
The six gold and bronze medalists all won their concluding matches comfortably, in the end (scores no closer than 170–118 in 80 deals, the Women bronze medal match).[5][6][7]
The European Bridge League, with about half of all entries, placed 7 teams in both the Open and Women quarterfinals, all 4 teams in those medal rounds; 6 quarterfinalists and 3 semifinalists in the Seniors flight. The other quarterfinalists were USA in the Open and Seniors, Indonesia in the Women and Seniors.[2]
65 bridge nations were represented by at least one Open, Women, or Seniors team; 30 entered all three flights. The Open field of 60 included 30 from the European Bridge League. There were 43 in the women field including four that did not enter the Open: Lebanon, Palestine, Indonesia (a championship contender), and the Philippines. There were 34 in the seniors including one that did not enter either of the other flights: Hungary, which won the seniors championship.
Chess
There were no WMSG medal events in chess at the 2nd Games.
One website devoted to chess treated the inaugural SportAccord World Mind Games, December 2011 in Beijing, as the second rendition of the World Mind Sports Games, inaugurated October 2008 in Beijing.[9]
"The World Mind Sports Games were first held in 2008 in Beijing. After a long pause the tournament returns in the chess calendar stronger than ever.
This year the World Mind Games has moved to a new level. Now they are being organized and held by a famous and respectable organization called SportAccord, the umbrella organization for both Olympic and non-Olympic sports as well as a major organizers of conferences and sporting events."
There were "Rapid" tournaments, 25-minute or 5-minute, on the first Saturday, second Friday, and second Sunday at least.
On first Sunday afternoon, the third day of the competitive program, International Grand MasterTigran Gharamian played simultaneous matches at 30 tables, against a field including many children as young as age six.[10] (The chess program at the 2nd Games was largely instructional.) There was a second simultaneous display featuring Gharamian on the second Saturday morning. Gharamian was a local player, a 28-year-old Armenian who had emigrated to Lille ten years earlier.[11] Gharamian defeated all 30 players in the first session and 20 of 22 in the second session.[12]
There was at least one "Youth Tournament" and one Blitz tournament.[13][14]
The World Draughts Federation (FMJD)[16] officially announced the roster of 16 events and the conditions ("without any support for hospitality and travel") only five months in advance.[17] The two checkers events, for men and women, were the world championship qualification tournaments and were supported by prizes including 1000 euro for first place.[18]
The main event of the draughts program covering the first nine days was the Draughts World Cup, a 9-round Swiss-system tournament in which every match yields a winner by 12–0, 9–3, 8–4, or 7–5 score, depending on whether 0, 1, 2, or 3 tie-breaks generate the winner. The final standings show 82 open players, 39 women.[21]
Five WMSG medal events were included in the 2nd Games.[22] The Chinese Taipei squad won 11 of 15 medals, including four gold.[23]
South Korea and China had won 14 of the 18 medals in the six events contested at the 1st Games in Beijing; North Korea 1 medal. They did not compete in the 2nd Games. Nor did the only Chinese Taipei medalist in Beijing, the silver medal pair.
Go events were held over eleven days, from 13 to 23 August (last 11 days of the 14-day Open Teams bridge tournament). The individual tournaments for men and women were contested between 13–16 August, the teams competition between 17–19 August, the youth and pair events between 20–23 August.
The men, women, and pair events, at least, were repeats from 2008; the youth event new. The team event replaced open, men's team, and women's team events.
78 men and 38 women played five rounds to qualify four semifinalists each. Both preliminary leaders won the gold medals.[24][25]
30 teams played five rounds in two groups to qualify two semifinalists from each group. There were 21 nations represented, nine in both groups, and both Chinese Taipei teams won their groups.[26]
20 mixed pairs (male–female) played five rounds in two groups to qualify two semifinalists from each group. There were 14 nations represented, six in both groups, and both Chinese Taipei teams won their groups. But the Group A runners-up beat the A winners in the gold medal match.[27]
43 youth played five rounds to qualify four semifinalists. Again the preliminary runner-up beat the prelim winner in the gold medal match.[28]
Five WMSG medal events were included in the 2nd Games. China won 13 of 15 medals.
The World Xiangqi Federation (WXF)[29] shows "News from Europe" that players from China squad won all six medals in the two Rapid events (women and men) completed 11 August.[30]
China also won all six medals in the two individual events, with only one change in personnel from the Rapid events. Its Individual Men gold and silver medalists won the Teams (two players) followed by Vietnam and Hong Kong.[31]
There was one change from the five events contested in 2008, Rapid (Women) in place of Team (Women).
The Mind Sports Organisation (MSO) is an association for promoting mind sports including Contract Bridge, Chess, Go, Mastermind, and Scrabble. Since 1997 it has annually organised in England a multi-sport competition, the Mind Sports Olympiad.
A mind sport is a game of skill based on intellectual ability.
The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) is an association of the world governing bodies for contract bridge, chess, draughts, eSports, go, xiangqi, mahjong and card games.
The triple crown of bridge is a career achievement in duplicate bridge, namely winning the three marquee Open world championships conducted by the World Bridge Federation. The Bermuda Bowl is now contested by national teams in odd-number years. The Olympiad Open Teams, contested by national teams in Olympic years, has been incorporated in the World Mind Sports Games (WMSG). The Olympiad Open Pairs, now World Open Pairs Championship, is contested in non-Olympic even-number years.
The World Team Olympiad was a contract bridge meet organized by the World Bridge Federation every four years from 1960 to 2004. Its main events were world championships for national teams, always including one open and one restricted to women. A parallel event for seniors was inaugurated in 2000.
China is a major chess power, with the women's team winning silver medals at the Olympiad in 2010, 2012, and 2014; the men's team winning gold at the 2014 Olympiad, and the average rating for the country's top ten players third in the FIDE rankings as of April 2023.
The World Mixed Teams Championship is a bridge competition for teams of mixed pairs. At every table, two teams are always represented by a mixed pair, one man and one woman.
The World Junior Pairs Championship is a bridge competition organized by the World Bridge Federation. It was inaugurated 1995 in Ghent, Belgium, when it incorporated the European Junior Pairs Championship inaugurated 1991. Officially the Juniors and Youngsters Pairs Championships are biennial in odd years, although there are parallel contests in some even years.
The World Junior Teams Championship is a bridge competition for zonal teams of players up to about 25 years old.
The World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) was a 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".
Cezary Jacek Balicki is a Polish bridge and chess player. After 2014 competition, he ranked 17th among Grand Masters by World Bridge Federation (WBF) masterpoints, five places ahead of his longtime partner Adam Żmudziński. They ranked 26–27th among more than 100 all-time Grand Masters by placing points that do not decay over time. Balicki also holds the chess title of FIDE Master (FM).
Tobi Sokolow is an American bridge player. She won major tournaments as Tobi Deutsch as well. As of 2016, she ranked 10th among women in the world by masterpoints and 11th by placing points that do not decay over time.
Ion Dosca is a Moldovan Brazilian draughts player, international grandmaster since 1996 and world champion in 1999. Dosca also plays other variants of draughts, such as Russian checkers and pool checkers and won numerous national championships in both variants.
Viktoriya Leontyivna Motrichko is a Ukrainian draughts player, an International Grandmaster since 2005. She was the World champion in International draughts in 2023, World champion in Brazilian draughts in 2007 and the winner of the World Mind Sports Games in Russian checkers in 2008.
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. 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.
The United States Bridge Federation (USBF) is the national federation for contract bridge in the United States and a non-profit organization formed by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) and the American Bridge Association (ABA) in 2001 to hold the United States Bridge Championships and to select, train, and support Open, Women, Senior and Junior teams to represent the United States in international competition.
Brian R. Senior is a professional bridge player and writer from Nottingham. He has represented Great Britain, England, Northern Ireland and Ireland in international competition and has won all the major English Bridge Union teams competitions. Senior is also the editor and publisher of the annual official world championship book, under World Bridge Federation auspices.
Tanya or Tanja Chub is a Ukrainian-born Dutch draughts player. She won a silver medal for Draughts at the 1st World Mind Sports Games.
The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) inaugurated the SportAccord World Mind Games December 2011 in Beijing. For all sports, the meet was invitational and the events were not world championships. Beside satisfaction of the participating players and federations, the main objectives were to achieve "a worldwide TV coverage, and a large participation to the online tournament linked to the event."
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