List of world championships in mind sports

This article 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).

Mind Sports Olympiad All-round

World championships organized by Mind Sports Olympiad, that consist of competitions across multiple events to find the strongest games all-rounders.

Sport / Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Last Held	Next	Held every
Decamentathlon World Championship[1]	Individuals	1997	Martyn Hamer	2019	2020	One year
Modern Abstract Games World Championship[2]	Individuals	2008	Andres Kuusk	2022	2023	One year
Pentamind World Championship[3]	Individuals	1997	Andres Kuusk	2024	2025	One year

Classic/traditional board games

Major world championships for classic strategy board games, such as chess or go.

Category	Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Last held	Next	Held every
Backgammon	Backgammon	Backgammon World Championship	Individuals	1967	2025 Timo Väätäinen	2025	One year
Chaturanga variants	Chess	World Chess Championship	Individuals	1886	Gukesh Dommaraju	2024	2026	Two years
	Shogi	Meijin (shogi) [a]	Individuals	1937	Sōta Fujii	2024	2025	One year
	Xiangqi	World Xiangqi Championship	Individuals	1990	Wang Tianyi	2022	2024	Two years
Draughts	International draughts	Draughts World Championship	Individuals	1885	Yuri Anikeev	2023	2024	One year
	English draughts	World Checkers Championship	Individuals	1840	Sergio Scarpetta (3-Move) Matteo Bernini (GAYP)	2024 2024	2026 2026	Two years
	Brazilian draughts and Russian draughts	World Draughts-64 Championship	Individuals	1985 1998 1993	Nikolay Struchkov (Classic) Igor Mikhalchenko (Rapid) Roman Shchukin (Blitz)	2024 2024 2024	2025	One year
	Italian draughts	Italian Draughts World Championship	Individuals	2024	Damiano Sciuto[4]	2024	?	?
Go	Go	Ing Cup [b]	Individuals	1988	Ryo Ichiriki	2024	?	Four years
Five in a row	Gomoku	Gomoku World Championship	Individuals	1989	Pavel Laube	2025	2027	Two years
	Renju	Renju World Championship	Individuals	1989	Tomoharu Nakayama	2025	2027	Two years
Reversi	Othello	World Othello Championship	Individuals	1977	Yasushi Nagano	2023	2024	One year

1. The Meijin match is not considered as a world championship. It is listed because Meijin is one of the most prestigious shogi titles in Japan.
2. There is no official world championship in professional Go. The Ing Cup is one of the most influential professional Go tournaments.

Classic/traditional card/tile games

World championships in Traditional card games and tile-based games.

Category	Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Last held	Next	Held every
Contract bridge	Contract bridge	Bermuda Bowl	Teams (Open)	1950	Switzerland	2023	2025	Two years
		Venice Cup	Teams (Women)	1937	Israel	2023	2025	Two years
		d'Orsi Senior Bowl	Teams (Seniors)	2001	Denmark	2023	2025	Two years
Dominoes	Dominoes	World Championship Domino Tournament[5]	Individuals	1976	Chris Authement	2019	2020	One year
		Domino World Championship[6]	Individuals	1995	Torsten Fornefeld	2023	2024	One year
Mahjong	Mahjong	World Mahjong Championship	Individuals	2002	Zhou Yong	2019	2021	Two years
	Riichi mahjong	World Riichi Championship	Individuals	2014	Kotaro Uchikawa	2025	2028	Three years
Poker	Poker	World Series of Poker Main Event	Individuals	1970	Jonathan Tamayo	2024	2025	One year
Skat	Skat	World Skat Championship	Individuals	1978	Deni Lazicic (Men) Angelika Pullig (Women)	2022	2024	Two years
			Teams		ISPAWORLD and Friends
			Nations		Canada

Mental disciplines

Competitions using mental tests.

Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Next	Held every
Memory	World Memory Championships[7]	Individuals	1991	Huang Jinyao	2024	One year
Mental calculation	Mental Calculation World Cup	Individuals	2004	Aaryan Nitin Shukla (2024)	2026	Two years
	MSO Mental Calculation World Championship	Individuals	1998	Kaloyan Geshev (2024)	2025	One year
	Junior Mental Calculation World Championship	Individuals (age restricted)	2013	(2023) Andrej Zivanovic (Juniors 1) Kaloyan Geshev (Juniors 2) Abhilakshya Arora(Seniors)	2024	One year
	Calculation League	Individuals	2024 (Spring)	Wenzel Grüß (gold) Aaryan Nitin Shukla (silver) Kaloyan Geshev (bronze)	2024 (fall)	Twice per year
Speedcubing (Rubik's Cube)	Rubik's WCA World Championship	Cube 3x3x3	1982	Max Park	2025	Two years
Sudoku	World Sudoku Championship	Individuals	2006	Ming Letian	2025	One year
		Teams	2007	China
Speed Jigsaw Puzzling	World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships	Solo	2019	Kristin Thuv	2025	One year
		Pairs		Tereza Koptíková / Markéta Freislerová
		Teams		Andrea Peng / Jeanne Roiter / Cathy Roiter / Becca Taylor

Modern board games

Competitions in abstract strategy games and other modern board games.

Games made for 2 players:

Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Next	Held every
Arimaa	Arimaa World Championship[8]	Individuals	2004	Mathew Brown (2023)	2024	One year
Entropy/Hyle	Entropy World Championship[9]	Individuals	1997	Alain Dekker (2024)	2025	One year
Kamisado	Kamisado World Championship[9]	Individuals	2011	David Pearce (2024)	2025	One Year
Lines of Action	LoA World Championship[9]	Individuals	1997	James Heppell (2024)	2025	One year
Stratego	Stratego World Championship[9]	Individuals	1997	Vince van Geffen (2024)	2025	One year
Twilight Struggle	International Twilight Struggle League[10]	Individuals	2005	Tomas Tvaroh (2024)	2025	One year
Twixt	TwixT World Championship[9]	Individuals	1997	Florian Jamain (2024)	2025	One Year

Games supporting 3 or more players:

Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Next	Held every
Diplomacy	World Diplomacy Convention[11]	Individuals	1988	Nicolas Sahuguet (2024)	2025	One year[12]
Hare and Tortoise	Hare and Tortoise World Championships[13]	Individuals	1997	Dario de Toffoli	2017	One year
Monopoly	Monopoly World Championships[14]	Individuals	1973	Nicolò Falcone[15]	TBD	No regular schedule
Settlers of Catan	Catan World Championships[16]	Individuals	2002	Hamish Dean (2022)	2024	Two years
4 games	German Board Game Championship[17]	Teams (4 players)	1984	FeSaJoTo (2025)	2026	One year
4 games	Dutch Board Game Championship[18]	Teams (4 players)	2000	Desda (2024)	2025	One year
4 games	Europe Masters - European Board Game Championship[19]	Teams (4 players)	1988	Brettspielverein Bindlach – Die Outlawkumpels (2024)	2025	One year

Modern card games

Competitions in collectible card games and other modern card games.

Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Last held	Next	Held every
Magic: The Gathering	Magic: The Gathering World Championship	Individuals	1994	Javier Dominguez	2024	2025	One year
Pokémon Trading Card Game	Pokémon World Championships[20]	Individuals	2004	Sakuya Ota (Junior) Evan Pavelski (Senior) Fernando Cifuentes (Master)[21]	2024	2025	One year
Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game	Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championships[22]	Individuals	2003	Paul Aronson Jian Yu Jian (Duel Links) snipehunters (Master Duel)	2023	2024	One year
Wizard Card Game	Wizard World Championship[23]	Individuals	2010	Alexander Kube	2023	2024	One year

Speaking competitions

World championships in speaking.

Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Next	Held every
Auctioneering	World Livestock Auctioneer Championship	Individuals	1963	Jared Miller (2018)	2019	One year
Debating	World Universities Debating Championship[24]	Pairs	1979	Mark Rothery & Aniket Chakravorty (2024)	2025	One year
	World Schools Debating Championships	Nations	1988	Scotland (2024)	2025	One year
Debating (Spanish)	World Universities Debating Championship in Spanish Campeonato Mundial Universitario de Debate en Español[24]	Individuals	2011	Jessica Zapata (2024)	2025	One year
		Pairs	2011	Mattias Durán & Marcela Goméz (2024)
Debating (Portuguese)	World Debating Championship in Portuguese Campeonato Mundial de Debate em Língua Portuguesa[24]	Individuals	2018	Jess Peixoto (2021)	TBD	TBD
		Pairs	2018	Jess Peixoto & Bernardo Rabelo (2021)

Tile games

World championships held in tile-based games include:

Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Next	Held every
Carcassonne	Carcassonne World Championship[25]	Individuals	2006	Daniel Angelats (2024)	2025	One year
Continuo	Continuo World Championship[9]	Individuals	1997	David M. Pearce (2016)	2017	One year
Saboteur	Saboteur World Championship[26]	Individuals	2016	Alexander Mischke (2022)	2023	One year
Tantrix	Tantrix World Championship (online)[27]	Individuals	1998	Richard Knese (2023)	2024	One year
	Tantrix World Open (real tiles)[28]	Individuals	2009	Attila Mikulán (2024)	2025[29]	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[30]	Individuals	1991	David Eldar (2023)	2024	Two years; one year since 2013
Scrabble (Spanish)	Spanish World Scrabble Championship[31]	Individuals	1997	Serge Emig (2019)	2020	One year
Scrabble (French)	French World Scrabble Championships Duplicate[32]	Individuals	1972	Nigel Richards (2019)	2020	One year
	French World Scrabble Championship Classic[32]	Individuals	2006	Francis Desjardins (2019)	2020	One year

Information technology

World championships in competitive programming.

Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Next	Held every
Competitive programming	Topcoder Open	Individuals	2001	Gennady Korotkevich (2022)	2023	once a year
Corewars	ICWS	Individuals/teams	1985	?	?	yearly

Quizzing

Quizzing competitions organized by the private company International Quizzing Assoc.

Sport	Competition name	Competing entities	First held	Current holder	Next	Held every
Quiz	World Quizzing Championship	Individuals	2003[33]	Victoria Groce (2024)	2025	yearly

See also

• Sports portal
• World portal

• Esports
  • List of esports leagues and tournaments
• Mind Sports Organisation
• International Association of Memory
• World Memory Championships
• World Junior Memory Championships
• World Memory Tournament Federation
• World Mind Sports Games
• Mind Sports Olympiad
• International Philosophy Olympiad
• World cup competition
• World championship
• List of world sports championships
• List of world cups and world championships for juniors and youth