This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information.(November 2020) |
This article gives a list of world championships in mind sports which usually represent the most prestigious competition for a specific board game, card game or mind sport. World championships can only be held for most games or mind sports with the ratification of an official body. Some Eastern games only have amateur world championships and separate professional competitions as can be seen for Go (list of professional Go tournaments).
World championships organized by Mind Sports Olympiad, that consist of competitions across multiple events to find the strongest games all-rounders.
Sport / Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Last Held | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Decamentathlon World Championship [1] | Individuals | 1997 | Martyn Hamer | 2019 | 2020 | One year |
Modern Abstract Games World Championship [2] | Individuals | 2008 | Andres Kuusk | 2022 | 2023 | One year |
Pentamind World Championship [3] | Individuals | 1997 | Andres Kuusk | 2024 | 2025 | One year |
Major world championships for classic strategy board games, such as chess or go.
Category | Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Last held | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Backgammon | Backgammon | Backgammon World Championship | Individuals | 1967 | Frank Frigo | 2023 | 2024 | One year |
Chaturanga variants | Chess | World Chess Championship | Individuals | 1886 | Ding Liren | 2023 | 2024 | Two years |
Shogi | Meijin (shogi) [lower-alpha 1] | Individuals | 1937 | Sōta Fujii | 2024 | 2025 | One year | |
Xiangqi | World Xiangqi Championship | Individuals | 1990 | Wang Tianyi | 2022 | 2024 | Two years | |
Draughts | International draughts | Draughts World Championship | Individuals | 1885 | Yuri Anikeev | 2023 | 2024 | One year |
English draughts | World Checkers Championship | Individuals | 1840 | Sergio Scarpetta (3-Move) | 2024 2024 | 2026 2026 | Two years | |
Brazilian draughts and Russian draughts | World Draughts-64 Championship | Individuals | 1985 1993 | Alexander Schwarzman (Braz) Andrei Fedotov (Rus) | 2018 2020 | ? 2021 | ? One year | |
Italian draughts | Italian Draughts World Championship | Individuals | 2024 | Damiano Sciuto [4] | 2024 | ? | ? | |
Go | Go | Ing Cup [lower-alpha 2] | Individuals | 1988 | Ryo Ichiriki | 2024 | ? | Four years |
Five in a row | Gomoku | Gomoku World Championship | Individuals | 1989 | Pavel Laube | 2023 | 2025 | Two years |
Renju | Renju World Championship | Individuals | 1989 | Lu Hai | 2023 | 2025 | Two years | |
Morris | Morabaraba | Morabaraba World Championship | Individuals | 1997 | Senane Gadlela | 2015 | 2016 | One year |
Reversi | Othello | World Othello Championship | Individuals | 1977 | Yasushi Nagano | 2023 | 2024 | One year |
World championships in Traditional card games and tile-based games.
Category | Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Last held | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Contract bridge | Contract bridge | Bermuda Bowl | Teams | 1950 | Poland | 2019 | 2021 | Two years |
Dominoes | Dominoes | World Championship Domino Tournament [5] | Individuals | 1976 | Chris Authement | 2019 | 2020 | One year |
Domino World Championship [6] | Individuals | 1995 | Hege Lofthus | 2011 | 2012 | One year | ||
Mahjong | Mahjong | World Mahjong Championship | Individuals | 2002 | Baohua Sun | 2017 | 2019 | Two years |
Riichi mahjong | World Riichi Championship | Individuals | 2014 | Keijun Nara | 2022 | 2025 | Three years | |
Poker | Poker | World Series of Poker Main Event | Individuals | 1970 | Jonathan Tamayo | 2024 | 2025 | One year |
Skat | Skat | World Skat Championship | Individuals | 1978 | Maik Neumann (Men) Carmen Schulze (Women) | 2018 | 2022 | Two years |
Teams | BABEDA | |||||||
Nations | Netherlands |
Competitions using mental tests.
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Memory | World Memory Championships [7] | Individuals | 1991 | Munkhshur Narmandakh | 2022 | One year |
Mental calculation | Mental Calculation World Cup | Individuals | 2004 | Aaryan Nitin Shukla - 2024 | 2026 | Two years |
MSO Mental Calculation World Championship | Individuals | 1998 | Kaloyan Geshev - 2024 | 2025 | One year | |
Junior Mental Calculation World Championship | Individuals (age restricted) | 2013 | 2023 - Andrej Zivanovic (Juniors 1) | 2024 | One year | |
Calculation League | Individuals | 2024 (Spring) | Wenzel Grüß (gold) | 2024 (fall) | Twice per year | |
Memory and Calculation | Memoriad | Individuals | 2008 | (15 winners) | 2020 | Four years |
Competitions in abstract strategy games and other modern board games.
Games made for 2 players:
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arimaa | Arimaa World Championship [8] | Individuals | 2004 | Mathew Brown | 2024 | One year |
Bōku | Bōku World Championship [9] | Individuals | 2000 | David Pearce | 2017 | One year |
Entropy/Hyle | Entropy World Championship [9] | Individuals | 1997 | Alain Dekker | 2025 | One year |
GIPF | Project Gipf World Championship | Individuals | 2008 | Mathijs Booden | (2008) | |
Kamisado | Kamisado World Championship [9] | Individuals | 2011 | David Pearce | 2025 | One Year |
Lines of Action | LoA World Championship [9] | Individuals | 1997 | James Heppell | 2025 | One year |
Stratego | Stratego World Championship [9] | Individuals | 1997 | Vince van Geffen | 2025 | One year |
Twilight Struggle | International Twilight Struggle League [10] | Individuals | 2005 | Tomas Tvaroh | 2025 | One year |
Twixt | TwixT World Championship [9] | Individuals | 1997 | Florian Jamain | 2025 | One Year |
Games supporting 3 or more players:
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Diplomacy | World Diplomacy Convention [11] | Individuals | 1988 | Gwen Maggi | 2022 | One year [12] |
Hare and Tortoise | Hare and Tortoise World Championships [13] | Individuals | 1997 | Dario de Toffoli | 2017 | One year |
Monopoly | Monopoly World Championships [14] | Individuals | 1973 | Nicolò Falcone [15] | TBD | No regular schedule |
Settlers of Catan | Catan World Championships [16] | Individuals | 2002 | Quetzal Hernández | 2020 | Two years |
4 games | German Board Game Championship [17] | Teams (4 players) | 1984 | Das Team mit dem Paukenschlag, Bonn | 2024 | One year |
4 games | Europe Masters - European Board Game Championship [18] | Teams (4 players) | 1988 | Das Team mit dem Paukenschlag, Bonn | 2024 | One year |
Competitions in collectible card games and other modern card games.
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Last held | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Magic: The Gathering | Magic: The Gathering World Championship | Individuals | 1994 | Jean-Emmanuel Depraz | 2023 | 2024 | One year |
World Magic Cup [19] | Teams | 1995 | France | 2018 | Discontinued [20] | One year | |
Pokémon Trading Card Game | Pokémon World Championships [21] | Individuals | 2004 | Sakuya Ota (Junior) Evan Pavelski (Senior) Fernando Cifuentes (Master) [22] | 2024 | 2025 | One year |
Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game | Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championships [23] | Individuals | 2003 | Paul Aronson Jian Yu Jian (Duel Links) snipehunters (Master Duel) | 2023 | 2024 | One year |
Wizard Card Game | Wizard World Championship [24] | Individuals | 2010 | Sebastian Holzer | 2022 | 2023 | One year |
World championships in speaking.
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Auctioneering | World Livestock Auctioneer Championship | Individuals | 1963 | Jared Miller (2018) | 2019 | One year |
Debating | World Universities Debating Championship [25] | Pairs | 1979 | Daniel A. DeBois & Archie J.W. Hall (2018) | 2019 | One year |
World Schools Debating Championships | Nations | 1988 | China (2018) | 2019 | One year | |
Debating (Spanish) | World Universities Debating Championship in Spanish Campeonato Mundial Universitario de Debate en Español [25] | Pairs | 2011 | Antonio Fabregat & Javier De La Puerta (2017) | 2018 | One year |
Debating (Portuguese) | World Debating Championship in Portuguese Campeonato Mundial de Debate em Língua Portuguesa [25] | Pairs | 2018 | David Alatorre López & Brittany Garcia (2019) | TBD | One year |
World championships held in tile-based games include:
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carcassonne | Carcassonne World Championship [26] | Individuals | 2006 | Matt Tucker | 2024 | One year |
Continuo | Continuo World Championship [9] | Individuals | 1997 | David M. Pearce | 2017 | One year |
Hexago | Hexago World Championship [9] | Individuals | 2007 | David M. Pearce | (2007) | |
Saboteur | Saboteur World Championship [27] | Individuals | 2016 | Alexander Mischke | 2023 | One year |
Tantrix | Tantrix World Championship (online) [28] | Individuals | 1998 | Tamás Gombkötő | 2023 | One year |
Tantrix World Open (real tiles) [29] | Individuals | 2009 | Marek Reniers | 2023 [30] | One year (irregular) |
World championships in word games.
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scrabble (English) | World Scrabble Championship [31] | Individuals | 1991 | Nigel Richards (2019) | 2020 | Two years; one year since 2013 |
Scrabble (Spanish) | Spanish World Scrabble Championship [32] | Individuals | 1997 | Selene Delgado (2017) | 2018 | One year |
Scrabble (French) | French World Scrabble Championship Duplicate [33] | Individuals | 1972 | Nigel Richards (2017) | 2018 | One year |
French World Scrabble Championship Classic [33] | Individuals | 2006 | Benjamin Valour (2017) | 2018 | One year |
World championships in competitive programming.
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Competitive programming | Topcoder Open | Individuals | 2001 | Gennady Korotkevich (2017) | 2020 | once a year |
Corewars | ICWS | Individuals/teams | 1985 | ? | ? | yearly |
Quizzing competitions organized by the private company International Quizzing Assoc.
Sport | Competition name | Competing entities | First held | Current holder | Next | Held every |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quiz | World Quizzing Championship | Individuals | 2003 [34] | Victoria Groce (2024) | 2025 | yearly |
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.
The Computer Olympiad is a multi-games event in which computer programs compete against each other. For many games, the Computer Olympiads are an opportunity to claim the "world's best computer player" title. First contested in 1989, the majority of the games are board games but other games such as bridge take place as well. In 2010, several puzzles were included in the competition.
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams.
The Decamentathlon is a multi disciplined games event that was created as part of the first Mind Sports Olympiad. It was founded to try to find the best games all-rounder in the world and hence possibly the best games player. It was given a prize fund of £10,000 for the inaugural competition, that equalled that of the highest funded event at the first MSO sponsored by Skandia. However, the other events were spread over multiple playing sessions whereas the Decamentathlon was held over just a single session. This event was initially hailed as the MSO flagship event. Although, the Mind Sports Olympiad's other new event the Pentamind has since become regarded as the more significant event despite not having a fixed format.
A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor does not play all the other competitors. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but does not play the same opponent more than once. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds. With an even number of participants, all competitors play in each round.
A mind sport is a game of skill based on intellectual ability.
Bōku is an abstract strategy board game played with marbles on a perforated hexagonal board with 80 spaces. The object of the game is to arrange five marbles in a row. The game has also been sold under the name Bollox, and later Bolix and won a Mensa Select award in 1999.
Continuo is an abstract strategy game by Maureen Hiron which was first published in 1982 and now distributed in board game form by David Westnedge Ltd. In the U.K and U.S. Games Systems in the U.S. It is played by arranging patterns printed on a deck of 42 cards, each card being printed with a grid of 16 colored squares. The goal is to place cards so that the tiles match as many chains of color as possible. Continuo sold over 200,000 units in the United Kingdom alone within a few months of being launched. Continuo won a 1995 Mensa Select games award. The tag line on the box is "The one rule game for all the family".
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.
Play! Pokémon, formerly known as Pokémon Organized Play, is a division of The Pokémon Company International established in 2003 and known for hosting the Pokémon World Championships, a competitive eSports tournament which features the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG), Pokemon Go, the Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC), and the Pokémon UNITE Championships. It is the official governing body of the competitive tournament circuit for Pokémon, as well as the organizer of a variety of programs for casual players of the game.
Ben Pridmore is a former world memory champion, memory sport competitor and accountant.
The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of 1992. It was originated by Tony Buzan and co founded by Tony Buzan and Ray Keene. It continues to be organized by the World Memory Sports Council (WMSC), which was jointly founded by Tony Buzan and Ray Keene. In 2016, due to a dispute between some players and the WMSC, the International Association of Memory (IAM) was launched. From 2017 onward, both organizations have hosted their own world championships.
Takahashi Meijin, real name Toshiyuki Takahashi, is a former executive of Hudson Soft.
The Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) is an annual international multi-disciplined competition and festival for games of mental skill and mind sports by Mind Sports Organisation. The inaugural event was held in 1997 in London with £100,000 prize fund and was described as possibly the biggest games festival ever held.
The World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association (WESPA) is the overarching global body for English-language national Scrabble associations and similar entities.
The 2012 World Mind Sports Games were held in Lille, France, from 9 to 23 August 2012. 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—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.
Park Se-jun (Korean: 박세준), also referred to as Sejun Park, is a South Korean Pokémon video gamer and Pokémon Trading Card Game player. He is best known for winning the Masters Division of the Video Game Championships (VGC) at the 2014 Pokémon World Championships.
The Pokémon World Championships is an invite-only esports event organized by Play! Pokémon. It is held annually in August and features games from the Pokémon series such as the Pokémon video games, Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Go, Pokémon Unite and Pokkén Tournament. Players earn invitations to the World Championships based on their performance in qualifiers and other tournaments held throughout the season and compete for scholarship money, prizes and the title of World Champion. With the exception of Asia, invitations to the World Championships are administered by the Play! Pokémon program.
Natasha Katherine Regan is a chess player and an award-winning chess author, best known for her book Game Changer. She has represented England at two Chess Olympiads. As a senior (50+), she won the Women's English Seniors Chess Championship in both 2023 and in 2024.