4th Mindsports World ChampionshipsFact Sheet

In its 4th edition, the Mindsports World Championships will be held in Doha, Qatar – the first time the Championships are hosted in the Middle East. The championship’s headline events include Scrabble, Chess, Go, Backgammon and e-Sports and it is expected to attract hundreds of mindsports enthusiasts from over 40 different countries. Players, professional and amateur, will be competing for their mindsport championship title, which will come with their share of cash prizes.

Dates: 19 - 27 August 2017Host City: Doha, QatarVenue: Doha Exhibition & Convention Center (DECC)Organisers: Mindsports Academy (MSA) & Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA)Headline Events: Scrabble, Chess, Go, Bridge, Backgammon & e-Sports

1- Scrabble: Invented in 1938, scrabble is one of the popular board games known worldwide. It is in 1 in 3 households in the western world and an estimated 30 million games are played every month both live and on line.

Championship Highlights Both youth and adult events Languages include: English, Spanish and Arabic (for the first time) Over 20 countries will be represented Daily events and play area will be available. Several of the games will be livestreamed over the

internet and viewed in over 100 countries. Each Scrabble Tournament will run over 2 days, day one will consist of 7 rounds with the top players

returning on day two to play in knockout rounds and determine the winner.

2- Chess: The world’s most popular board game with over 600 million individuals playing annually. The earliest version of the game is believed to have originated in India before the 6 th century AD.

Championship Highlights Standard, Blitz, Rapid & Bughouse events Livestreamed tournaments To be attended by players from more than 30 countries including several Grand Masters and

International Masters FIDE rated

Chess Rapid is a fast game of chess where each player is given less time to make a move than under normal tournament time controls. The time controls are more than 10 minutes but less than 60 minutes.

Chess Rapid is a one-day tournament; 7 rounds will be played. Players will each have a time control of 15 minutes with a 3 second increment from move 1.

Bughouse chess is a variation of chess with two players on each side. Players on each side will play with either white or black pieces, they will not play with the same colour as a player will receive the pieces his partner captures. This means one player can have more pieces on the board than originally started with.

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Bughouse Chess is a one-day tournament played in teams; 7 rounds will be played. Players will each have a time control of 5 minutes with a 3 second increment from move 1.

Chess Blitz is a fast game of chess where each player is given less time to make a move than under normal tournament time controls (less than 60 minutes). Blitz is the name for games where the player has less than 10 minutes on their clock.

3- GO: The origins of GO are shrouded in the mists of ancient Chinese history, but the game is thought to have originated at least 2500 - 4000 years ago. It is the oldest game still played in its original form. Mainly dominant in China, Korea and Japan, the game is now spreading globally thanks to the Alpha GO computer built by Google.

Championship Highlights Players will include top professionals from the UK, USA, Malaysia and Hungary Top players will offer training at the championships

4- Bridge: A card game derived from the 17th century card game Whist, which was in vogue among the English nobility of the time. In whist, four players (two teams of two) are each dealt 13 cards from a 52-card deck, with a team's objective being to win as many ‘tricks’ as possible.

Championship Highlights This is the first time Bridge is included in the Mindsports World Championships. 30 players confirmed Players represent 5 different countries

Bridge Modern tournament; 9 point matches, WBA rules, clocks mandatory (18m total + 12s delay/move), doubling cube, Crawford rule, single/double/triple wins, T-system with 2 lives.

5- Backgammon: One of the oldest games in existence, alongside Go and Chess. It is believed to be 5,000 years old and to have originated in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). Recent evidence supporting this was found when very early dice made of human bones were discovered in the area.

Championship Highlights Playing both traditional and modern versions of the game This is the second time Backgammon features at the world Championships Event organised by Chiva Tafazzoli, Founder and President of the World Backgammon Association

6- E-sports: The fastest growing sports sector in the world. Recently, there has been significant lobbying to include e-sports in the Olympics. The World Championships will highlight 3 of the top e-sports: FIFA, Call of Duty and League of Legends which have a combined player base of over 1 billion players worldwide.

FIFA Tournament; Groups of 8 players. Each match will be a 1v1 across a single game (so you should get 7 matches if your group is full). The top 4 players from each group will qualify for the knockout stages. Knockout stage will be a Single Elimination knockout with 3 games per match. Group sizes will be adjusted based on the number of entrants.

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Call of Duty; Teams will be split into groups of 4 teams. Each match will be a “best of 3” using the CWL map list and format. The top 2 teams from each group will qualify for the knockout stages. Knockout stage will be a Double Elimination knockout with 3 games per match and the Grand Final moving to a “best of 5” series.

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