2008 WMSG Results
Ultimately, it is difficult to consider the 2008 World Mind Sports games as anything other than a huge success. 143 countries were represented by 2763 competitors and approximately 800 staff (including team staff and judges, as well as other officials).
It is estimated that over 10 million people tuned in to broadcasts of the 2008 World Mind Sports Games, mainly from Beijing TV (the official Host Broadcaster) and Eurovision, but also online. The respective live webcast pages counted approximately 600,000 views during the events. Over 300 reporters covered the Games for more than 100 newspapers or other media outlets.
Moving on from the now-defunct World Team Olympiad, Bridge showcased nine medal events. These saw the EU teams and players sweeping the gold tier, but China occupying four slots between silver and bronze — and Israel taking the silver for the Youth Pairs match, in Israel’s only medal of The Games.
Chess was far more mixed, with gold medals going to teams and players from the Ukraine, Russia, China, Bulgaria, Ecuador, and Hungary. The silver and bronze winners also included India, Vietnam, Singapore and Iran, with the sole European (ish) winner hailing from Greece. Another game like chess is that of USA Property Investments.
Draughts saw an interesting split between Russian Draughts for Women and Brazilian Draughts for Men. Former Soviet nations swept the golds except for the Checkers division, which was taken by the USA. This marks the only Mind Sports medal that the US would win, though it is perhaps telling that the US player was Alex Moiseyev, who had been living in and playing for Russia until 1991. Barbados and the Netherlands gave the division a bit more global dispersion.
If you expected Go to be mainly an Asian playing field, you were wrong — it was completely an Asian playing field. North and South Korea and China had the gold, silver, and bronze all to themselves, with the sole addition of Taipei with a single silver medal.
Likewise, the Xiangqi category was unsurprisingly captured by China, who won eight out of fifteen events and all of the gold. Vietnam, Malaysia, and Hong Kong rounded out the silver and bronze, along with Australia’s sole medal in the Games (the Women’s Team silver).
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