International Mind Sports Association

The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) is an association of the world governing bodies for contract bridge, chess, draughts, eSports, go, xiangqi (Chinese chess), mahjong and card games.

The second Games in 2012 would have been formally announced 17 November during the 2011 Mind Sports Festival in London, except that they failed to secure a venue by that time.

However a venue was found in Lille in France and the second World Mind Sports Games was held from 9–23 August 2012.

The constituent World Bridge Federation incorporated several quadrennial world bridge championships in the World Mind Sport Games because it considers the WMSG a "stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games (after the Summer and the Winter Olympics)".

Beside satisfaction of the participating players and federations, the main objectives were to achieve "a worldwide TV coverage, and a large participation to the online tournament linked to the event.