About IMSA

The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) was founded on April 19, 2005 during the GAISF (then General Association of Sport Federations) annual convention.

The goal of IMSA is to gather different mind sports federations to pursue common aims and interests, to organize the World Mind Sports Games under the aegis of GAISF and further realize the inclusion of mind sports in the Olympic movement. In particular, the organization’s long-term plans included running the World Mind Sports Games on the same lines as the Olympics.

Uniting eight federations of the traditional mind sports : Chess, Bridge, Draughts, Go, Xiangqi, Mah Jong, eSports and the Federation of Card Games with over 500 National Associations and close to one billion players.

>> Get to know the IMSA Family

The aim of this Association is to engage in a dialogue with the International Olympic Committee for the organization of the World Mind Sports Games. IMSA also aims to facilitate the admission of the national federations of these mind sports into their respective National Olympic Committees.

The Association intends to work towards the recognition of the quality of teaching of these disciplines on young people that helps them substantially in their intellectual and emotional growth. The Association will therefore work in liaison with – in addition to the IOC and SportAccord – UNESCO and the UN, as it is convinced of its capacity to improve the level of education in the world and to participate in a more peaceful entente through the practice of these sports.

In December 2022, the World Poker Federation (WPF) was unanimously accepted as part of International Mind Sports Association (IMSA), a crucial step in the recognition of poker as a mind sport globally.

“It is with enormous satisfaction and great expectations that we unanimously approve poker as part of the Mind Sports family”, declared Madame Zelan Chen, president of IMSA at the time of the announcement.

Igor Trafane, who was chosen to be the first president of the WPF, said: “One of the oldest demands in our category was for poker to be recognized as a sport. It took many years of negotiations and work to createthea World Poker Federation and to have it officially recognized by IMSA.”

The World Poker Federation is very proud to be part of the IMSA family and increasingly help spread mind sports across the globe.

Do you wan’t to discover the World of Mind Sports?

>> Click here to find out about the federations that are part of the IMSA family.