SportAccord News - December 15, 2013

World Mind Games Beijing 2013

Day 4

 

 

                 Bridge | Chess | Draughts | GoXiangqi (Chinese chess)

The Beijing 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games are halfway through. The main event today focused on the Draughts Blitz Finals for Men’s and Women’s categories. Joel N’Cho Atse (Ivory Coast) challenged Andrei Tolchykau (Belarus), while Volha Fedarovich (Belarus) was triumphant against Viktoriia Motrichko (Ukraine).


After some excellent playing in the Team finals yesterday evening in Bridge, we saw the start of the Bridge Pairs’ Open. It is considered a unique system of playing where scores per hand become even more important than in the previous format. 

 

The Chess Blitz event continued with its’ next 10 rounds, as scores remain very close, it was anyone’s for the taking!

 

Go included the Men's Team and Women's Individual's events, while Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) held the 4th round of Men's Individuals Round Robin.


The Beijing 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games feature 150 of the world's best players in 5 mind sports.

 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS


 

  www.worldmindgames.net

           


SportAccord World Mind Games 2013 Online Tournament

(Photo: Winner of the Nissan Tiida, Mr. Qu Defa) 

Following the great success of the first two editions of the Online Tournament (2011-12), SportAccord with the support of its members – the World Bridge Federation (WBF), the World Draughts Federation (FMJD), and the International Go Federation (IGF), as well as the support of the most important mind games online platforms; BridgeBase, KNDB and Pandanet, decided to repeat the experience in 2013. This year an additional platform (Tencent QQ Games.com) focusing on the Chinese market joined the initiative. Over 700’000 participants from 85+ countries competed in the virtual competitions. Winners of the international online tournament were offered a trip to Beijing and the opportunity to play against the world’s best.

 

 

Online Tournament: Tencent QQ Games
Focused on the Chinese market, the Beijing Olympic Development Association (BODA) along with Tencent QQ Games Center ran the online qualifying competition from 1 November to 5 December 2013 for “local” Mind Sports enthusiasts. Today, the finals were held on-site at the Beijing International Convention Center (BICC) where approximately 30 finalists battled it out for the first prize. Renault-Nissan Alliance, Official Partner of the Beijing 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games Online Tournament, offered a Nissan Tiida to the 1st place Xiangqi winner (pictured above), as well as 4 sets of Formula One VIP backstage tickets to the other sports: Bridge, Chess, Draughts and Go winners.

 

 

Online Tournament: China vs. International
Winners of the international online tournament played against the winners of the Chinese Tencent Online Tournament. In the Bridge competition, the young and very talented Liang Fan from Los Angeles competed against the 4 winners of the Chinese tournament Mr. Zhangdengzhou, Mr. Kangli Ping, Mr. Yan Hong Shen and Mr. Chen Yuan Vong. Liang Fan managed to come out on top and took home a brand new Samsung Galaxy Tablet.


In the Go competition, we saw Mr. Benjamin Teuber (Germany) challenge the Chinese online winner Mr. Shi Yue (China). Although Mr. Teuber fought hard and stayed in the game for a long time, Mr. Shi Yue proved to be too strong and took home the win for China. Concluding the match-up between the Chinese and International Online Tournament winners was Draughts. Mr. Thomy Mbongo (France) proved that he is truly one of the best online players as he beat Mrs. Xinweina with a solid performance.

 

 

  (Photo: Awards Ceremony - Online Tournament China Tencent QQ.com)

 

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Bridge: The Hares and the Tortoises

 

In Bridge, as in other sports, the race does not always go to the swiftest, as those making a fast start are frequently overhauled. However, after day one of the Men's and Women's Pairs at the 2013 Sport Accord World Mind Games the leaders in both competitions enjoy a significant advantage and will be hard to overtake.

 


In the Men's Pairs former World Pairs Champions Fulvio Fantoni & Claudio Nunes are averaging 61.59% well clear of Cezary Balicki & Adam Zmudzinski and Krzysztof Buras & Andrzej Narkiewicz who are tied on 55.68%.

 


In the Women's Pairs Championship Cynthia Balderson & Carole Miner's 59.55% gives them a handy lead over Feng Xuefeng & Zhang Yu. Their total of 56.95% leaves them ahead of Dana & Noga Tal who are averaging 53.18%. 


For Pairs Open Results click here

For Pairs Women Results click here

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Chess: Hou Yifan and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov take pole position

 (Photo: Y. Hou)


Now that 20 rounds have been played, the Blitz tournaments remain a tight clash of titans.

 

In the Women's Blitz, current classic world champion, Hou Yifan continues strong and has managed to move 2 points clear of the pack. With her intelligent and cunning play she went on a 7-win run this afternoon. Valentina Gunina trails in second but could not keep up. The last ten rounds promise to be exciting, but it will take big efforts to beat the Chinese leader.

 

Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan came out of the blocks a bit slow but had a blistering finish this afternoon. Levon Aronian, yesterday's leader lost his last 2 games and has now moved into 3rd position. The current world blitz champion, Le Quang from Vietnam sits between the two. With a half point between them, this competition is still up for grabs.

 

For a summary of Men's Blitz Results click here

For a summary of Women's Blitz Results click here

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Draughts: A day to be remembered

 

(Photo: A. Chizhov vs. J. N'Cho Atse)

As of today, Joel N'Cho Atse from Ivory Coast pens his name into Draughts Blitz history as the first African player ever to win a gold medal in a global draughts championship.


After the legendary Baby Sy from Senegal, the reign of Macodou N'Diaye from Senegal and the vice world championship of Jean Marc Ndjofang from Cameroon this summer, N'Cho Joel Atse from Ivory Coast adds a new chapter to African draughts history and reaffirms the meteoric rise of the continent in the draughts sport.

 

After the loss of Atse against his direct competitor and tenfold World Champion Alexey Chizhov, the tournament seemed decided. Perhaps some spoke to soon, as Atse recovered remarkably well, continued with new victories and overtook Chizhov. What a sight to see, Atse on the podium with Alexei Chizhov (10-time world champion) and Aleksandr Georgiev (7-time world champion) on either side.

 

(Photo: Awards Ceremony - Draughts)

 

For a list of Men's Blitz Results click here

For a list of Women's Blitz Results click here

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Go: Bronze medals for Park Jieun and (probably) Chinese Taipei

 

 (Photo: C. Wang)

 

In the fourth round of the men's team competition, the teams from China (Fan Tingyu, Zhou Ruiyang, Wang Xi) and Korea (Park Jeonghwan, Kim Jiseok, Cho Hanseung) disposed of the teams from Europe (Fan Hui, Ilya Shikshin, Pavol Lisy) and North America (Huiren Yang, Daniel Daehyuk Ko, Yongfei Ge) without dropping a game, meanwhile the match between Chinese Taipei (Fujita Akihiko, Wang Yuan-jyun, Lin Chun-yen) and Japan (Chou Chun-hsun, Hirata Tomoya, Tsuruta Kazushi) was a show-stopper.


Japan got off to a good start on board one: Fujita Akihiko dominated Chinese Taipei's veteran Chou Chun-hsun nearly throughout the game. When Chou resigned it looked as if Japan was also in good shape on boards two and three, but Wang Yuan-jyun launched a desparate counter-attack on board two that succeeded against all odds, and then Lin Chun-yen magically turned a middle-game deficit into an end-game lead and won on board three. Match to Chinese Taipei, two games to one. Tomorrow the Chinese and Korean teams will play each other for the gold and silver medals, and if Chinese Taipei can beat the European team, they will have a bronze medal.


The medals are also beginning to fall into place in the women's individual competition. Chinese players will win the gold and silver medals. Yu Zhiying will play Wang Chenxing again tomorrow to decide who gets which. Park Jieun, who won in the morning but lost to Ms Wang in the afternoon, has the bronze medal. Chang Cheng-ping, who lost in the morning, won the afternoon playoff for fourth place.

 

For a list of Men's Teams Results click here

For a list of Women's Individual Result click here 

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Xiangqi: Men's Day at the Xiangqi Competition

 

 (Photo: H.K. Wong vs. T. Wang)

 

Today marked the Men`s individual 4th Round of the Xiangqi competition. The two players that successfully challenged the Chinese Champions yesterday, Chong Heung Ming (Phillipines) and Lei Kam Fun (Macau), faced each other. Chong did not manage to take advantage despite having chosen red and was forced to a tie.



After yesterday`s disappointing loss, Yongzheng recovered and solidly closed out the game, taking away a win over Pu Fangyao (Germany).
The World Champion Wang Tianyi also met expectations today after his surprising tie yesterday, beating Wong Hok Him (Hong Kong).

 

For the Men's Individual Results click here 

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