Wang and Wang Yue were both on top form, as was their compatriot women's world chess champion Hou Yifan, who sits half a point behind leader Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia in the event at the Beijing International Convention Centre.

India's Koneru Humpy, the highest rated woman player, got off to a bad start with three zeroes, but managed one win over Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine.

Meanwhile in draughts, Dutch star Roel Boomstra proved he has the makings of a world title holder as he defeated Ukrainian Iurii Anikieiev in the first round, before also overcoming Cameroon's Jean Marc Ndjofang, and drawing with Russian Alexander Shvartsman and Ukraine's Artem Ivanov.

The women's competition saw Tamara Tansykkuzhina of Russia secure three victories and a draw to lead the discipline, while SportAccord World Mind Games ambassador Viktoriia Motrichko of Ukraine trails closely behind.

In xiangqi, German player Michael Naegler and Minghao Xie of Singapore battled it out for 80 before Xie triumphed thanks to his solid basic skills at an end game.

There was also further success for the host nation as the women's game saw Sinan Tang clinch a smooth win over Dan Jia, while Vietnam's Huangyan Ruan overcame Hong Chang of Australia.

Natalia Kovaleva secured a rare European win in the women’s individual Go matches on day one of competition at the World Mind Games ©SportAccord

The bridge competition saw a brilliant auction by the United States on board 17 of the match that placed Team Monaco in danger of losing their second straight round after they suffered a loss at the hands of Team Israel in the morning.

However, Monaco bounced back by board 19 as Tor Helness registered a lead that saw him and Geir Helgemo defeat the contract by their opponents and win the second round.

Italians Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes made a blunder in the third round when a misunderstanding between the Team Monaco duo on a bid led to a massive loss of 14 points.

The pair did recover and managed to beat Team China in the last round of the day.

Finally in the Go action of the go action of the day, Natalia Kovaleva of Russia managed a rare European win over Kai-Hsin Chang of Chinese Taipei in the women's individual competition, as South Korea come back from the brink to beat Japan in their first round match.

Kovaleva's compatriot Svetlana Shikshina was not so lucky as she went down to Aya Okuda of Japan, while hosts China stayed strong with Yu Zhiying defeating Irene Sha of Canada in the last women's match of the day.

Other team matches in the discipline saw China defeat Europe and Chinese Taipei overcome North America.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
December 2014: SportAccord World Mind Games open in Beijing
September 2014: Million players the target as SportAccord World Mind Games launch online tournament