KARACHI, Oct 6: The Pakistan open team with 91 victory points (VPs) is placed ninth in the bridge competition of the inaugural World Mind Games underway in Beijing, China, according to message received here.

Placed in group ‘A’, Pakistan played draws with strong teams like Brazil and South Africa.

Canada with 116 VPs, is leading, followed by Italy (113), Denmark (107), Estonia and Ireland (106 each), Romania and South Africa (97), Brazil (9).

USA, Norway and Denmark are the leaders in their groups.

Despite being 9th out of the 17 participating teams, Pakistan Open team’s performance has not been so bad since this is their first exposure in such a major international event.

In their last six matches, they lost 14-16 to Estonia and 14-16 to Romania, beat South Africa 17-13, drew 15-15 with Brazil, 15-15 with Chinese Macau and beat Kenya 16-14.

Besides Bridge, Chess, Draught (checkers) and Go (a kind of Chinese Chess) are also being played in the Mind Games.

Pakistan Seniors and Women teams are facing a tough time. The Seniors scored a total of 73 VPs in six matches, which is not that good a score. They have lost 6-24 to USA, 4-25 to Japan, 13-17 to Brazil, playing draw with Sweden and winning 17-13 against Chinese Taipei and 18-12 to Wales.

USA with 126 VPs is leading this group followed by Japan 119, England 107 and France 104 VPs.

In Group G where the Pakistan women’s team is placed, Sweden is leading with 118 followed by Hungary 114, Germany 106 and Singapore 103 VPs.

The Pakistan women’s team is also not in a sound position. The team, after six rounds, is the 17th position out of 18. So far they have won two matches with a slight edge — 17-13 from Singapore and 16-14 Jamaica — and lost 10-20 to Germany, 7-23 to Chinese Taipei, 11-19 to Greece and 4-25 to Morocco.

Two Youth teams U-21 and U-28 are also competing in a separate field in the championships.

There is a big crowd of 74 countries in the U-28 group. Poland with 130 VPs is heading the bunch followed by China (121), England (118), Belgium (117) and India (116).

The Pakistan U-28 team is occupying the 31st position out of 74 with 91 VPs to their credit. In the other U-21 group, where only 18 teams are competing, France (130) is enjoying a convenient lead of almost half a match ahead of their nearest rival Chinese Taipei (115) and England (113), Poland (112).—APP