1st
World Mind Sports Games
The 1st World Mind Sports Games is being held in China National Convention
Center, located to the north of the main venues of the Beijing 2008 Olympic
Games. It covers an area of 534,000 square meters, of which the conference center
is 270,000 square meters.
The WMSG is a multi-game event featuring five mind sports: bridge, chess, go,
draughts and xiangqi, which have the longest history, the widest popularity
and widest influence in the world. In the Chess Section there are ten events:
Chess Individual Blitz Women, Chess Individual Blitz Men, Chess Individual Rapid
Women, Chess Individual Rapid Men, Chess Paris Blitz Mixed, Chess Paris Rapid
Mixed, Chess Teams Blitz Women, Chess Teams Blitz Men, Chess Teams Rapid Women
and Chess Teams Rapid Men.
Concept of the 1st WMSG
Some key figures from the organisers
- There are 300 million players world wide
- Chess is organised in 161 countries on 5 continents, with
800,000 affiliated members
- The Fédération Internationale des Echecs
(FIDE) was founded in 1924 in Paris, France. It is recognized
by or affiliated to:
- IOC (International Olympic Committee) as an International
Sports Federation since 1999.
- ARISF(Association of the IOC Recognized International
Sports Federations).
- GAISF(General Association of International Sports Federations).
- IMSA(International Mind Sports Association).
- The purpose and aim of FIDE is the diffusion and development
of Chess among nations of the world, as well as the raising
of peoples recognition of the competitive, scientific, creative
and cultural nature of the game..
- FIDE regular Championships
- World Championship every two years
- International Team Championships every two years
- World Team Championship every four years
- World Junior and Youth every year
- World Seniors every year
- World Schools Team and Individual Championships every
year
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Civilization Has Different Origins
The ancient Chinese civilization, the mysterious and remote past of the Egyptian
civilization, and Greek civilization around the Aegean Sea are grand and magnificent,
varied civilizations going along their own paths of development, evolving into
varied, colorful and splendid cultures, planting, brewing and prospering in
each local area and shaping into multi-culture, shining to each other, exploring
new eras of human civilization.
Wisdom Has no Boundary
Civilizations vary greatly from place to place. Wisdom is eternally immutable.
Wisdom and civilization are like germ and fruits to push society forward to
carry loads and go on forever. Terminating domains, crossing races – wisdom
makes people forget the very different skin colors for a long time, and talk
freely about one dream.
Wisdom is creating the world and wisdom is changing the world. Wisdom has made
the whole world a long time ago into one family, which uses wisdom and shares
the boundlessness of wisdom with every effort.
The civilization of the whole of mankind has only one common starting point,
from which human civilization cultivates characteristic eastern and western
civilizations through different tracks.
However, while civilization has different origins, wisdom has no boundaries.
The exchange of human wisdom can span cultural, regional and racial borders
and make eastern and western culture develop harmoniously and mingle with mutual
understanding, as well as unite mankind to become a big family aiming at common
prosperity.
Schedule
| Date |
Time |
Event |
Round |
| October 3 |
12:00 |
Arrival |
|
| |
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Opening Ceremony |
|
| October 4 |
10:00 |
Technical Meeting |
|
|
15:00-19:00 |
Blitz Individual (Men & Women) |
Round 1 to 11 |
| October 5 |
10:00-13:30 |
Blitz Individual (Men & Women) |
Semi-Finals, Finals |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Individual (Men & Women) |
Rounds 1 to 3 |
| October 6 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Individual (Men & Women) |
Rounds 4 to 5 |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Individual (Men & Women) |
Rounds 6 to 7 |
| October 7 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Individual (Men & Women) |
Rounds 8 to 9 |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Individual (Men & Women) |
Semi-Finals |
| October 8 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Individual (Men & Women) |
Finals |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Blitz Pair |
Rounds 1 to 11 |
| October 9 |
10:00-13:30 |
Blitz Pair |
Semi-Finals, Finals |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Pair |
Rounds 1 to 2 |
| October 10 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Pair |
Rounds 3 to 4 |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Pair |
Rounds 5 to 6 |
| October 11 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Pair |
Round 7 |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Pair |
Rounds 8 to 9 |
| October 12 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Pair |
Semi-Finals |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Pair |
Finals |
| October 13 |
10:00-13:30 |
Blitz Team (Men & Women) |
Rounds 1 to 5 |
| |
15:00-19:00 |
Blitz Team (Men & Women) |
Rounds 6 to 11 |
| October 14 |
10:00-13:30 |
Blitz Team (Men & Women) |
Semi-Finals, Finals |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Team (Men & Women) |
Rounds 1 to 2 |
| October 15 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Team (Men & Women) |
Rounds 3 to 4 |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Team (Men & Women) |
Rounds 5 to 6 |
| October 16 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Team (Men & Women) |
Round 7 |
|
15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Team (Men & Women) |
Rounds 8 to 9 |
| October 17 |
10:00-13:30 |
Rapid Team (Men & Women) |
Semi-Finals |
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15:00-19:00 |
Rapid Team (Men & Women) |
Finals |
| October 18 |
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Closing Ceremony & Departure |
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First Champions
Women's Blitz
The hosts, China, have entered all their top players: in the Mens Individual
Blitz, Wang Yue, Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua and Wang Hao are the top four seeds, and
in the Women Individual Blitz, Hou Yifan is the top seed. But the Chinese have
to contend with challenges from newly crowned World Women Champion Alexandra
Kosteniuk of Russia and former World Woman Champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria.
The winner of the Women's Blitz competition: GM Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia
After taking the World Rapid Chess Championship and the World Chess Championship
titles, the Queen of Russian chess, Alexandra Kosteniuk, won gold as well in
the 1st World Mind Sports Games Blitz Individual Womens event. In the preliminary
rounds, the top seeded young Chinese star Hou Yifan was a convincing winner,
including a sixth round victory over Kosteniuk. Both qualified for the semi-finals
together with the impressive ex World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova and Chinese
player Zhao Xue.
Top seed Hou Yifan lost in the semi-final to former world champion Antoaneta
Stefanova
In the first semi-final Stefanova defeated Hou 2-1, while Kosteniuk did not
leave any chances to Zhao and won 2-0. In the final match, it was a difficult
battle of world champions, but nerves told in the end and Stefanova lost 1-2
to Kosteniuk who was again a big winner.
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk vs GM Antoaneta Stefanova in the Women's Blitz Final
Three medalists: Antoaneta Stefanova, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Hou Yifan
Men's Blitz
In the Blitz Individual Men's event the Gold Medal went to the unfancied young
Ukrainian GM Martyn Kravtsiv who surprised the strong competition to take the
honors. This happened after the preliminary round winner GM Mark Paragua of
the Philippines did not have a good start at the semi-final and lost 0-2 to
GM Yuri Drozdovskij. In the other semi-final Kravtsiv defeated GM Chirstodoulos
Banikas of Greece with a similar 2-0 score, and then repeated this achievement
again against Drozdovskij in the all important final.
Martyn Kravtsiv (right) from Ukraine beat his compatriot Yuriy Drozdovsky
(left)
to win the men's chess individual blitz of the First World Mind Sports Games
Information courtesy of FIDE
