We’re delighted to announce the official dates of August 13 to September 5 for this year’s Mind Sports Olympiad, which will take place once again online. This will be the 25th year of the Mind Sports Olympiad. Last year’s MSO had the largest number of participants ever (5,884 unique competitors from 106 countries) and we hope to build on that success. We plan to publish the official tournament schedule in May.
We wish everyone good health and resilience during the challenges of the pandemic. We’re organizing a weekend of friendly tournaments all of which are free and open to everyone on Feb 19, 20 and 21. Although there are no medals or prizes we are still expecting a strong and fun series of events including Catan, Stone Age, Battle Sheep, 7 Wonders, Crazy House Chess, Lines of Action, Quoridor, and Hyper Backgammon.
All times are in GMT, and events are scheduled for Friday Feb 19 to Sunday, Feb 21.
Visit https://discord.gg/mRhtB4M for the latest information. Please make sure to register/check-in before the start time of the published start time.
Chess Crazyhouse Arena
Friday 7.00pm – 8.30pm; 2min+1sec over 90 minutes. Register at: https://lichess.org/tournament/73d9z7jv
Hyper Backgammon
Friday 9.00 – 11.00pm; Each player begins with three pieces, rather than fifteen! 5pt knockout tournament. Platform: Backgammon Studio Heroes.
CATAN Variants
Saturday – 330pm to 830pm; Platform: Catan Universe
3 swiss rounds (each with a different and unique rule) + 1 final table. Round 1:You win with 9 Victory Points. Round 2:The first four settlements can’t be placed on Ore. Round 3:One of the two settlements needs to be played on the coast.- Final table: all rules combined.
Lines of Action
Saturday 5.00pm – 7.00pm Swiss – 6rd x 20min. Platform: boardgamearena
Quoridor
Saturday 8.00pm – 10.00pm; Swiss – 6rd x 20min
Platform: boardgamearena
Stone Age
Sunday 3.00pm – 7.00pm; 3 rounds + final
Platform: boardgamearena
7 Wonders
Sunday 7.30pm – 10.30pm:3 double rounds + final
Platform: boardgamearena
Battle Sheep
Sunday 4.00pm – 6.00pm 5rd Swiss (each round players play two games alternating who starts)
Platform: boardgamearena
Circle of Life
Sunday 8.00pm – 10.00pm; Swiss – 5rd x 15min
Platform: boardgamearena
Stay tuned for more info on this webpage and on our Discord channel where you can also ask us any questions.
I’ve been looking into the 2009 MSO where Tim Hebbes and Martyn Hamer tied for the PM WC both with a perfect score of 500 PM points. At the time, it was decided by the organizers that Martyn Hamer should win on tiebreak. This was a last-minute decision prior to the award ceremony. The logic was that a head to head tiebreak should be applied as it was in individual tournaments to the Pentamind WC itself. The organizers had looked at how Tim and Martyn faired in tournaments where they both competed and decided that Martyn won the tiebreak. Arbiter Josef Kollar’s recommendation at the time was that gold should be shared between Tim and Martyn (just as gold was later shared between Ankush and Andres in 2012) and he disagreed with the last minute decision to implement such a tiebreak. The idea of using a head-to-head tiebreak in such a manner had not been previously announced nor did it have a precedent. It also seems arbitrary to look at overlapping events and gauge who performed better via this metric. After conducting a thorough investigation into the matter, I have come to the conclusion that the Pentamind World Championship for 2009 should be shared between Tim Hebbes and Martyn Hamer–a decision that is supported by the MSO committee, Martyn Hamer and Josef Kollar.
We’ve updated our database accordingly and will be re-engraving the Pentamind trophy. It’s good to be able to rectify a decision that was incorrect. The MSO committee and I would like to congratulate Tim Hebbes on his second Pentamind World Championship.
Best wishes,
Etan
CEO of MSO
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