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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.[1][2][3] 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.[4][5] Provisionally as of December 2010, the second WMSG will be August 2012 in Manchester, UK.[6] (Formal announcement of the second Games by the IMSA is anticipated for 17 November during the 2011 Mind Sports Festival in London.)
Five mind sports participated in the first Games: bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go (weiqi), and xiangqi (chinese chess).[7][8] Thirty-five gold medals were contested by 2,763 competitors from 143 countries.[9]
According to the World Bridge Federation, it incorporated the World Team Olympiad (1960–2004) and some established youth events in the Games "as the stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games (after the Summer and the Winter Olympics)".[10]
The World Bridge Federation was one of four world sport governing bodies that established the International Mind Sports Association in 2005. It organized eleven events in Beijing that constituted the "World Bridge Games" including nine WMSG medal events. Six were among the established world bridge championships contested in even-number years.[n 1] The other three were for "youth" under age 28, a one-time compromise.[10][n 2] More than 1400 players participated, about half of all players in the Games. Entries from European Bridge League countries[n 3] won 22 of the 27 medals, led by Norway with six medals including two gold.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Teams | Italy | England | Norway |
| Women Teams | England | China | USA |
| Open Individual | Tor Helness | Geir Helgemo | Andrey Gromov |
| Women Individual | Catarina Midskog | Anne-Fréderique Lévy | Yan Ru |
| Youth Individual | Salih Murat Anter | Radu Nistor | Lars Arthur Johansen |
| Youth Pairs | Mehmet Remzi Şakirler — Melih Osman Şen |
Lotan Fisher — Ron Haim Schwartz |
Joanna Krawczyk — Piotr Tuczyński |
| under-28 Teams | Norway | Poland | China |
| under-26 Teams | Denmark | Poland | Norway |
| under-21 Teams | France | England | China |
Two other events were continued by the WBF from its quadrennial "Olympiad" program, as part of its new "World Bridge Games" but separate from the WMSG (non-medal events sharing the facilities). Japan won the third Senior International Cup, for national teams of seniors (age 58+). 'Yeh Bros' from Chinese Taipei won the second Transnational Mixed Teams, for teams of any nationality comprising mixed pairs, one man and one woman.[11]
The World Chess Federation was one of four world sport governing bodies that established the IMSA in 2005.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's Individual Blitz | Martyn Kravtsiv | Yuriy Drozdovsky | Christodoulos Banikas |
| Women's Individual Blitz | Alexandra Kosteniuk | Antoaneta Stefanova | Hou Yifan |
| Men's Individual Rapid | Bu Xiangzhi | Anton Korobov | Zhang Zhong |
| Women's Individual Rapid | Antoaneta Stefanova | Zhao Xue | Huang Qian |
| Mixed Pairs Blitz | Carlos Matamoros Franco / Fierro Martha Baquero | Krishnan Sasikiran / Tania Sachdev | Valeriy Aveskulov / Tatjana Vasilevich |
| Mixed Pairs Rapid | Ni Hua / Hou Yifan | Dao Thien Hai / Le Kieu Thien Kim | Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami / Atousa Pourkashian |
| Men's Teams Blitz | Hungary | China | Ukraine |
| Women's Teams Blitz | Russia | China | Vietnam |
| Men's Teams Rapid | China | Ukraine | Iran |
| Women's Teams Rapid | China | Ukraine | Russia |
The World Draughts Federation was one of four world sport governing bodies that established the IMSA in 2005. In the first Games, 288 players participated in five medal events. There was a strong regional showing as twelve of the fifteen medals were won by players from Russia, Latvia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| International Draughts 100sq (Men) | Alexander Georgiev | Alexander Getmanski | Guntis Valneris |
| International Draughts 100sq (Women) | Zoja Golubeva | Tanja Chub | Tamara Tansykkuzhina |
| Russian Draughts 64sq (Women) | Viktoriya Motrichko | Elena Miskova | Julia Romanskaia |
| Brazilian Draughts 64sq (Men) | Dashkov Oleg | Ion Dosca | Belosheev Sergey |
| Checkers (Mixed) | Alex Moiseyev | Ron King | Raivis Paegle |
The International Go Federation was one of four world sport governing bodies that established the IMSA in 2005. In the first Games, 560 players participated in six medal events:[12]
South Korea won half of the 18 medals and all were swept by competitors from Eastern Asia.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's Individual | Kang Dongyoon 7p | Park Jungsang 9p | Li Zhe 6p |
| Women's Individual | Song Ronghui 1p [13] | Lee Minjin 5p [13] | Park Ji Eun 9p [13] |
| Open | Jo Sae Byol 7d [14] (Jo Tae-Won)[15] | Ham Youngwoo 7d [14] | Lee Yong Hee 6d [14] |
| Men's Team | South Korea | China | Japan |
| Women's Team | China | South Korea | Japan |
| Pair Go | Huang Yizhong 7p ／ Fan Weijing 2p | Chou Chun-Hsun 9p ／ Hsieh Yi-Min 4p | On So Jin 4p ／ Lee Ha Jin 3p |
Xiangqi, or "Chinese chess", was the fifth mind sport to participate in the first World Mind Sports Games, where 125 players participated in five events. The host country won all five gold medals.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rapid (Men) | Wang Yang | Jiang Chuan | Zhao Ruquan |
| Individual (Women) | Wang linna | Zhao Guanfang | Ngo Lan Huong |
| Individual (Men) | Xu Yinchuan | Hong Zhi | Look Kongdwa |
| Team (Women) | China | Australia | Vietnam |
| Team (Men) | China | Vietnam | Hong Kong |
Teams from the host country China won one-quarter of the 105 medals including one-third of the gold.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | 12 | 8 | 6 | 26 |
| 2 | Russia | 4 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| 3 | South Korea | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| 3 | Ukraine | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| 5 | Norway | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | Turkey | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | England | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 8 | Bulgaria | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | France | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Latvia | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 11 | USA | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | North Korea | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Sweden | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Denmark | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Ecuador | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Hungary | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Italy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 18 | Vietnam | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 19 | Poland | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 19 | Moldova | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 21 | Netherlands | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | Romania | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | Chinese Taipei | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | Australia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | Barbados | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | India | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | Israel | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 28 | Hong Kong | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 28 | Iran | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 28 | Japan | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 31 | Malaysia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | Singapore | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | Greece | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 35 | 35 | 35 | 105 |