Mind Sports Olympiad

The Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) is an organisation that has hosted an annual series of board game tournaments for over 25 years, with the first edition in 1997. Every year there are in-person tournaments for many of the games found on PlayStrategy. Some of these tournaments are World Championships, such as those for Abalone, Entropy and Lines of Action.

The Mind Sports Olympiad attracts players from all over the world to compete for medals in a vast range of tournaments, with the schedule typically containing over 60 tournaments. There are numerous tournaments in Chess, Backgammon, Poker, 2-player games (like many of the games seen on PlayStrategy), and Multiplayer games (like Catan, Monopoly, and Ticket To Ride).

The crown jewel in the Mind Sports Olympiad is the Pentamind World Championship, which has been awarded every year going back to 1997. The Pentamind is a unique meta-event, which celebrates the best all-round games player in the world. Any event at MSO can count towards that year’s Pentamind, and the player with the highest Pentamind score built up from five independent tournaments is crowned the Pentamind World Champion. Winning the Pentamind World Championship is considered by many to be the most prestigious achievement that a player can accomplish at the MSO. The Pentamind live standings are updated throughout each MSO, and show the final results of the most recent tournament once it has finished.

The MSO has historically taken place in London over a 9 day period towards the end of August. Future events may take place in other countries at different times of the year. For news on upcoming events, we recommend signing up to the MSO newsletter, or checking MSO News.

MSO Grand Prix

Having run 23 annual editions between 1997-2019, the Mind Sports Olympiad was forced to abandon its in-person competition in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of cancelling the event entirely, the MSO instead went online. Starting in 2022, with the in-person MSO returning, the Mind Sports Olympiad launched a new annual series dedicated to online competition: MSO Grand Prix.

Many of the MSO Grand Prix tournaments are run on PlayStrategy, these are run through the Mind Sports Olympiad team. All of the MSO Grand Prix's Backgammon, Chess, and Draughts tournaments are held here, with several Abstract games tournaments also on this platform.

The crown jewel in the MSO Grand Prix is the Grand Prix World Championship, which works similarly to the Pentamind World Championship. The Grand Prix live standings are updated throughout each MSO, and show the final results of the most recent tournament once it has finished.

MSO Grand Prix typically runs for 6-8 weeks around the months of January-March. Unlike the in-person series which has 9 consecutive days of play, the Grand Prix has its days of play spread out and shorter hours. All MSO Grand Prix tournaments are open to everyone and are free to enter. For news on upcoming events, we recommend signing up to the MSO newsletter, or joining the MSO discord server.