1st World Mind Sports Games: Bridge, Chess...

by jessica.lam | October 6, 2008 at 02:41 pm

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World Mind Games kicked off on Friday October 3rd and will run until the 18th. It is very exciting to be able to have such a global competition in the realm of mind power.

A whole new and huge event starts today, and chess is involved: the World Mind Sports Games. After the Summer Olympics athletes and the Paralympics sportsmen now approximately 3,000 Bridge, Chess, Go, Draughts, and Xiangqi players from over 150 countries have travelled to Beijing.

Over the next two weeks, nearly 3,000 challengers will be competing for 35 gold medals in five events - bridge, chess and draughts, Go and Xiangqi or Chinese chess.

It is a mixed variety of hugely popular board and card games from the East and West.

Chess and bridge, which originated in the West, now have 400 million players across five continents.

Chinese chess is played by 200 million players in 20 countries.

The game of Go, invented in China more than 3,000 years ago, now boasts 60 million players in five continents, mostly in China, Japan, and South Korea. Top players have become idols in these countries.

Delegations have been asked to bring water - symbolising the source of human spirit - from their homeland to Beijing, to mix together.

At the end of the games, they will be able to bring home a small sample, symbolic of the combined wisdom of the world.