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Mind Sports Organisation Worldwide Ltd.
12 St. James' Square, London SW1Y 4RB, England
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Company Press Release:
Tuesday, August 8, 2000 | |
6-Year-Old Chinese Prodigy competes with World Champion game program in London
On the opening day of the 4th Mind Sports Olympiad which takes place
at Alexandra Palace, London, from August 19th-28th,
the 6-year-old genius Liao Xingwen from China, who is already an
expert at the fiendish game of Go, will take on a World Champion Go program
written by Londoner Michael Reiss who lives in Belsize Park. Games experts
consider Go to be the most difficult game ever invented, and far tougher to
master than Chess or Bridge. Go is most popular in China, Korea and Japan, but
many of the world's top Go playing programs have been written in the West.
Reiss' program is called "Go4++" and is the current holder of the Ing Cup
World Computer Go Championship, donated by a Taiwanese businessman who
sponsored mankind's efforts to produce a program capable of playing at master
strength. Reiss' response to the challenge by the 6-year-old was: "It will be
an honour to play Liao Xingwen. Even at this tender age his reputation
precedes him. I will be astounded if he doesn't thrash my program, even though
it is the best in the world."
Liao Xingwen will be coming to London with his
"Go mother" (or teacher) Liu Yaije, herself a professional Go player, at the
invitation of the organisers of the Mind Sports Olympiad.
The Mind Sports Olympiad incorporates 121 tournaments spread across 40
different Mind Sports and mental skills, including Bridge, Chess, Backgammon,
Scrabble, Poker, Memory Skills and Creative Thinking.
One of the biggest tournaments at the Mind Sports Olympiad is the London heat
of "The Times" crossword puzzle championship, taking place on August
26th, which is sponsored by Wordcross.net. This heat is attracting
some 600 solvers, many of whom find it easy to solve even the most difficult
crosswords in "The Times" in 10 minutes. This is the last heat before the
grand final of the competition and Wordcross.net will be at Alexandra Palace
all through the Mind Sports Olympiad encouraging people to join the historic
first online crossword championship. There will be demonstrations of the
website with instant prizes to be won and the chance for visitors to enter
the Wordcross.net speed challenge.
For more details of the 4th Mind Sports Olympiad please visit
www.msoworld.com. For further
information and M.S.O. star interview requests, please contact
David Levy (Chief Organiser):
David Levy, Tel: +44 20 7435 9496 –
E-mail: dlevy@msoworld.com
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MSOWorld.com