A mind sport, is a

game of skill A game of skill or game of wits is a game where the outcome is determined mainly by mental or physical skill, rather than chance. Alternatively, a game of chance is one where its outcome is strongly influenced by some randomizing device, such a ...

based on intellectual ability.

Etymology

The first major use of the term was as a result of the

Mind Sports Olympiad The Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) is an annual international multi-disciplined competition and festival for games of mental skill and mind sports. The inaugural event was held in 1997 in London with £100,000 prize fund''Mind Sports Olympiad Supp ...

in 1997. The phrase had been used prior to this event such as

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

being described as a mind sport by

Tony Buzan Anthony Peter "Tony" Buzan (; 2 June 1942 – 13 April 2019) was an English author and educational consultant. Buzan popularised the idea of mental literacy, radiant thinking, and a technique called mind mapping, inspired by techniques used by ...

in 1996; Tony Buzan was also a co-founder of the Mind Sports Olympiad. Bodies such as the World Memory Sports Council use the term retrospectively. It is a term that became fixed from games trying to obtain equal status to sports. For example, from 2002 British

Minister for Sport A Ministry of Sports or Ministry of Youth and Sports is a kind of government ministry found in certain countries with responsibility for the regulation of sports, particularly those participated in by young people. The Ministry of Youth and Spo ...

Richard Caborn Richard George Caborn (born 6 October 1943) is a British politician who served as Minister of Sport from 2001 to 2007 and later as the prime minister's ambassador for England's 2018 FIFA World Cup bid. He previously served as a junior minister ...

said:

...I believe we should have the same obligation to mental agility as we do to physical agility. Mind sports have to form UK national bodies and get together with the government to devise an acceptable amendment to the 1937 Act that clearly differentiates mind sports from parlour board games.

Many of the games' official bodies which had come together for the

, formed larger organisations such as the Mind Sports Council and

International Mind Sports Association The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) is an association of the world governing bodies for contract bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go, xiangqi (Chinese chess), and mahjong. Its members are the World Bridge Federation (WBF), Worl ...

(IMSA). With IMSA organising the

World Mind Sports Games The World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) was a multi-sport event created by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) as a "stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games" after the Summer and the Winter Olympics". The i ...

in Beijing 2008 for

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

, go,

draughts Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

and

xiangqi ''Xiangqi'' (; ), also called Chinese chess or elephant chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is the most popular board game in China. ''Xiangqi'' is in the same family of games as '' shogi'', '' janggi'', Western chess, '' ch ...

many other bodies have lobbied for inclusion such as the

International Federation of Poker The International Federation of Match Poker (IFMP) is a non-profit organization whose stated purpose is to "serve as the global governing body for Match Poker".

, which won provisional membership at the annual congress of

SportAccord Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) 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 association ...

in Dubai in 2009. The term also includes

mental calculation Mental calculation consists of arithmetical calculations using only the human brain, with no help from any supplies (such as pencil and paper) or devices such as a calculator. People may use mental calculation when computing tools are not availab ...

or memory disciplines as presented in International competitions such as the

Mental Calculation World Cup The Mental Calculation World Cup (German: Weltmeisterschaften im Kopfrechnen, or World Championship in Mental Calculation) is an international competition for mental calculators, held every two years in Germany. Mental Calculation World Cup 2004 Th ...

(held bi-annually since 2004) and the

World Memory Championships The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of 1 ...

(held annually since 1991)

Games called mind sports

As well as

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ty ...

and

card games A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

, other disciplines that have been described as mind sports are

speed reading Speed reading is any of many techniques claiming to improve one's ability to read quickly. Speed-reading methods include chunking and minimizing subvocalization. The many available speed-reading training programs may utilize books, videos, s ...

competitive programming Competitive programming is a mind sport usually held over the Internet or a local network, involving participants trying to program according to provided specifications. Contestants are referred to as ''sport programmers''. Competitive programm ...

and

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...

wargames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, follows Dav ...

. Other events that have been included where the physical element is comparable to the mental component such as when the official

Mind Sports South Africa Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is recognised by Act of Parliament as the national controlling body for mind sports in South Africa. Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is also an affiliate of the International eSports Federation, Fédération Mo ...

accepted speed-

texting Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible compute ...

as a mind sport.

References

External links

Mind Sports Olympiad games A-Z

Who Is the all-time greatest Mind Sports Champion?

Raymond Keene Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971, and was the first player from England t ...

, 7 September 2008 {{World Mind Sports Games * Sports by type

Etymology

Games called mind sports

See also

References

External links