SportAccord News - December 18, 2013

World Mind Games Beijing 2013

Day 7

 

 

                 Bridge | Chess | Draughts | GoXiangqi (Chinese chess)

December 18th marks the close of the 3rd Edition of the Beijing 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games.

 

Nine sets of Medals were awarded this evening in all participating Mind Sports: Bridge, Chess, Go, Draughts and Xiangqi.

 

In Bridge, the Open Individual and Women's Individual tournaments announced their winners. Unfortunately, Monaco's Fulvio Fantoni was not able to set a record by winning his third consecutive gold medal and the medal was awarded to Cezary Balicki from Poland.

 

The Basque System Chess competition finished with Karyakin on top, followed by Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan and Ponomariov from Ukraine.

 

The Super-Blitz Draughts Finals featured a tough match between Shvartsman and Valneris for the men's and Tkachenko vs. Tansykkuzhina in the women's.

 

As for Go, we witnessed an exciting Pairs Final between Chinese Taipei and China. While Korea faced off with Japan for the bronze.

 

After 7 days of competition, the Xiangqi tournament came to an end. Wang Tianyi won the gold, Sun Yongzheng the silver and Lei Kam Fun came away with the bronze.

 

 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS


 

  www.worldmindgames.net

           


SportAccord World Mind Games 2013 comes to a close and China tops the medals table

(Photo: SportAccord World Mind Games 2013 Family Photo) 

 

With 9 gold medals, the Chinese team takes 1st place in the 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games medal table. The Russian players took 6 gold and the Monaco team won 2. See you next year for the 4th Edition of the SportAccord World Mind Games!

 

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Bridge: Talented Individuals

 

(Photo: Individual Open - C. Balicki)

 

The final day of the 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games saw exciting finishes in both of the Individual Championships.


In the Men's Championship Poland's Cezary Balicki took the Gold medal with 56.23% ahead of Monaco's Tor Helness, 55.91% and China's Haojun Shi, 54.43%.


The Women's Championship was captured by the USA's Cheri Bjerkan with 55.07% with China taking the remaining places on the Podium, Wenfei Wang's 54.64% putting her just ahead of Zhang Yu.

 

 

(Photo: Bridge Awards Ceremony) 

For Individual Open Results click here

For Individual Women Results click here

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Chess: China makes a statement

 (Photo: X. Zhao)

 

Although the competition remained close all throughout, the Chinese women dominated the event and claimed all three medals. The young prodigy Ju Wenjun grabbed bronze, while Hou Yifan reminded everyone yet again how good she is in chess. Rapid, Blitz or Basque, she is ready to show the world what she is capable of. Relatively quiet throughout the other events, Zhao Xue finished with fashion as she stepped up on the podium to receive the gold.

 

In the men’s, Karyakin conquered but not without Mamedyarov and Ponomariov making their statement. As the flags rose and the Russian national anthem was sung, the players smiled and watched their flags rise above with pride in their hearts.

 

The Basque system was a definite crowd pleaser and we hope to see it again in the 4th Edition of the SportAccord World Mind Games.

 

(Photo: Chess Awards Ceremony) 

For Men's Basque System Results click here

For Women's Basque System Results click here

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Draughts: Super-Blitz Champions

 

(Photo: D. Tkachenko, SportAccord World Mind Games Ambassador)


In the Super-Blitz women’s event, Darya Tkachenko, SportAccord World Mind Games Ambassador from Ukraine beat Tamara Tansykkuzhina from Russia. In this fight, it was Tkachenko who came out the clear winner after two fiercely fought battles. The bronze was awarded to Matrena Nogovitcyna from Russia who beat 10-time world champion Zoja Golubeva from Latvia.

 

Alexander Shvartsman from Russia has won the Super-Blitz Draughts event of the Beijing 2013 SportAccord World Mind Games. He beat the former world champion, Guntis Valneris from Latvia.

 

After his victory, Shvartsman showed himself content with his performance shared, “… my strength lies in adapting to my opponent and creating moves and strategies that may disturb him. This means that I will not always choose the analytically best move and am playing more against my opponent then against the game. When asked about the event organization, the gold medal winner said, “… it's always a pleasure coming to China and with the promotional and educational efforts for the development of draughts in China, I am certain that we will soon have a Chinese world champion."

 

In the match for the third place, Jean Marc Ndjofang from Cameroon beat Alexander Baliakin from the Netherlands. Ndjofang stated, “This was the third time that I competed in the SportAccord World Mind Games, but it is the first time that I win a medal here, so this is very important for me". It was the second medal for Africa, following the victory of Joel N’Cho Atse from Ivory Coast.

 

 

(Photo: Draughts Awards Ceremony) 

For Men's Super-Blitz Results click here

For Women's Super-Blitz Results click here

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Go: More Medals for China, Chinese Taipei, and Korea

 

 (Photo: Go Pairs Chinese Taipei - J. Missingham and Y.J. Wang)

 

After yesterday's intense action, the contests for the pair go medals ended comparatively quietly. The Chinese pair (Wang Chenxing and Zhou Ruiyang) added the gold medals to the silver medals they had already won in the women's individual and men's team events. They felt they had the upper hand throughout their game and attributed their final victory to cooperation.

 

The silver medals won by Joanne Missingham and Wang Yuan-Jyun represented a new high point for Chinese Taipei in SportAccord World Mind Games competition.

 

The bronze medal was won by Park Jieun and Kim Jiseok, the pair from Korea. Their Japanese opponents were behind throughout the middle game and endgame. The Japanese pair never gave up and they brought the game to a close finish, but victory was not quite within their reach.

 

The playoff for fifth place was won by the narrowest possible margin. Russia's Dina Burdakova and Slovakia's Pavol Lisy showed down. Like the Chinese pair they attributed their victory to cooperation. Each partner tried to play moves that the other would understand.

 

 

(Photo: Go Awards Ceremony) 

For Go Pairs Results click here

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Xiangqi: Celebrates the close of a successful 7 day tournament

 

 (Photo: T. Wang)

 

The World Xiangqi Federation (WXF) held the final rounds of the Xiangqi tournament at the SportAccord World Mind Games this morning. As predicted, Wang Tianyi from China defeated Lei Kam Fun from Macau and defends his title with 11 points. Another Chinese player, Sun Yongzheng took 2nd place after defeating Hong Kong Wong and also earned 11 points. However, he lost to his opponent which made him finish in second position. Lei Kam Fam from Macau won against Vietnam's Uong and takes home the bronze.

 

In the Women's Individual, China's Tang Dan tied with Diana Chang from Australia and won the championship by defeating the other three opponents. Nguyen Hoang Yen from Vietnam came in 2nd place and Jia Dan from the U.S.A came in third.

 

  

(Photo: Xiangqi Awards Ceremony) 

For Men's Individual Results click here

For Women's Individual Results click here

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