“Civilization has different origins. Wisdom has no boundaries”… the World Mind Sports Games Begin Soon

If you are looking forward to the WMG here is the schedule for the first day Friday October 3rd.  I am sure this is posted in local time.  Beijing is exactly 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard time.

For a time check use this link:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=33

The opening ceremonies which I believe are fairly elaborate will start at  8AM EST on Friday.

Sessions for the team events are

Chinese Time	Local Time (EST)
11 AM	11 PM EST previous day
2:20 PM	2:20 AM
5:10 PM	5:20 AM

The schedule for Friday October 10th the final day of the round robin is different because there are four matches.  The teams will finish on Friday October 10 at about 7:30 PM local time which makes it 7:30 AM EST.

I shall be in Toronto for the entire round robin so watch here for news, analysis and commentary.  We will be posting results with a North American focus on our site and we also will have links to the key site.  Here are two key links to bookmark.  The results page and the bulletin

http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Beijing.08/Results.htm

http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Beijing.08/Bulletins.htm

We will be posting ongoing contest results from all who entered as events unfold.  We are also going to try to bring you feeds from blogs which are reporting on the events and more.

Some interesting facts:

HAVANA, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) — Cuban chess Great Master (GM) Leinier Dominguez is getting ready for the World Games of the Mind from Oct. 3 to 18 in China and at the Olympics of Dresden, Germany from Nov. 12 to 25. In China, Dominguez, who is 25 of the world and has a Elo (method to calculate chess players skills level) of 2,708 points, will face Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, Chinese Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua and Wang Yue; and Russian former world champion Anatoly Karpov. At internet matches, Dominguez has defeated current number two of the Chess International Federation (FIDE), Russian Alexander Morozevich, who has an Elo of 2,788. “I have always chosen well the tournaments; I think it is right to play against the strongest, don’t sacrifice the quality,” Dominguez said as quoted on Friday by official daily “Granma”

 

The American Go Association is sending 22 participants (the maximum allowed), and has qualified 8 players (5 men, 3 women) for individual competitions open to professionals as well as amateurs, and 2 for individual competition limited to amateurs. Men’s and women’s teams of 5 and 3 players (plus one alternate each) will compete in the team events, and there will be one mixed pair. Go is dominated by Asian nations which have active professional organizations (Japan, China and Korea), and a long history of the game in their culture. Best U.S. hopes lie with Jie Li in the amateur individual and Michael Redmond, professional 9-dan, who was recognized as a prodigy at age 10, moved to Japan to train, and eventually reached the top rank. He is the strongest Western go player in the world

The games will be broadcast on CCTV, the main Chinese news channel.

Drugs tests at World Mind Sports Games are a riddle Wed Jun 4, 2008 7:29am EDT ATHENS (Reuters) – Ever thought that chess or bridge players could use performance-enhancing drugs to win? Drugs tests will be in place at the first-ever World Mind Sports Games in Beijing in October, the International Mind Sports Association said on Wednesday. “Bridge and chess are recognized by the International Olympic Committee and we have the obligation and duty to sign the World Anti-Doping Agency code,” IMSA president Jose Damiani said. “So we will proceed in Beijing with anti-doping tests.”

The opening ceremony will be held on Friday October 3 in the Beijing Olympic Sports Center Indoor Stadium.