World Mind Sports Games: 2008
The first World Mind Sports Games was held in Beijing, China from 3rd to 18th October 2008. The event was instigated by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) and was organised by the Board and Card Games Administrative Center of the General Administration of Sport of China and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport.
More than 2500 players from 150 countries and regions took part as well as more than 600 staff members (officials, coaches and referees). Five sports were involved - Go, Bridge, Chess, Chinese Chess and Draughts. There were 6 gold medals for Go: Mens and Womens Individual, Open Individual (no professionals allowed), Mens and Womens Teams and Pair Go.
The British Go Association sent as strong a team as possible to the event, with 11 men and 7 women taking part, in addition to 3 team officials. The BGA Council appointed a Committee of Toby Manning (Team Captain - shown right in the team shirt) and Jon Diamond to be responsible for the organisation of the BGA's participation in this important event.
The Chinese hosts provided accommodation and food in China free of charge to all participants.
They, thanks to Air China, also supplyed a small number of airline tickets free of charge. Thus there was
significant travel, uniform and other costs which the BGA could not fund and would therefore fall
on the players. However, in order to ensure the best players are available and cover a lot of these
costs, we are pleased that Winton Capital Management supported the team.
The Official Logo and Slogan of the 1st Mind Sports Games was released in April 2008.
Event Reports/Pictures
Event Documents (PDF)
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