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OIYMPIAD NEWSlssue 6 Sunday 24 August
CourrNrsIntellectual Capiwl .............. 1Creatioe
Tbinking............... 2Ten of the &est..............,.......
2
Go, Guo, Zbang................... 2Learn and
PLay..................... 2To ugh Pu221es.......................
2
Delbeck Charnpagne
Prize Drau Cballenge 4....2Bigger and
&etter.................. 3
Results \ection...................... 4
Medals Tab\e......................... 4
Today's Eaents...................... 4
'I opened as usual uith 1 e4,but uas rather surpriseduthen be
replied uith 'n15'and told rne tbis was the gotournd.ment.
Thinkingquickly,I played 723 andinformed him that I badsunk his
banleship, rubichuould bape been fine if hebadn't passed nxe
tbedoubling cube and used allhis seaen letters in formingtbe word
NO-TRUMP on atriple zaord score. Luckilyforme, he fell down a snake
tbenext rnoae and I was bach inthe game.'- VilliamHartston in
TheIndependent
'I'oe entered two eoents, butI'm not sure ubicb ones tbqare.'-
overheard at theregistration desk.
INTELLECTUAL CAPITALteif Edvinsson - Skandia'sFather of
Intellectual CapitalBehind the cute T-shirt message 'I Cthe future'
lies an original andenterprising economic concept thatsponsors
Skandia equate with theirpast - and future - success. IC standsfor
Intellectual Capital, a phrasedesigned to define the intangible,
yetvery real, human assets behind anenterprise. Edvinsson's pet
metaphorportrays IC as the roots of a treebearing future fruit.
Skandia were approached by theMSO on the strength of an IC
annualreport that utilised consistent anddetailed chess imagery.
Unlike manycorporations that simply borrow theseicons, Skandiahad a
real commitmentto the power behinds the symbolswhich they
translated to financialsupport. Edvinsson's reaction to theMind
Sports Olympiad concept:'Brilliant - it is the embodiment of anew
training approach of humancapability, the embodiment of a
newknowledge era.'
Edvinsson easily conjures up anetwork of associations linking
allkinds of game-playing to potential andpractical
applications.'The businessworld sees a measurable and
growingintelligence gap - with need forintellectual expertise
constantlyexpanding. Available taient isdecreasing even though the
populationis increasing. Being bombarded withinformation - be it in
Nintendo orshogi - and being able to process it,find patterns etc.,
is a vital skill. Oneway to increase this talent potential
isthrough games.'
He points out one area that alreadybridges playful entertainment
and
serious business is a simulator. Thiskind of software program
providesclear real world gains - 40 hours ofsimulation training can
create aIicensed Boeing 777 pllot.
Even those computer game-playingskills which are not yet
respected asintellectual pursuits earn his respect.He sees the
abilities honed here asbeing applicable to multimedia workand the
software industry, andconsiders software building to be themost
critical technological ingredienttoday.
An emphasis on finding new ways toapproach and link
apparentlyunrelated input is a basic ingredient ofIC, and even in a
brief interviewsubjects continually merge andinterweave. IC as a
concept hasestablished a foothold extremelyrapidly. Edvinsson's
book, IntellectualCapial, has already been translated formarkets in
China, Portugal, S. Amer-ica, South Korea and Israel. The
topicshifts to Mandarin as a virtual, sym-bolic language, and the
evidence thatthis stimulates both sides of the brain.
Suddenly he presents me with thenew business cards for the
SkandiaFuture Centers - a fascinating series ofbound, coloured
cards with anevolving discussion of 'contactivity'on the top of
each page and a visuallyIinked sequence of coloured graphicson the
back. He smiles as I slowlyexamine this from various angles.'You
see the difference? Myconventional card went straight intoyour
pocket...'
The lst Mind Sports Olympiad at the Royal Festioal Hall uitb
Skandia
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Olympiad Neus Sunday 24 August
Creative ThinkingThe questions in this event set byTlte
Independezrt nimble wit, BillFlartston were:
Q1: List as many possible uses asyou can think of for a
soft-boiledegg. (One competitor earned abonus point {or not listing
'eat it')Q2: Here are two objects (a largeand a small conch) I
found on thebeach on holiday. Vhat should Ido with them?Q3: List as
many similarities asyou can think of between thePrincess of \flales
and an orange.
Q4: List as many differences asyou can between zips and
buttons.
Q5: At the start of 1998, a newlabour-saving device was
launched.Vithin six months, one was to befound in 97 per cent of
the homesin the UK. Describe it.Q6: Everyone agreed that
theCreativity competition at the 1998Mind Sports Olympiad was
farsuperior to that ofthe 1997 event.\trhat do you think the tasks
givento the contestants might havebeen? The scoring was as
follows:
Fecundity (quantity) - of distinctideas.
Originality - scores double (50o/oof the total)
Breadth - the number ofdifferent dimensions employed inthe
answers - for example, texture,size, colour, etc.
Ten of the BestA highly intriguing event at theMind Sports
Olympiad is thedecamentathlon. In the spirit ofthe Olympic
decathlon, this eventconsists of a tough four-hourexamination in
ten separate MindSports challenges. The events are:memory, mental
calculation, IQ,bridge, chess, Othello, go,draughts (8x8),
Mastermind andcreative thinking. This proved tobe an intriguing
test of all-roundMind Sports knowledge and could,in future years,
develop into oneof the most competitive events.
Many of the competitors excelledin one or two disciplines but
wereIet down by a lack of ability inothers. The secret of success
in this
testing challenge is to score well inall events. The first
decamentath-lon gold medal was deservedlywon by Andrew Dyson who,
inaddition to being a very strongbridge and chess player, is
alsocleady very knowledgeable inother Mind Sports. The silver
wasscooped by Demis Hassabis who,as one of the most
activecompetitors in the Olympiad, isalso pressing hard in
thePentamind. The bronze medalwent to international chess
masterByron Jacobs, who took themorning off from his usual role ofO
ly mpiad Nezas production.
Go, Guo, Zhang!The Olympiad Neas did not quitemanage to unravel
the go resultsyesterday. Our results table wasreasonably correct,
but ... To putthe record straight, Shutai Zhangwas not part of the
emergence offemale and Dutch successyesterday - since he is a
Chinesemanl Zuan Guo was the name wewere looking for, but she
appearedwith her name reversed in the13x13 table. Apologies for
theconfusion, and congratulations tothe duo, who took one gold
andone silver each in the gochampionships. As there wereother
problems in the medalplacings, the go awards ceremonywill be
restaged on Sunday.
Learn and PlayThis morning starting at 10.00amthere is a games
workshop on level3 on the Hungerford side of theRoyal Festival
Hall. The idea ofthe workshop is that participantswill learn up to
eight new games.The plan is to spend 30 minutesteaching each of the
followinggames: 10.00AM Chess; 10.30
Fanorona; 1 1.00 Entropy; 11.30Mastermind; 1.2.00 Oware;
L2.30Othello; 1.00 Go; 1.30 Bridge.(These details are subject
tochange.)
In the afternoon, starting at4.00PM, the participants will
beable to choose their preferredMind Sport and be matched with
another participant who wouldlike to play the same
game.Alternatively, there may be anopportunity for
workshopparticipants to play in one of theMSO afternoon
tournaments.
Tough PuzzlesTry yov hand at the followingtough puzzle.
141617
1411
1415 15 14 14
The numbers 1 to 5 inclusivehave been allocated randomly tothe
colours blue, green, red, whiteand yellow, which are representedin
the diagram by their initialletters. The numbers next to eachrow
and column refer to the sumsof the numbers in those rows
andcolumns. Can you work out eachcolour's number?
'$/here can you...
win a jeroboam of champagne?pick up a free copy of Britain's
toughest puzzle magazine?...and save [5 on a year's
subscription?
To find out, visit the ToughPuzzles stand on level 2 near
theFoyer Bar.
Delbeck ChampagnePrtze Draw Challenge 4:Yesterday's quiz
answers:
1) Andy Bell (41.37 seconds)2) Richard Garfield3) Artist Barry
MartinToday, taking our lead from the
Creative Thinking event, thechampagne prize will be awardedto
the entrant coming up with, inthe opinion of the OlympiadNeusteam,
the best three questions.Entries to the registration deskbefore
5.00PM please.
B B G Y WW G Y W BY G B W YY R R B GR R W W B
The lst Mind Sports Olympiad at tbe Royal Festioal Hall uith
Shandia
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BICGER AND BrrrEN!Everyone agrees that the 1st Mind Sports
Olympiad has been a tremendous success. Olympiad Nezos asked two
ofth. ii...to.i, Raymond Keene and David Levy, how they view their
creation and what their future plans are.
Can you explain how the con-cept of the MSO was devised?(R.K)The
genesis of the MindSports Olympiad stems fromseveral years ago.
David Letyapproached me after the 1986Kasparov-Karpov
WorldChampionship match in Londonand described the idea. Then I
metTony Buzan who said, that withhis interest in the brain and
allthings cerebral, he had oftendreamt of a global Mind
Sportscontest. So it seemed natural thatthe three of us should
cometogether to work on the MSO.(DL)Iused to play in a lot
ofinternational chess tournamentsand the one event which I
en.ioyedabove all others was the ChessOlympiad, where people play
forfun and for the honour of repre-senting their country. Inspired
bythis, I thought about creating anevent which would multiply
thepleasure for everyone simply bymultiplying the number
ofdifferent games. The concept is, ifyou like, a gigantic games
festival.ltr(hen did the real preparationsbegin?(RK)The ball really
started to rollin an incredibly short space oftime. On 31 August
1996 wedecided, after years of toying withthe project, that it was
actuallygoing to happen. Having madethat decision, it was
extraordinaryhow quickly everything fell intoplace. I approached
the RoyalFestival Hall, who quickly agreedto provide the venue, and
TonyBuzan approached Skandia who,with their drive for
IntellectualCapital, also made an amazinglyswift decision to
support us.Meanwhile, David Lery, ablysupported by David Pritchard,
oneof the great games gurus, accessed awoddwide nexus of contacts
toattract players. The organisationalteam was finally completed
when
Don Morris, an experienced eventsorganiser, .ioined the group.
DrLouise Guthrie volunteered to setup our Internet operations and
SirBrian Tovey accepted the role ofcompany chairman with LadyMary
Tovey acting as companysecretary. Sir Brian's appointmentwas
singularly appropriate, giventhat he used to be head of Govern-ment
Intelligence at GCHQ.Has the MSO matched up toyour
expectations?(R.K)The success of the event as wereach the
conclusion has exceededeverything we could have hopedfor. The press
coverage has beenmassive and, with nearly 2,000competitors from 53
countries, wehave truly established a globalintellectual
battlefield.lVill we all be back next year?(RK)Maoy people have
asked methis question. Of course! Nextyear's MSO wiil take place
fromAugust 24-30, andwe hope to beback here at the RFH. So bookyour
slot now - we expect at leasttwice as many entries next year.How do
you foresee theOlympiad developing?(RK/ Although we are
delightedwith this year's competition, thereis naturally still
plenty of room forimprovement. It is my ultimateambition to bring
all the greatchampions of the major thinkingsports to the event.
This Year wealready have 15 separate VorldChampionships being
contested.\World Champions present includeVorld Memory
ChampionDominic O'Brien and the \trflorld
8x8 Draughts Champion RonKing, while the 10x10 Draughtssection
is packed with former\)florld Champions (Harm\fliersma, Anatoli
Gantvarg andGuntis Valneris). For the future, Iwould like to see
the entrantsinclude Vorld Chess ChampionGarry Kasparov, the Deep
Blue
chess and Chinook draughtsprograms, and Oriental championssuch
as Habu, the shogi geniusfrom Japan. An event in which thepremier
championship of everymajor thinking sport in the worldtook place at
one and the sametime would be fantastic. Can
youimagineit?-Ican!(DL)\We could make the nextComputer Olympiad
part of theMind Sports Olympiad. TheComputer Olympiad started
in1989 and has attracted as many as100 programs competing
intournaments for 15 or moredifferent games. In the
ComputerOlympiad we only allowprograms. There is no F{uman
vs.Computer competition.'W'e feelthat, at the moment, it
wouldchange the spirit of the MSO toomuch to allow programs
tocompete in our tournaments.However, it is quite possible thatin
the future we may stagechallenge matches between strong
programs and leading humanplayers at various Mind Sports.'t$[hat
are your Internet plans?(DL) As more and more homes
become connected to the Internet,it will be possible for a
muchlarger number of players toparticipate in the MSO. IdeallY,
wevrould have people playing fromtheir own home, but it
isimpossible to police such asituation and, given the strength
ofprograms such as Fritz (chess) and
Jellyfish (backgammon) somepeople would find it tempting
toreceive a little assistance. Flowever,there is a way around this.
\fleenvisage competitions run fromInternet caf6s, where players
couldbe watched by arbiters as theycompeted. If we are able to
securesponsorship we could then awardprizes in each tournament
-perhaps afree air ticket and hoteiroom in London for the MSO.
Festioal Hall with Skandia
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OlympiadNeus Sunday 24 August
Day Six Medal Winners
Backgammon (Placings and medals)I J. Clark (England) gold2 M.
Barkwill (England) silver3 M. Barron (England) bronzeBridge Swiss
Teams(Placings and medals)i S. Burn/P. King/T. Townsend,/
N. Sandqvist gold2 S. Dannell/P. Shepperson/
M. Beyer{. Tesselaar silver3 R. Eaton/A. Salem/Bharat/
T. Nnando bronze
Chess lO-minute(Placings and medals)1 \f.'Watson (England) gold2
K. Arkell (England) silver3 J. Plaskett @ngland) bronzeChess
S-minute(Placings and medals)1 M. Adams (England) gold2 M. Sadler
(England) silver3 S. Conquest (England) bronzeChess 10-minute
juniors(Placings and medals)1 G. Jones (England) gold2 D. Edwards
(England) silver3 S. Ghasi (England) bronzeChess 5-minute
juniors(Placings and medals)1 D. Tan (England) gold2 T. Dougheny
(England) silver3 N. Frost (England) bronzeChess Problem
Solving(Placings and medals)1 S. Conquest (England) gold2 M. Pein
(England) silver3 K. Chakraborty (India) bronzeChess
Terafinal(Placings and medals)1 R. Cleveland (Sfale$ gold2 N. Timms
(England) silver3 R. Jones (\fales) bronzeNon-Olympi.ad eaent
Chess Challenges(Placings and medals)1 D. Hodge (England) gold2
L. D'Costa (England) silver3 L. Broomfield (England)
bronzeNon-Olympiad eaent
Creative Thinking(Placings and medals)1 P. Bateman (S. Africa)2
B. Birchall (England)3 D. Holloway (England)Decamentathlon(Placings
and medals)1 A. Dyson (England)2 D. Hassabis (England)3 B. Jacobs
(England)
goldsilverbronze
goldsilverbronze
Draughts 8x8 10-minute(Placings and medals)1 R. King (BarbadoQ
gold2 C. McCarrick (Ireland) silver3 P. Raivis (Latvia)
bronzeDraughts 10x10 l0-minute(Placings and medals)1 A. Gantvarg
(Belarus) gold2 G. Valneris (Latvia) silver3 I.Kirzner (Uhraine)
bronzeGin Rummy (Placings and medals)1 M. Kelly (Ireland) gold2 J.
Bosley (New Zealand) silver3 R. Hellman (England) bronzeIQ
(Placings and medals)1 R. Charisse (England) gold2 B. Pridmore
(England) silver3 P. Smith (England) bronzeIQ juniors (Placings and
medals)1 \tr. Lo (England) gold2 D. Leaf (England) silver3 N.
Eskuarzi (England) bronzeJapanese Chess 15-minute(Placings and
medals)1 M. Sandeman (England) gold2 Y. Sumi (apan) silver3 D.
Hassabis (England) bronzeMastermind lO-minute(Placings and medals)1
O. Omodera (Japan) gold2 Y. Sumi (]apan) silver3 R. Franzkeit
(Germany) bronzeSpeed Reading (Placings and medals)1 A. Jones
@ngland)2 M.Isaac (England)3 I. Stewart (England)
goldsilverbronze
Mind Sports OlympiadMedal Table after Day Six
Gold Silver Bronze TotalEngland 22 26 30
78Holland73313Japan3317France3ll5Germany2248Barbados2002USA2OO2Irelandl203Chinall,A2S.Africa
1 1 0
2Scotlandl0l2Belarus1001Latvia0213India0112Italy0112NewZealand o 1
1 2Denmarkol0lFinland0l0lSrilanka 0 1 0 1Ukraine0022
Toonv's EveNrsBackgammon.......... day
Bridge .. da.yChess ....................... day
Cbinese Chess ......... day
ComputerProgramming...... day
Continuo..... .. da.yCrossword Pwzzles.. pmDraugbts
(8x8)......... amDrawghts (t ox t o)..... pmGames W'orhshop...
day
Gin Rummy........... daryGo (exe) ................... pnx
Go (1 ex 1 e) ............... dn7
Japanese Chess.......... amMah Jongg. .. .doyMastermind
............. p*Mental
Calculations ......... arn
Othello......... ... . da.yScrabble ..... .... day
O lvu PrADNrws TeauEditor:
Jon Ttsdall
Production:Byron Jacobs and
Andreu Kinsrnan(First Rank Publisbing)
Mrno SponrsO LYt'r PrADPO Box 13388,
London NW3 2ZF
Fax:0171 482 0672
h ttp : / /u ww. m indsp o rt s. c o. u k /
The lst Mind Sports Olympiad at the Royal Festioal Hall w,ith
Skandia