1st World Mind Games in Beijing
Following the nomination from the national chess federations, FIDE has finalized the list of participants for the World Mind Games to be held in October in Beijing.
Altogether, 77 national federations will send players to the games, who participate in team events as well as individual and pair (one man – one woman) competitions. The games will be rapid and blitz games.
In the individual competition, 60 players will fight against each other. The top seeded player amongst the men is former World Champion, Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), while the women’s list is led by Hou Yifan from China. By Elo-points and achieved titles, the strongest pair could be Karpov-Kosteniuk from Russia.
Other names on the list of players: Bu (China), Dominguez (Cuba), Wang (China), Sasikirian (India), Almasi (Hungary), Stefanova (Bulgaria), Pogonina (Russia), Peng (Netherlands), Rajlich (Poland).
Several players from the top rank are engaged in the European Club Cup competition that starts very close to the end of the Mind Games and also play in the German, Croatian etc. team championships. Therefore, some federations, including Russia and France, did not send players for the team competitions. Thus, we will miss them in Beijing although the event is promised to be a real festival of chess, bridge, go, draughts and xianghi.
Source: FIDE
How about Nakamura / Onischuk – Polgar as team for the US?
The Philippines is only sending a second rank team. Those who did not qualify for the Olympic team are going
“How about Nakamura / Onischuk – Polgar as team for the US?”
Only if the USCF pulls its collective heads from out of its collective butts.