Tabletop games Wargaming

List of world championships in mind sports

This page gives a list of world championships in mind sports which usually represent the most prestigious competition for a specific board game, card game or mind sport. World championships can only be held for most games or mind sports with the ratification of an official body. Some Eastern games only have amateur world championships and separate professional competitions as can be seen for Go (list of professional Go tournaments).

All-round game competitions

World championships that consist of competitions across multiple events to find the strongest games all-rounders.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Abstract strategy games Abstract Games World Championship Individuals 2008 Andres Kuusk 2014 One year
Decamentathlon Decamentathlon World Championship Individuals 1997 Mathew Cordell 2015 One year
Mind Sports The Pentamind Individuals 1997 Andres Kuusk 2015 One year

Card games

World championships in card games.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Contract bridge Bermuda Bowl Teams 1950 Italy 2015 Two years
Poker World Series of Poker Main Event Individuals 1971 Joe McKeehen 2016 One year
Magic: The Gathering Magic: The Gathering World Championship Individuals 1994 Shahar Shenhar 2015 One year
World Magic Cup Teams 1995

Raphaël Lévy
Yann Guthmann
Timothée Simonot
Stephane Soubrier

2015 One year
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pokémon World Championships Masters, Seniors, Juniors 2004

Haruto Kobayashi (Junior)
Trent Orndorff (Senior)
Andrew Estrada (Master)

2015 One year
Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championships Individuals 2004 Sehabi Kheireddine 2015 One year

Classic/traditional strategy games

Major world championships for classic strategy board games i.e. go or oware.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Backgammon Backgammon World Championship. Individuals 1967 Ali Cihangir Çetinel 2015 One year
Chess World Chess Championship Individuals 1886 Magnus Carlsen 2014 One/two years
Chinese Checkers Chinese Checkers World Championship Individuals Unknown DH Towers Ongoing
International draughts Draughts World Championship Individuals 1885 Alexander Georgiev 2013
English draughts World Checkers Championship Individuals 1847 Michele Borghetti 2015
Go World Amateur Go Championship Individuals 1979 Yi-Tien Chan 2015 One year
Mahjong World Mahjong Championship Individuals 2002 Linghua Jiao (2010)
Renju Renju World Championship Individuals 1989 Tunnet Taimla (2015) Two years
Shogi Meijin (shogi) Individuals 1937 Habu Yoshiharu 2014 One year
Xiangqi Xiangqi World Championships Individuals 1990 Zhao Xinxin 2011 Two years

Esports

Official world championships in both individual and team based esports.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Call of Duty Call of Duty Championship Teams 2013 Denial eSports 2016 One year
Dota 2 The International Teams 2011 Evil Geniuses 2016 One year
League of Legends League of Legends World Championship Teams 2011 SK Telecom T1 2016 One year
Street Fighter Capcom Cup Individuals 2013 Ryota "Kazunoko" Inoue 2016 One year
Pokémon Pokémon World Championships Individuals 2009

Shoma Honami (Master)
Mark McQuillan (Senior)
Kotone Yasue (Junior)

2016 One year
Smite Smite World Championship Teams 2015 COGnitive Prime 2016 One year
StarCraft II StarCraft II World Championship Series Individuals 2012 Kim "sOs" Yoo-jin 2016 One year

Mental disciplines

Competitions using mental tests.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Memory World Memory Championships Individuals 1991 Johannes Mallow 2013 One year
Mental calculation Mental Calculation World Cup Individuals 2004 Granth Thakkar 2016 Two years
Mind Sports Olympiad Individuals 1997 Gert Mittring 2015 One year
Junior Mental Calculation World Championship Individuals 2013

Mohammad El Mir (Juniors 1)
Wenzel Grüß (Juniors 2)
Izdar Abulizi (Seniors)

2016 One year

Modern abstract strategy games

Competitions in abstract strategy games.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Arimaa Arimaa World Championship Individuals 2004 Jean Daligault 2015 One year
Bōku Bōku World Championship Individuals 2000 Andres Kuusk 2015 One year
Entropy/Hyle Entropy World Championship Individuals 1997 David Jameson 2015 One year
GIPF Project Gipf World Championship Individuals 2008 Mathijs Booden (2008)
Kamisado Kamisado World Championship Individuals 2011 David M. Pearce 2014 One Year
Lines of action LoA World Championship Individuals 1997 Alain Dekker 2015 One year
Morabaraba Morabaraba World Championship Individuals 1997 Rannyadi Moses (2008)
Othello/Reversi World Othello Championship Individuals 1977 Yusuke Takanashi 2016 One year
Stratego Stratego World Championship Individuals 1997 Pim Neimejer 2011 One year
Twixt TwixT World Championship Individuals 1997 Florian Jamian 2015 One Year

Multiplayer board games

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Diplomacy World Diplomacy Convention Individuals 1988 Toby Harris 2016 One year
Hare and Tortoise Hare and Tortoise World Championships Individuals 1997 Matthew Hathrell 2015 One year
Monopoly Monopoly World Championships Individuals 1973 Nicolò Falcone TBD No regular schedule
Settlers of Catan Catan World Championships Individuals 2002 Sander Stroom 2016 Two years

Professional services competitions

World championships for professionals and students in professional services industries and disciplines.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Big Data Analytics TEXATA: Big Data Analytics World Championships Individuals 2014 Kristin Nguyen 2016 One year
Financial Modeling ModelOff: Financial Modeling World Championships Individuals 2012 Joseph Lau 2016 One year
Loyalty Marketing and Gamification LoyaltyGames: Loyalty and Gamification World Championships Individuals 2014 Martin Naude 2016 Two years

Speaking competitions

World championships in speaking.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Debating World Universities Debating Championship Pairs 1981 Josh Zoffer & Ben Sprung-Keyser 2015 Year
Debating (Spanish) World Universities Debating Championship in Spanish
Campeonato Mundial Universitario de Debate en Español
Pairs 2011 Daniel Cardona & Santiago Vásquez 2016 Year

Tile games

World championships held in tile-based games include:

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Continuo Continuo World Championship Individuals 1997 Mathew Cordell 2015 One year
Dominoes World Championship Domino Tournament Individuals 1976 Jerome Wooten 2012 One year
Domino World Championship Individuals 1995 Hege Lofthus 2012 One year
Hexago Hexago World Championship Individuals 2007 David M. Pearce (2007)
Tantrix Tantrix World Championship (online) Individuals 1998 Chris Hill 2015 One year
Tantrix Tantrix World Open (real tiles) Individuals 2009 Zoltan Nemeth 2015 One year (irregular)

Word games

World championships in word games.

Sport Competition name Competing
entities
First
held
Current holder Next Held every
Scrabble (English) World Scrabble Championship Individuals 1991 Craig Beevers 2015 Two years; one year since 2013
Scrabble (Spanish) Spanish World Scrabble Championship Individuals 1997 Jesús Ortega 2015 One year
Scrabble (French) French World Scrabble Championship Duplicate Individuals 1972 David Bovet 2013 One year
French World Scrabble Championship Classic Individuals 2006 Pierre-Olivier Georget 2013 One year
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