Olympics, Paralympics, and Tennis: Beijing has been awash with top class sport for the last couple of months and it hasn’t stopped. It‘s just got a little more cerebral with the arrival of the inaugural World Mind Games (Oct 3-18). Alexandra Kosteniuk secured her status as Wikipedia worthy by winning the first ever gold medal at the tournament. The Russian, who is current world chess champion, beat Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova in the final of the women’s blitz chess. You can still catch more chess alongside go, bridge, checkers and xiangqi. All of this excitement takes place China National Convention Center and Beijing International Convention Center. See links below for more details.

From brains to brawn and the stereotypically dumb world of football excels itself. The Chinese Super League was rocked this week when Wuhan Guanggu did what most fans do the country over and walked out. After their recent match with Beijing Guo’an saw a sending off apiece, Wuhan decided that the ejection, subsequent fine and match ban (Li Weifeng was slapped with an eight week suspension) were a little too harsh and told the league to shove it. At the moment it remains unclear as to what will happen for the remainder of the season.  Judge the incident for yourself  toward the end of the video  above.

If you like guys who can jump really high, and who doesn’t, then the NBA steamroller their way into town with all the glamor and glitz you’d expect from a teams that refer to themselves as franchises. The Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors get down to business at Wukesong on Saturday Oct 18. Keep your eyes on the blog to find out how you can win tickets to the game.

Oct 18
Milwaukee Bucks vs. Golden State Warriors
For ticket information, check here. RMB 200-2,800.
10.30am. Wukesong Indoor Stadium

More free stuff comes in the guise of local sport and by local we mean amateur. All of the local leagues resume after the holiday hiatus. Speaking of holidays, news of the Beijing ice hockey players’ exploits in North Korea will be coming soon. On a final note, the standout of the local action this weekend is the Thomas Marechal Memorial Match. The French LE team will play an IFFC all-star line up in order to honor the much-missed man through the game that he loved: football. Kick off is at 4pm on Sunday Oct 12th at Side Park (near Lido).

Links and Sources

The First World Mind Sports Games
Sohu: Images from Mind Games
World Chess Federation: World Mind Sports Games. Important Information and Regulations.
Sina: 武汉队宣布退出中超 (image of Wuhan player falling to the ground)
Youku: Video of the incident in the Beijing v Wuhan game that led to Wuhan pulling out of the league