American Go E-Journal » SportAccord World Mind Games

Thomas Hsiang on IMSA past, present and future

Friday August 18, 2017

International Mind Sports Association Secretary General Thomas Hsiang discusses IMSA’s short- and long-term plans in a recent interview2017.08.16_Thomas-Hsiang-150x150 with Sports Destination Management. IMSA, which started with Bridge, Go, Draughts and Chess, added Xiangqi in 2015, just added Mahjong this year. Other games under consideration for membership include “electronic games, duplicate poker and cue sports,” Hsiang says. Next up on the IMSA calendar are the IMSA Elite Mind Games, Hsiang says, which “will be held in China in the second week of December.”

Share

WMSG Qualification tournaments start this month in Boston

Monday September 14, 2015

The selection process for the 2016 World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) will begin at the upcoming American Chang Qi Cup in Cambridge, MA, on September 26 – 28, says AGA President Andy Okun.   Although plans have not been formally announced, it is expected that the 2016 WMSG will be held in Macau, China. Prior WMSG competitions (2008 in Beijing, and 2012 in Lille France) invited large teams for both women and men. “That means that some players will have a chance to make the team with lower ratings than usual for our international events,” said Okun. “The existing qualification points system is being modified to include the lower ranks, and will be used for selection of both the men’s and women’s teams.” Other tournaments intended to be used as qualifiers include the Cotsen in Los Angeles, the New Jersey Open, The Maryland Open and at least two online tournaments; other tournaments that meet certain criteria may also be designated as qualifiers. The points system will also select for invitations to the North American Masters and may be used for other invitations that come up from time to time, Okun said.

Share

SAWMG Update: China Wins Pair Go Gold; Russia Takes Home Most Medals Overall

Thursday December 18, 2014

China won the SportAccord World Mind Games Pair Go Event to complete their sweep of gold medals in the 4th annual event, 2014.12.18_sawmg-pair-gowhich wrapped up on December 17 in Beijing, China.

Russia emerged as the SAWMG’s big winners overall this year, as their players took home a total of six gold, five silver and one bronze medal. In total, 150 players from 37 countries took part in the 2014 World Mind Games. There were 14 disciplines across five sports, with 24 medal rounds contested. Click here for full results.

More Gold for China (Ranka Pair Go report)
Pair Go Begins (Ranka)
Pair Go Game Records

photo: China’s Pair Go Team, Yu and Mi

 

Share

SportAccord World Mind Games Update: China Sweeps Gold

Tuesday December 16, 2014

China has swept the SportAccord 2014 World Mind Games go competition, winning gold in the men’s team and women’s 2014.12.16_China-men-sawmgindividual events. Tuo Jiaxi, Mi Yuting and Shi Yue (right) easily dispatched the US team in the final match to clinch their gold medals.

More SAWMG coverage:
Of love of Go, wine and Hollywood (Interview with France’s Fan Hui 2P)
Final Rounds: Gold Medals for China (Ranka)
Women’s Final: Yu Zhiying vs Kim Chaeyoung (Ranka)
Pair Go Begins (Ranka)
Mind Sports at Beijing Schools (Ranka)
Game Records-Men (Pandanet)
Game Records-Women (Pandanet)
Game Records-Pair (Pandanet)

Share

Ranka’s SportAccord World Mind Games Update: China and Korea Prove Stronger

Sunday December 14, 2014

by James Davies, Ranka Online 2014.12.14_SAWMG_Huiren-YANG_Alexandr-DINERSHTEYN

As noted in yesterday’s report, the US team beat Europe in the SportAccord World Mind Games Round 3 team match on December 13; click here for Ranka’s details on that match, and here for the interview with Danny Ko, one of the victorious American players.

Round 4 action on December 14 began with two games that would draw the line between the medal winners and non-winners in the women’s section. Both players from Chinese Taipei came up short: Joanne Missingham lost in just 111 moves to Kim Chaeyoung (Korea), while Cathy Chang narrowly lost to famed veteran Rui Naiwei of China; click here for the game commentary. In the afternoon, Rui Naiwei lost by half a point to Kim Chaeyoung who now goes on to play Yu Zhiying for the gold medal.

Chinese Taipei got off to a good start in the fourth round of the men’s team when Lin Li-Hsiang defeated eighteen-year old Chinese superstar Mi Yuting. Chinese Taipei’s upset hopes were dampened, however, when their leading player Chen Shih-Iuan lost a tightly fought game to China’s leading player Shi Yue on board one, and were then dashed when Tuo Jiaxi convincingly defeated Chang Che-Hao on board three. China now has four straight wins, and their remaining match is against North America. While China was struggling past Chinese Taipei, the North American team lost to the Korean team 0-3, so China’s chances of completing a clean sweep of all their matches when they play North America appear quite good.

Europe had no better luck against Japan than North America had against Korea. The Europeans fought hard, but Yuki Satoshi beat Fan Hui by a comfortable 7.5 points, Ida Atsushi beat Aleksandr Dinershteyn by a 14.5 points, and Seto Taiki beat Ilya Shikshin by resignation. Edited from longer reports on Ranka Online. Click here for the complete report on Round 4.
photo: Huiren Yang (left) playing Alexandr Dinershteyn; photo by Ivan Vigano
Game records are available on go4go.net; click here for latest SAWMG results.

 

Share

Ranka’s SportAccord World Mind Games Update: An Epic Encounter and a Historic Victory

Friday December 12, 2014

by James Davies, Ranka Online
The first round of go competition at the 4th SportAccord World Mind Games on December 11 featured an epic encounter between the Korean and2014.12.12_SAWMG_day1_Yuki-Satoshi Japanese men’s teams, and a historic victory for a Russian woman. The Japan-Korea men’s match was close on all three boards. Yuki Satoshi (right) of Japan defeated Korea’s Park Younghun in a prolonged struggle on board one. In the battle between two young players on board two, Japan’s Ida Atsushi, 20, overplayed his advantage against Na Hyun, 19, by starting an unnecessary ko fight, in the course of which Na was able to revive his dead group and evened the score in the match at 1-1. All now depended on the outcome of the game between Seto Taiki of Japan and Korea’s Kang Dongyoon on board three, and the people following the action on the monitor screens in the adjoining room were held in suspense down to practically the last move, but after a grueling five and a half hours, Kang came up the winner by 4.5 points.

Meanwhile, the Chinese team of Shi Yue, Mi Yuting, and Tuo Jiaxi was dealing unmercifully with the European team of Fan Hui, Aleksandr Dinershteyn, and Ilya Shikshin. European stones died en masse on all three boards. The team from Chinese Taipei also blanked the North American team 3-0, although the game between Chen Shih-Iuan and Jiang Mingjiu on board one was quite close. Russia’s Natalia Kovaleva defeated Chinese Taipei’s Cathy Chang in the women’s individual competition.
– adapted from a longer report on Ranka Online; photo by Ivan Vigano

 

Share

2014 SportAccord World Mind Games Launch in Beijing

Thursday December 11, 2014

The fourth SportAccord World Mind Games officially opened at an evening ceremony held on December 10 in the banquet hall of2014.12.11_SAWMG_drawing the  V-Continent Beijing Parkview Wuzhou hotel near the Beijing International Conference Center, which is the competition venue. Thirty go players representing the best of China, Chinese Taipei, Europe, North America, Japan, and Korea will compete with each other December 11-17, rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s best bridge, chess, draughts, and xiangqi players. Counting all five disciplines, there are 150 contestants, drawn from nearly forty countries and territories on six continents. Click here for Ranka Online’s reports on the SAWMG’s Opening ceremony and draw and Players Converge on Beijing for the 4th SportAccord WorldMind Games.

[link]

Michael Redmond 9P’s gives a commentary (right) on the Round 1 game between France’s Fan Hui 2P and China’s Shi Yue 9P. “Shi Yue showed powerful fighting, starting with a center-oriented opening that developed into a big fight,” says Redmond. “Two early mistakes on Fan Hui’s part made this fight difficult for him.” Redmond also noted that “In the 1st round for women, Europe played well, got only one win out of it.”

Click on another insightful Redmond commentary, Dinershteyn-MiYuting_annotated.sgf, for an incredible game, in which Black opens with a 5-7 point play in each corner for his 1st four moves!

Click below for other first-round games:
DainelKo-ChangCheHao.sgf
IlyaS-Tuo.sgf
LinLi-Huiren.sgf
Mingjiu-ChenShihIuan.sgf
NaHyun-Ida.sgf
Seto-KangDongYoon.sgf
Yuki-Park.sgf
DinaB-KimChaeYoung.sgf
NataliaK-ChangKaiHsin.sgf
Okuda-SvetlanaShikshina.sgf

photo: EGF President Martin Stiassny (above right) drawing for the European team
– based on reporting by James Davies on Ranka Online; edited by Chris Garlock with technical assistance by Myron Souris

 

Share

4th SportAccord World Mind Games Kick Off Next Week

Sunday December 7, 2014

The 4th SportAccord World Mind Games (SAWMG) will be held in Beijing December 11-17. Contestants will compete for gold, silver, and bronze 2014.12.07_SAWMG_logo_purplemedals in five areas: go, chess, contract bridge, draughts and xiangqi (Chinese chess). The go competition will follow the same format as last year: 18 men representing China, Chinese Taipei, Europe, Japan, Korea, and North America will compete in a three-man team round-robin; 12 women from the same areas will compete in an individual  double knockout; and 16 of these contestants will also compete in a single knockout mixed pair tournament.

The Chinese team this year is comprised of 5 professionals, four 9 dans and a 5 dan. The players participating in this year’s SAWMG are older than last year’s, with only 3 teenagers divided between the Chinese, Japanese, and North American teams, including the granddaughter of Fujisawa Shuko, who is returning for her second SAWMG.

The European and North American teams are fielding mixed pro-amateur teams. The North American team is comprised of three veteran players and one young Canadian woman, Ming Jiu Jiang 7P, Huiren Yang 1P, Daniel Daehyuk Ko 7D and Irene Sha 6D. The European team is primarily Russian, but also includes a professional 2 dan from France.

Coverage of the SAWMG will begin on the 11th, with daily reports and commentaries posted on the RANKA website. Click here for the schedule.
– Amy Su, based on reports on Ranka.
Correction: updated to reflect that it’s the granddaughter of Fujisawa Shuko (not the daughter) who will be playing

Share

1-Day SAWMG Qualifier set for Monday on KGS

Sunday September 21, 2014

The AGA is holding a 1-day tournament on KGS on Monday, September 22 to select the replacement for Gansheng Shi, who was selected to represent North America at the SportAccord World Mind Games (SAWMG) but could not go. Mingjiu Jiang will play Eric Lui on Monday at 12 noon EDT in the AGA tournament room, and the winner will later play a deciding game with Jie Liang. The time for the second game is yet to be determined, but we’ll try to post it on our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Share

Sportaccord Set To Launch Biggest-Yet World Mind Games Online Tournament

Wednesday September 10, 2014

Registration for the 2014 SportAccord World Mind Games – Pandanet Online Tournament continues through September 30.The winner will 2014.09.10_SAWMG-header1participate in the 4th edition of the SportAccord World Mind Games (SAWMG), scheduled for December 11-17 in Beijing. Following last year’s success with participation in the SAWMG reaching 700,000 players worldwide, SportAccord — in partnership with RSportz, the community-based global sports network, and online platforms Bridge Base Online, Chess.com and Pandanet — is launching the World Mind Games Online Tournament Portal, a community-based destination for all participants featuring information on the online games’ rules, mind sports’ news and tournaments’ results. Follow the games on Twitter at WorldMindGames, hashtag #mindgames2014

The Bridge, Chess and Go online games will be operated and hosted by platform partners Bridge Base Online, Chess.com and Pandanet respectively. Registration is open for players from all levels, advanced to beginner. All participants get a chance to win prizes including Samsung TVs, tablets, Rado watches, and more. 12 000$ prize money will be shared among the winners of the tournaments. The tournaments will start from September 15 on all platforms.

SportAccord, the Union of International Sports Federations, operates four Multi-Sports Games, the World Combat Games, the World Beach Games, the World Urban Games and the World Mind Games. The 4th edition of the SportAccord World Mind Games will once again feature bridge, chess, draughts, go and xiangqi (Chinese Chess) in cooperation with the respective International Sports Federations. “The SportAccord World Mind Games reunites the world’s best players who compete for glory and prize money,” said SportAccord. “SportAccord is constantly looking to engage more people in mind sports in a fun and exciting way through cultural programs and online games.”

Share