The first World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) were held in Beijing, China from October 3 to 18, 2008, about two months after the Olympic Games.[1] [2] [3] They were sponsored and organised by the International Mind Sports Association with the General Administration of Sport of China and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sport.[4] [5]
Five mind sports participated in the first Games: bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go (weiqi), and xiangqi (Chinese chess).[6] [7] Thirty-five gold medals were contested by 2,763 competitors from 143 countries.[8]
According to the World Bridge Federation, it incorporated the World Team Olympiad (1960 - 2004) and some established youth events in the Games "as the stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games (after the 'regular' Olympics and the Paralympics)".[9]
See main article: Bridge at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games.
The World Bridge Federation organized eleven events in Beijing that constituted the "World Bridge Games" including nine WMSG medal events. Six were among the established world bridge championships contested in even-number years.[10] The other three were for "youth" under age 28, a one-time compromise.[9] [11] More than 1400 players participated, about half of all players in the Games. Entries from European Bridge League countries[12] won 22 of the 27 medals, led by Norway with six medals including two gold.
| + WMSG medalists in bridge | |||
| Open Teams | |||
| Women Teams | United States | ||
| Open Individual |  Tor Helness | Geir Helgemo | Andrey Gromov |
| Women Individual |  Catarina Midskog |  Anne-Fréderique Lévy | |
| Youth Individual | Salih Murat Anter | Radu Nistor | Lars Arthur Johansen |
| Youth Pairs | Mehmet Remzi Şakirler / Melih Osman Şen | Lotan Fisher / Ron Schwartz | Joanna Krawczyk / Piotr Tuczyński |
| under-28 Teams |  Poland | ||
| under-26 Teams | Poland | ||
| under-21 Teams | |||
Two other events were continued by the WBF from its quadrennial "Olympiad" program, as part of its new "World Bridge Games" but separate from the WMSG (non-medal events sharing the facilities). Japan won the third Senior International Cup, for national teams of seniors (age 58+). 'Yeh Bros' from Chinese Taipei won the second Transnational Mixed Teams, for teams of any nationality comprising mixed pairs, one man and one woman.[13]
See main article: Chess at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games.
The World Chess Federation organized ten events in Beijing, all of them in rapid or blitz chess.
| Men's Individual Blitz |  Martyn Kravtsiv | Yuriy Drozdovsky | Hristos Banikas | |
| Women's Individual Blitz |  Alexandra Kosteniuk | Antoaneta Stefanova |  Hou Yifan | |
| Men's Individual Rapid | Bu Xiangzhi | Anton Korobov | Zhang Zhong | |
| Women's Individual Rapid | Antoaneta Stefanova | Zhao Xue | Huang Qian | |
| Mixed Pairs Blitz |  Carlos Matamoros Franco / Martha Fierro |  Krishnan Sasikiran / Tania Sachdev | Valeriy Aveskulov / Tatjana Vasilevich | |
| Mixed Pairs Rapid | Ni Hua / Hou Yifan |  Đào Thiên Hải / Lê Kiều Thiên Kim | Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami / Atousa Pourkashiyan | |
| Men's Teams Blitz |  Hungary | China | Ukraine | |
| Women's Teams Blitz | Russia | | Vietnam | |
| Men's Teams Rapid | | Ukraine | ||
| Women's Teams Rapid | | Ukraine | Russia |
See main article: Draughts at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games.
Under the auspices of the World Draughts Federation 288 players participated in five medal events in Beijing. There was a strong regional showing as twelve of the fifteen medals were won by players from Russia, Latvia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
| International Draughts 100sq (Men) | Alexander Georgiev | Alexander Getmanski | Guntis Valneris | |
| International Draughts 100sq (Women) | Zoja Golubeva | Tanja Chub | Tamara Tansykkuzhina | |
| Russian Draughts 64sq (Women) | Viktoriya Motrichko | Elena Miskova | Julia Romanskaia | |
| Brazilian Draughts 64sq (Men) | Oleg Dashkov | Ion Dosca | Sergey Belosheev | |
| Checkers (Mixed) | Alex Moiseyev | Ron King | Raivis Paegle |
See main article: Go at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games.
Under the auspices of the International Go Federation 560 players participated in six medal events in Beijing. South Korea won half of the 18 medals and all were swept by competitors from Eastern Asia.
| Men's Individual |  Kang Dongyun 7p[14] | Park Jungsang 9p | Li Zhe 6p | |
| Women's Individual | Song Ronghui 1p | Lee Minjin 5p | Pak Chi-eun 9p | |
| Open |  Jo Tae-Won 7d [15] | Ham Youngwoo 7d | Lee Yong Hee 6d | |
| Men's Team | South Korea | |  | |
| Women's Team | | South Korea | | |
| Pair Go | Huang Yizhong 7p ／ Fan Weijing 2p | Chou Chun-Hsun 9p ／ Hsieh Yi-Min 4p | On So Jin 4p ／ Lee Ha Jin 3p |
Xiangqi, or "Chinese chess", was the fifth sport to participate in Beijing, where 125 players participated in five events. Although the World Xiangqi Federation was not a member of IMSA at the time, the sport was included in the Beijing games as a traditional Chinese sport with a large number of players, especially in China. The host country won all five gold medals.
| Rapid (Men) | Wang Yang | Jiang Chuan |  Zhao Ruquan | |
| Individual (Women) | Wang linna | Zhao Guanfang | Ngô Lan Hương | |
| Individual (Men) | Xu Yinchuan | Hong Zhi |  Look Kongdwa | |
| Team (Women) | |  Australia | Vietnam | |
| Team (Men) | | Vietnam | Hong Kong |
Teams from the host country China won one-quarter of the 105 medals, including one-third of the gold.