Men forces split as USA Women prevailed

	WBF President Gianarrigo Rona with the Men's Individual medallists, Jie Li (silver), Chris Willenken (gold) and Brad Moss (bronze)

THE NETHERLANDS, current world champions, had little difficulty in defeating the United States, 178-76, and winning the gold medal in the Men's series of the teams competition of the 2011 SportAccord World Mind Games. The bronze medal went to Norway who beat China in the playoff for third place, 129-100. The gold medalists are Bauke Muller & Simon de Wijs, Sjoert Brink & Bas Drijver, Louk Verhees & Ricco Prooijen. However, in the pairs the situation was different. Here the battle for the gold medal was between CHINA's Xu Hou & Miao Shi who started well and managed to stay on lead against fast-approaching Norwegians Thomas Charlsen & Thor Erik Hoftaniska. The bronze went to USA's Fred Gitelman and Brad Moss. Finally, in the individual, Chris Willenken of USA finished ahead of China's Jie Li in the race for the gold, while the bronze went to Brad Moss, also of USA.

At the same time, the UNITED STATES women beat Great Britain 166-77 and captured the women's teams title, while the third place went to host China who prevailed over France in the playoff, 91-67. The winners are: Janice Seamon-Molson & Tobi Sokolow, Lyn Deas & Beth Palmer, Kerri Sanborn & Irina Levitina. In the Pairs, the race was very close and in doubt until the last round, but finally Lynn Deas and Beth Palmer of USA, reigning world women's pairs champions, won the gold medal. The silver went to China's Xuefeng Feng and Yanhui Sun, while the bronze was taken by France's Benedicte Cronier and Sylvie Willard. American women dominated the Individual competition too. Janice Seamon-Molson and her regular partner Tobi Sokolow, both of USA, took the gold and bronze medals re­spec­tive­ly, while Great Britain's Nicola Smith won the silver.

Hein Verbruggen

The inaugural SportAccord World Mind Games started with a spectacular opening ceremony on Friday 9 December, which impressed those present as well as those who watched it on television. During their entire duration, the Games impressed with the quality of the organization and the warmth of the local hospitality. Athletes and officials alike were most satisfied with the out­come, and SportAccord President Hein Verbruggen met the general feeling when he announced, at the closing ceremony, that the SportAccord World Mind Games are to become an annual event, with Beijing its permanent seat. The inaugural SportAccord World Mind Games will go on record for the enormous publicity generated for all sports involved through television and internet. It is expected that this will help more than a little the promotion efforts of the various sport organizations affected.

Featuring the world's top athletes in the respective fields, the inaugural SportAccord World Mind Games took place in the Beijing International Convention Center, in Beijing, China, 9-16 December 2011.

Five mind sports participated in the SportAccord World Mind Games: Bridge, Chess, Draughts, Go and Xiang Qi (Chinese chess).

Some 150 top athletes com­peted in the event which was presented by IMSA and was accompanied by a cultural program. Winners, medallists and players received attractive prize money according to their results.

IMSA is the International Mind Sports Association. SportAccord is the umbrella organisation for all (Olympic and non-Olympic) inter­national sports federations as well as organisers of multi-sports games and sport-related international associations.

This microsite contains information exclusively on the bridge section of the 2011 SportAccord World Mind Games.