The pandemic has been tough, but take heart that some good things are coming out of it.
On the 20th of January, the Mind Sports Olympiad announced it will be holding two MSO events this year.
The last two years saw the annual Mind Sports Olympiad tournament held online for the first time. This change (from holding a physical event in London) brought with it the largest attendance figures Mind Sports Olympiad events have ever seen – around 6000 competitors, from over 100 countries, in 2020.
It even encouraged me to have a go. You can read about my experience here.
This year, the Mind Sports Olympiad has announced a new online event – the MSO Grand Prix, which will take place over Easter. The tournament will be held over seven weeks, with all games being free and open to all (although some may require a subscription to the platform where the game is held).
The Grand Prix Championship will seek to find the best overall player at the event, which will also crown champions (including Senior, Junior, and Women’s champions) across seven categories:
- Chess
- Poker
- Backgammon
- Draughts
- Multiplayer (3+ players, eg 7 Wonders, Catan, Perudo)
- Abstract (2 players, perfect information, no randomness after initial setup, eg Draughts, Othello, Patchwork)
- Imperfect information (2 players, some elements of randomness or hidden information, eg 7 Wonders Duel, Entropy, Lost Cities)
The tournament begins on Friday the 15th April and you can find a provisional schedule here.
As well as this, 2022 sees the traditional physical Mind Sports Olympiad event return to its usual home in London, taking place from Sunday 21st to Monday 29th August at JW3.
Good luck to any budding mentathletes bold enough to battle at the boards this year!