Mind Games: The Experiment

Those players who attended WRC 2022 Vienna will have noticed a lot of cameras around. One of those was a crew tracking the progress of an elite group of ‘mind athletes’ in an experiment to discover if performance in mindsports could be linked to exercise.

I don’t want to spoil the documentary for you. Even if you think you know the answer, I think you’ll be surprised!

I was lucky enough to participate in the project and was also invited to the documentary’s premiere.

Four mindsports were chosen to be featured in the documentary - Chess, E-sports, memory games, and riichi mahjong!

Ryoei Hirano of the Japan Professional Mahjong League was chosen to be the star representing riichi mahjong and giving a window into his journey as he returned to professional mahjong after a hiatus with his attempt at the World Riichi Champion title.

Although mahjong has been featured in plenty of Western media before, this is one of the first times in a major release that riichi mahjong’s competitive scene has been promoted. It was even more exciting for me that we get to share a stage with such well-established and high profile mindsports.

Me and Hirano at the premiere.

The premiere at the BAFTA building in Piccadilly, London was attended by influencers, mind athletes and just regular athletes. ASICS, who were also the generous sponsor for WRC Vienna, were there to give us an insight into the results of their exciting experiment.

Further, the good folks of The Library Pot in Richmond were there to demonstrate riichi mahjong and it created a real buzz at the drinks and canapes.

This has got to be a great opportunity for our community to recruit even more players and let them see riichi mahjong either for the first time or in an entirely different light!

You can watch the documentary for yourself and get inspired. Click the button below to head over to Amazon Prime!