The World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) was a multi-sport event created by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) as a "stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games (after the Summer and the Winter Olympics)".
[5][6] Thirty-five gold medals were contested by 2,763 competitors from 143 countries, using the Olympic Village in Beijing.
[10] More than half of the 2008 participants were bridge players, partly because the World Bridge Federation transferred some important quadrennial competitions to the WMSG, especially the Open and Women flights of its World Team Olympiad.
[a] In 2004 there had been in the main continuing events 72 Open and 43 Women "Olympiad" entries (national teams-of-four with six players on most squads).
The one-time, similar tournament with a 28 years age limit attracted another 400 players.