World Mind Games Under Way in Beijing

Today the chess section of the World Mind Games started in Beijing, China and many top players are playing. In the men's event, Peter Leko is leading the field with 3.5/4 while Valentina Gunina has a perfect score after 4 rounds in the women's section.

The sixth edition of the World Mind Games, the third organized by SportAccord, takes place 12-20 December, 2013 in Beijing, China. This multi-sport event includes five mind sports: bridge, chess, draughts, go and xiangqi (Chinese chess).

Except for the participants of the London Chess Classic and Magnus Carlsen, almost all top players can be found in Beijing: Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominuez, Anish Giri, Alexander Grischuk, Vassily Ivanchuk, Gata Kamsky, Sergey Karjakin, Peter Leko, Le Quang Liem, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ruslan Ponomariov, Teimour Radjabov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wang Yue and Wang Hao.

The women's section has Viktorija Cmilyte, Pia Cramling, Nana Dzagnidze, Valentina Gunina, Ju Wenjun, Hou Yifan, Humpy Koneru, Tatiana Kosintseva, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Kateryna Lagno, Anna Muzychuk, Elisabeth Paehtz, Marie Sebag, Antoaneta Stefanova, Anna Ushenina and Zhao Xue.

These players will be playing three different disciplines: rapid, blitz and "Basque system". For the rapid each player will have 20 minutes plus 10 seconds per move and for the blitz each player will have 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move.

The "Basque system" is a new discipline at the Mind Games and replaces blindfold chess. Just like the tournament in San Sebastian of two years ago, the players will be facing each other with two boards at the same time - one with white and one with black. Also here each player will have 20 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.

Schedule

Peter Leko is the leader after the first day of play in the men's section of the rapid tournament. Shortly after spending three weeks on the 10th floor of the Hyatt Regency in Chennai, as one of Vishy Anand's seconds in the World Championship, the Hungarian seems in excellent shape. He drew with Nepomniachtchi and defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Le Quang Liem and Sergey Karjakin.

Especially the latter was beaten after a long and tough fight. Leko seemed to be using some World Champioship knowledge in the opening, although he was playing the position from Carlsen's side of the board!

Despite this loss, Karjakin in shared second place. He won very quickly with black against one of the local heros:

Sergey Karjakin

Wang Hao is the other player on 3/4 - he drew with Wang Yue and Vassily Ivanchuk but won against Levon Aronian and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Here's his game from the first round, where the world #2 player went astray:

In rapid many crazy things can happen, as we have seen on the first day in London as well. Sometimes people get crushed completely, like in this game:

You can download the full PGN file of games here via TWIC.

World Mind Games 2013 | Rapid | Round 4 Standings

Valentina Gunina won all her games on the first day, against Antoaneta Stefanova, Ju Wenjun, Elisabeth Paehtz and Alexandra Kosteniuk. Two of those were as Black in an Exchange Slav:

You can download the full PGN file of games here via TWIC.

World Mind Games 2013 | Rapid (women) | Round 4 Standings

All photos courtesy of FIDE