World Mind Sports Games

First World Mind Sports Games to be held in Beijing in October
The Associated Press
Published: June 4, 2008

ATHENS, Greece: The Olympics and Paralympics won’t be the only global multi-sports events in Beijing this year.

The Chinese capital will host the first World Mind Sports Games from Oct. 3-18, featuring five events and — yes — doping controls.

About 3,000 competitors from more than 100 countries will be competing for 35 gold medals in chess, bridge, draughts (checkers), Go and Xiang Qi (Chinese chess), the International Mind Sports Association annnounced Wednesday at a sports conference in Athens.

“We clearly consider ourselves a sport,” IMSA president Jose Damiani said. “Our events are no different from physical sports. They are all sports.”

Damiani said there are 1 billion people around the world who play the games, which are represented by 500 national sports federations.

The bridge and chess federations are already recognized by the International Olympic Committee, but that doesn’t entitle them to become Olympic sports.

Still, the mind sports group hopes the IOC will eventually accept them into the Olympic program.

“We hope that this event in Beijing will be so important and so big that the IOC will understand that they need us,” said Georgios Makropoulos, vice president of the global chess federation.

Meantime, competitors will have to undergo doping checks just like Olympic athletes.

The bridge and chess federations have signed up to the World Anti-Doping Code and do their own testing, with no positive results so far.

Damiani said there definitely will be doping controls for chess and bridge in Beijing, and probably for the other events, too.

“We are following the (WADA) instructions, but we don’t see where there could be drugs to make you play better,” Makropoulos said.

Source: International Herald Tribune