Mind sports

by Michael Rich

THE third Mind Sports Olympiad takes place at London's Olympia Conference Centre next month. Some 5,000 players are expected from approximately 60 countries to compete in 40 different Mind Sports, and thinking skills including bridge, go, memory, speed reading, JO, creativity and Mind Mapping. Naturally, chess will be well represented with the Western, Chinese and Japanese versions all being played. A notable innovation is the introduction of a grandmaster tournament, where 30 grandmasters are expected to compete, the first event of its type held in London for many years.

One of the fascinating discoveries for me from my involvement in the Mind Sports Olympiad was the extraordinary popularity in the Orient of the Japanese and Chinese versions of chess. Chinese Chess (XiangQi), with 400 million players, is arguably the world's most popular game. This week's sample of play, a game of XiangQi from the Ming Dynasty 1364-1644, is a brilliant sacrificial gem. In order to follow it you need to know that play is on the intersections rather than on squares (as in Western chess), that the moves of Rooks and Knights are, in this game, identical to Western chess, and that the Pawns move and capture only one square forwards. Bishops (usually referred to as elephants) can hop only two squares at a time and cannot cross the central river, while Guards (dl, fi, d10 and f10) move like mini-bishops, diagonally one square at a time. The Kings move only in straight lines, not diagonally, and neither the kings nor the guards can leave their respective palaces, indicated by the crossed lines on the board. The most intriguing pieces, and the most alien to Western eyes, are the Cannons on b3, h3, b8 and h8. They move like rooks, but only capture through a friendly or hostile piece. They are second in value to the rook, worth slightly more than a knight. The bishops and guards are clearly just defensive pieces.

White moves first, as in Western chess, the names of the players are not known and I have given a diagram for the starting position.

1 Cb3-e3 (Diagram 1) This threatens Black's pawn on
e7. 1 . . .Nhl0-g8

2 Nbl-c3 Nbl0-a8

3 Ral-a2 Bgl0-e8

4 Ra2-f2 Gf10-e9

5 Rf2-f7 Ril0 fl0

6 Rf7xg7 Ch8-h10

7 Nhl-g3 Ch10-g10 (Diagram 2) Threatening White's rook on g7.
White now launches a superb sacrificial attack.

8 Rg7xg8 Cb8xg8 9 Ch3-h10 This pins both Black's cannon and Black's rook against the king.9 ... Cg8xg3

10 Ril-i3 Cg3xc3 11 Ce3xe7 Now Black is hopelessly tangled since both his bishop and guardian on the e-file are pinned to his king.

11 ... Na8-b10 12 Ri3-f3 Nb10-c8 13 Rf3xf10 mate (Diagram 3) Whichever way Black captures on f10, whether with king or guard, he remains exposed to a terminal check from a white cannon.

The third Mind Sports Olympiad is open to everyone and offers £100,000 in prize money. Entry details are available from David Levy (tel: 01707 659080, fax: 0171 435 2870) or on the website www.mindsports.co.uk. Other disciplines include backgammon, draughts, poker, crosswords and Scrabble.