12/21/2011 – The SportAccord World Mind Games ended in a great success for all the games and participants, drawing top players in all disciplines. After the Rapid competition in chess, there were blitz competitions, won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hou Yifan respectively, followed by blindfold competitions in which Zoltan Almasi snatched the gold, while Yifan took her second. Pictures and videos.
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SportAccord World Mind Games Tournament
The online tournament was hosted by PlayChess,
the most popular chess server in the world with over 5000 players online every
night and 200,000 games per day. The winner got an invitation to the first
SportAccord World Mind Games (return transportation ticket to the venue in Beijing,
China, entry ticket to the Games, accommodation, a commemorative medal and certificate).
The first edition of the World Mind Games, consisting of events in Bridge, Chess,
Draughts, Go and Xiangqi, takes place from 8-16 December 2011 in Beijing.
The 32 participants of the chess competition include Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov,
Grischuk, Gashimov and Kamsky; in the women's section Hou Yifan, Lahno, Muzychuk,
Ju Wenjun, Stefanova.
SportAccord is the umbrella organisation
for 105 international sports federations and organisations. Its mission is to
support and to protect the common interests of the sports movement. Activities
include the online video portal The
Sports Hub, the organisation of multi-sports games, doping-free sport, as
well as sports’ social responsibility and sports’ integrity. Sport
Accord can be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Contact:
SportAccord Marketing and Communication Department – Iwona Lapinska
Tel + 41 (0)21 612 30 78 Fax + 41 (0)21 612 30 71 or Iwona.Lapinska@sportaccord.com
Men's Blitz
Vachier-Lagrave had a great event, taking first in the Blitz, and third in the Blindfold
After beating Sergey Karjakin from Russia, French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the Gold Medal in the Men's Blitz tournament. He scored 12.0/16 with a 1.5 point lead over the field. The first day Maxime started with a so-so 5.5/8, however in the second day of competition, he scored a near perfect 6.5/7.
Alexander Grischuk took silver with 10.5/16, followed by Azeri Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who finished in 3rd place with 10.0/16.
German WGM Elizabeth Paehtz
Women's Blitz
Women World Champion How Yifan won the Blitz gold with a two-point edge, scoring a brilliant 11.5/15, with nine wins and only a single loss.
Hou Yifan once more showed why she is the strongest player in women's competitions
Former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria, took silver after a strong finish, scoring 4.5/5 in the last five rounds to end on 9.5/15.
Ju Wenjun (center) poses with some friends and colleagues
In 3rd place was Anna Muzychuk from Slovenia with the same score but fewer wins.
A group picture of the men's and women's Blitz competitions
Blindfold
Almira Skripchenko enjoys a laugh before the beginning of the blindfold round
The last day of the SportAccord World Mind Games also determine the podium for the blindfold competition. At the start of the event Vachier Lagrave had been the clear leader in the men's category and Cmilyte in the women's category. Whilst the French player coasted to a joint first place with a number of draws, Viktoria Cmilyte unfortunately lost both her games.
European Champion Viktorija Cmylite came in second after squandering her early lead
Maxime was also a little unlucky with his results, as a dark Hungarian horse named Zoltan Almasi crept up and snatched the Gold medal in the last round thanks to a better tie-break. The women event was won by Hou Yifan who continues to astound observers with her maturity and great play at the age of 17!
Hou Yifan is a star in her home country, so giving interviews is old hat to the prodigy
Video reports
Please note that live full round coverage as well as archives and summaries can be found at the The Sports Hub YouTube channel
Video summary of Day Seven. The chess highlights start at 18:50 and show Ju
Wenjun
playing Viktorija Cmylite in the blindfold competition.
Highlights of the last day. Chess starts at 10:15 with Gashimov playing Vachier-Lagrave.
At 14:30 the women's award ceremony is shown.
The games are being broadcast live on the official
web site and on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get
immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz
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