Registration open for Scrabble, Chess, Go and E-sports. Record $200,000 prize pool at stake for world’s best Mindsports players
The Mindsports Academy and Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) recently announced that the fourth Mindsports World Championships will held in Doha, Qatar in August this year. Players can now register on msawc2017.com for any of the four headline events: Scrabble, Chess, Go and e-Sports.
Scheduled to run on 19 – 27 August, the Championships will be held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC). The nine-day tournament is expected to attract 1,500 mindsports enthusiasts from over 40 different countries. They will be vying for their mindsport championship title, which will come with their share of a record $200,000 prize.
The tournament, sponsored by Mattel Inc and Mindsports Academy, will be co-hosted by Qatar Tourism Authority and will be overseen by experienced tournament directors including Amy Byrne (Scrabble), Hal Bond (Chess) and Michael Fodera (Go). Confirmed participants include current world Scrabble champion, Brett Smitheram who will be defending the title he won last year at the World Championships in Lille.
Dave Brannan, CEO of Mindsports Academy said they’re really excited to be organising the MSA World Championships once again, and this year’s event in Qatar, according to him, promises to be the biggest and most diverse yet.
The Mindsports community is one of the fastest-growing in the world and with so many activities taking place, there is something for enthusiasts of all ages and abilities to get involved in and become part of the global mindsports community.’
Saif AlKuwari, Director of PR and Communication at QTA said:
The addition of mindsports to our growing sports events portfolio this year offers a great boost to our efforts to develop the country’s sports tourism sub-sector. We are very excited to welcome the world’s most accomplished and committed mindsports players as they battle for the title of the best in their sport, while enjoying uniquely Qatari experiences and a taste of true hospitality.’
Scrabble events will include the World Scrabble Championships and the Junior World Championships, and there will also be multi-language tournaments taking place every day to allow competitors from non-English speaking countries to take part. For chess players and enthusiasts, the Championships will feature tournaments in the Bug House, Blitz and Rapid versions of the game. In addition, Go will be a congress event, which will involve a number of smaller tournaments throughout the week as well as workshops, hosted by professional players designed to help players improve their game.
The Marriott Marquis City Centre Doha Hotel is the official partner hotel.
Full tournament details, a list of all the events and schedules and accommodation information are available at msawc2017.com. To stay up to date with all the news, happenings and events in the mindsports community visit mindsportsacademy.com.