SportAccord World Mind Games
The 2011 SportAccord World Mind Games were held in Beijing from 9-16 December.
SportAccord is an umbrella organisation for all sports which aims to promote the visibility of less high-profile sports by organising multi-sports games on a worldwide stage.
The World 'Mind Games' in Beijing were Chess, Draughts, Go, Xiangqi and Bridge.
There were three separate chess competitions at rapid, blitz and blindfold chess, with separate men's and women's events. A total of 16 players took part in both the men's and women's events and the standard was very strong indeed.
Male competitors:
| Name | Nat | Elo | |
| 1 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2775 |
| 2 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2763 |
| 3 | Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 2757 |
| 4 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2752 |
| 5 | Wang, Hao | CHN | 2736 |
| 6 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2733 |
| 7 | Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2732 |
| 8 | Vallejo Pons, Francisco | ESP | 2724 |
| 9 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2723 |
| 10 | Le, Quang Liem | VIE | 2714 |
| 11 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2714 |
| 12 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2712 |
| 13 | Almasi, Zoltan | HUN | 2707 |
| 14 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2705 |
| 15 | Wang, Yue | CHN | 2697 |
| 16 | Peter Heine Nielsen | DEN | 2693 |
Female competitors:
| Name | Nat | Elo | |
| 1 | Hou, Yifan | CHN |
2578 |
| 2 | Muzychuk, Anna | SLO | 2562 |
| 3 | Lahno, Kateryna | UKR | 2549 |
| 4 | Ju, Wenjun | CHN | 2543 |
| 5 | Stefanova, Antoaneta | BUL | 2531 |
| 6 | Dzagnidze, Nana | GEO | 2516 |
| 7 | Harika, Dronavalli | IND | 2513 |
| 8 | Zatonskih, Anna | USA | 2506 |
| 9 | Cmilyte, Viktorija | LTU | 2503 |
| 10 | Danielian, Elina | ARM | 2497 |
| 11 | Cramling, Pia | SWE | 2495 |
| 12 | Socko, Monika | POL | 2479 |
| 13 | Dembo, Yelena | GRE | 2468 |
| 14 | Skripchenko, Almira | FRA | 2468 |
| 15 | Paehtz, Elisabeth | GER | 2457 |
| 16 | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | RUS | 2439 |
The men's medals awarded were:
| Rapid | Blitz | Blindfold | |
| Gold | Wang Hao (CHN) | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) | Zoltan Almasi (HUN) |
| Silver | Vugar Gashimov (AZE) | Alexander Grischuk (RUS) | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) |
| Bronze | Gata Kamsky (USA) | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) | Vugar Gashimov (AZE) |
The women's medals awarded were:
| Rapid | Blitz | Blindfold | |
| Gold | Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) |
Hou Yifan (CHN) |
Hou Yifan (CHN) |
| Silver | Kateryna Lahno UKR) |
Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL) |
Viktorija Cmilyte (LTU) |
| Bronze | Nana Dzagnidze GEO) |
Anna Muzychuk (SLO) |
Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) |
Wang Hao won the Rapid Gold Medal
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won Blitz Gold and Blindfold Silver
Zoltan Almasi won Blindfold Gold and Anna Muzychuk took a Blitz Bronze
Alexandra Kosteniuk won the Rapid Gold
Hou Yifan won Blitz and Blindfold Gold medals
All the games and lots more photos of all the chess events at the 2011 World Mind Games can be found here, and about the mind games in their entirety here.
