World Mind Games

Ambassadors

From the second edition onward, the SportAccord World Mind Games appointed official ambassadors — active elite players chosen by the international federations to be the public faces of their sports in Beijing. This page lists the ambassadors of each edition and explains what the role involved.

What the Ambassador Role Involved

Ambassadors were described by the organizers as “great promoters of their sport.” During the competition week they fronted the event’s outreach work: visiting Beijing schools and universities, running clinics and exhibition games for children, welcoming student groups to the venue, giving interviews and appearing at partner and media events. The aim was to put a recognizable face on each of the five sports — bridge, chess, draughts, go and xiangqi — and inspire young people to take up mind sports.

From 2013 the program doubled in size, with two ambassadors per sport, and for 2014 this was formalized into a deliberate pairing: one international ambassador and one Chinese ambassador per discipline, so that each sport spoke to both the worldwide and the host-country audience. Notably, most ambassadors also competed — several of them all the way to the podium.

2012 Ambassadors

The second edition introduced the program with one ambassador per sport:

  • Sjoert Brink (Netherlands) — Bridge. One of the leading Dutch internationals of his generation, with podium finishes at the World Bridge Games, the European Open Team Championships and the Bermuda Bowl.
  • Hou Yifan (China) — Chess. Grandmaster and the world’s top-rated female player under 18 at the time, fresh from winning two gold medals at the 2011 edition.
  • Alexey Chizhov (Russia) — Draughts. Ten-time individual world champion and four-time team world champion, European champion in 2012.
  • Joanne Missingham (Chinese Taipei) — Go. The top-ranked women’s player in Taiwan, with four tournament victories in 2012 alone.
  • Chan Chun Kit (Hong Kong) — Xiangqi. Asian grandmaster, bronze medallist at the 2nd World Mind Sports Games and champion of the Hong Kong Open Xiangqi Tournament in 2009 and 2011.

2013 Ambassadors

For the third edition the program expanded to two ambassadors per sport:

Bridge

  • Fulvio Fantoni (Italy/Monaco). World grand master and world number one in the WBF ranking since 2008, with six world championship golds. He led from the front in Beijing, winning the open teams and open pairs titles during his ambassadorship.
  • Wang Wenfei (China). Winner of the 2009 Venice Cup and a fixture of top-level women’s bridge since 1993. She too converted her role into gold, anchoring China’s win in the women’s teams final.

Chess

  • Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia). The 12th women’s world chess champion (2008), European women’s champion and the first women’s Chess960 world champion.
  • Ju Wenjun (China). Chinese women’s champion in 2010 and winner of the 2011 Hangzhou Women Grand Master Tournament ahead of Hou Yifan; she took two bronze medals at the 2013 games.

Draughts

  • Darya Tkachenko (Ukraine). Four-time women’s world champion and the only woman to win a top open tournament (Prague 2005). She won the inaugural women’s super blitz title during her ambassadorship.
  • Zhao Hanqing (China). A former go player who switched to international draughts in 2008 and won the world junior girls’ championship within months of taking silver at the Asian championship.

Go

  • Natalia Kovaleva (Russia). Six-time Russian women’s champion and twice European women’s champion, from Chelyabinsk in the Urals.
  • Yu Zhiying (China). Then a 16-year-old prodigy on a steep rise through the dan ranks — and the winner of the women’s individual gold at these very games.

Xiangqi

  • Chong Heung Ming (Philippines). Fourteen-time Philippine xiangqi champion, awarded the world xiangqi grand master title in 2009.
  • Tang Dan (China). Five-time Chinese national individual champion, twice world champion and Asian Games winner — and the 2013 women’s individual gold medallist in Beijing.

2014 Ambassadors

The fourth edition kept the two-per-sport structure and formally paired one international with one Chinese ambassador per discipline:

Chess

  • Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) — returning for a second year as international ambassador; she added a basque silver medal on the board.
  • Ju Wenjun (China) — winner of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Sharjah earlier that year.

Bridge

  • Fulvio Fantoni (Italy/Monaco) — back after what he called “a very positive and interesting experience” in 2013, ready “to promote the sport and the event anew.”
  • Wang Wenfei (China) — who won silver in the women’s pairs with Ran Jingrong during the event.

Draughts

  • Viktoriya Motrichko (Ukraine) — silver medallist at the 2012 games and European champion in 2014. She closed her ambassadorial week by winning the women’s super blitz gold without dropping a match.
  • Ala Tenghua (China) — Asian champion in 2013, who had first competed at the games on a wildcard in 2011.

Go

  • Hajin Lee (South Korea) — professional player and, from July 2014, secretary general of the International Go Federation.
  • Tuo Jiaxi (China) — winner of the 18th LG Cup in 2014, who promptly won men’s team gold with China at the games.

Xiangqi

  • Wong Hok Him (Hong Kong) — twice Hong Kong Open champion and runner-up in the 2013 men’s individual at the games; he reached the podium again in 2014 with bronze.
  • Tang Sinan (China) — a teenage national junior champion who won the women’s individual bronze during her ambassadorship.

Ambassadors on the Podium

What made the program distinctive was that the ambassadors were not retired figureheads but active contenders. Fulvio Fantoni won two golds while serving as bridge ambassador in 2013; Wang Wenfei won team gold the same year and pairs silver the next; Yu Zhiying and Tang Dan both won individual titles during their 2013 ambassadorships; and Viktoriya Motrichko and Tuo Jiaxi both struck gold as 2014 ambassadors. The full podium lists for every edition are on the results page.