THE 1st Qingdao Mind Sports Games will open Nov. 6 at the Qingdao University Stadium.

    The 22-day event features six categories of competitions: go, Chinese chess, chess, gobang, draughts, and bridge. The games will close Nov. 28.

    The games will award 50 group gold medals and 82 individual gold medals.

    More than 4,000 competitors from 283 teams will take part in the games, including 11 expats from countries such as Germany and Serbia.

    Chess is the most popular game, with 1,200 participants.

    As many as 750 go players will compete.

    The other venues for the competition are Licang District Experimental Primary School, Yucai Primary School, Ping’an No. 2 Primary School, No.1 Workers’ Culture Club and No. 2 Workers’ Culture Club.

    “The 1st Qingdao Mind Sports Games is the first of its kind in China. That’s because chess games are very popular in Qingdao,” said Lin Zhiwei, chairman of the city’s sports association.

    “We also have excellent players like Xie He in go and Bu Xiangzhi in chess, both of whom are seeded players for the 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou.”

    (Chen Ting, Sun Fei)