Mind Sports Olympiad moves to bigger venue
By Alexander Baron
A short report on the forthcoming Mind Sports Olympiad – now in its 15th year – which will be held in London, England at the end of August.
The annual Mind Sports Olympiad has been confirmed for London , August 20-28, and is moving to a slightly bigger venue, University of Central London, Malet Street, after last year’s disappointing turn out. This will be the 15th year the event has run, and is already attracting players from Europe and the United States, mostly the die-hard gamesters who have supported it over the past few rocky years.
The first four Mind Sports were truly spectacular events, beginning with the 1997 launch at the Royal Festival Hall, and three equally impressive follow ups which took up substantial space at the Novotel Hotel, Hammersmith; Kensington Olympia; and then Alexandra Palace in North London, but the 5th event was a low key affair held at the South Bank University, and was only saved from oblivion by the inclusion of a strong chess contingent from India when the Commonwealth Championship was incorporated with the Ron Banwell Masters.
In 2002, MSO moved north to Loughborough University, followed by two years at the campus of University of Manchester (UMIST) before moving south again.
The main reasons for the downturn in its fortunes were a falling out of the organisers and protracted legal problems. Although the latter were resolved, the event never recovered, and it was only by a supreme collective effort that it didn’t fall to pieces after its temporary relocation to Manchester.
The Mind Sports was the brainchild of chess player David Levy; although he has not played competitively for many years, Levy is an international master, prolific author of chess books and articles, and has done pioneering work on chess programming and in related fields. Sadly, his original vision, which was conceived as early as 1987 and was ten years in the making, never quite came to fruition, and for no fault of his own.
The actual events have been run since 1997 by Tony Corfe and a small team of mostly volunteers. Corfe is a big name on the chess circuit, and is well known as a tournament organiser as well as a supplier of chess paraphernalia. He will be in charge again this year, and his schedule includes a new Abstract Games in addition to the regulars of chess, Abalone, backgammon, Diplomacy, draughts, Go, Entropy, Lost Cities, Scrabble, and a collection of poker tournaments played strictly for medals and fun.
Last year, Paco de la Banda of Spain won the Pentamind Championship, and Andres Kuusk won the first gold medal ever to be awarded to Estonia.
Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com
Is there money?
All competitions are for titles only, and no cash prizes are distributed.
The MSO has been further rescued by Etan Ilfield – a serial entrepreneur and mind sports expert himself.
It is down to his largess that the games are continuing and he has been the official Chief Organiser since June 2010.
He provided the 2010 venue at the last minute – after the tournament had provisionally been canceled (to the best of my understanding). Hence the very low turnout.
I competed in the very first MSO, and have supported it most years since (work and holiday situations allowing), and formed part of the committee that helped maintain interest in the tournament after the 2009 tournament.
I have been to the MSO for many years and its not correct that last years’ turnout was “disappointing”. In fact the turnout was a big revival compared with recent years. The event seems to have suffered, before my time, due the aforementioned falling out between the organisers and the subsequent collapse in sponsorship.
As Ken Wilshire says, Etan Ilfeld should be commended, for helping to achieve this last year but there are also volunteers in the background without whom the event wouldn’t function.
Long live the MSO! Its a great event…and practically unique.