SportAccord World Mind Games 2013 in Beijing from Dec 10

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013

Hi everyone,

Fide has announced the players selected for the SportAccord World Mind Games 2013 to be played in Beijing, China from December 10. Players are invited to send in their contract. The selection of the players for this annual event has been based on the average of the player’s three ratings for classical, blitz and rapid. SportAccord World Mind Games are a multi-sport event centered on the gymnasium of the mind and highlighting the great value of the mind sports. The first and second editions in 2011 and 2012 included five mind sports of great popularity and influence worldwide - Bridge, Chess, Draughts, Go and Xiangqi (Chinese Chess). 

Before we give you the list of participants for this year, here's a special chess video from the SportAccord World Mind Games 2012! (Click on the screen grab below) for a special commented video. This video features 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk explaining her win over 13th Women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan in Beijing last year at the SportAccord Mind Games. 

The special Houdini-powered chess training programme used in this commented video is Chess King™. Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk trains with Chess King
™ regularly. This chess training programme includes the super-strong analysis engine Houdini, but also GigaKing - a database of all chess games played from "the beginning of time". Know all about Chess King at the official website.

For all of GM Kosteniuk's posts and victories at the SportAccord Mind Games, click this link of a list of write-ups on www.chessqueen.com. For all posts about the SportAccord World Mind Games on Chess Blog, click here. There are lots of photos and videos in there including an interview with GM Kosteniuk as the official ambassador of the SportAccord World Mind Games 2011 and GM Kosteniuk's gold medal wins. 

Back to the list of participants announced by Fide for the Mind Games Chess Section 2013.

1. The list for men is as follows :

No more than two players from each country with exceptions made only for World Champions 2012 and 2013 for Blitz and Rapid.

2. The women’s list is as follows :

3. The events will be the following :

· Rapid Events
· 16 male players – 16 female players (separate event for male/female)
· two days with seven rounds Swiss events;
· time control 20 mins each side plus 10 secs increment

· Blitz Events
· 16 male players – 16 female players (separate event for male/female)
· Three days with double round robin events (10 games per day);
· time control 3 mins each side plus 2 secs increment

· Basque Events
· 16 male players – 16 female players (separate event for male/female)
· two days with five rounds Swiss events;
· each player plays two games simultaneously per round with white and black pieces
· time control 20 mins each side plus 10 secs increment per game

4. Schedule:
10th December 2013 Arrival of players and officials
12th December 2013 Rapid event (rounds 1-4)
13th December 2013 Rapid event (rounds 5-7)
14th December 2013 Blitz event (rounds 1-10)
15th December 2013 Blitz event (rounds 11-20)
16th December 2013 Blitz event (rounds 21-30)
17th December 2013 Basque event (rounds 1-3 Women), (rounds 1-3 Men)
18th December 2013 Basque event (rounds 4-5 Women), (rounds 4-5 Men)
19th December 2013 Departure

5. Prizes

For each event the following prizes will be awarded.
Place Men Place Women
1 $18.000 1 $10.000
2 $15.000 2 $9.000
3 $12.000 3 $8.000
4 $9.000 4 $7.000
5 $7.000 5 $6.000
6 $6.000 6 $5.000
7 $5.000 7 $4.000
8 $4.000 8 $3.000
9 $3.000 9 $2.000
10 $2.000 10 $1.000
11 $1.000 11 $500
12 $1.000 12 $500
13 $1.000 13 $500
14 $1.000 14 $500
15 $1.000 15 $500
16 $1.000 16 $500
Total $87.000 Total $58.000

Tie break will be used only for final medal positions but money prizes will be split equally.

Air fares will be organised by BODA (Beijing Olympic Development Agency) and accommodation will also be covered on a full board basis by the organisers.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel