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On a more worldwide level perhaps the Mindsports Olympiad is the sort of thing you mean?

Math(s) will never be an 'Olympic' 'sport' in it's own right because it doesn't make good TV.

Please define "news for nerds".

This article is one the rare occations that /. is on topic with "News for Nerds".

Pick whichever one of these links you think most applies as "News for Nerds":

8th Computer Olympiad

-or-

NASA - News

-or-

Got That Quad Baby

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[cue music]
One of these links is not like the others,
One of these links just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which link is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which link was not like the others?
Did you guess which link just doesn't belong?
If you guessed this one is not like the others,
Then you're absolutely...right!

Think that's frightening?

Check out this article on the Second International Roshambo (Rock Paper Scissors) Programming Contest. It's actually quite interesting to understand some of the justifications and rationalles that go into attemping to win at a normally un-winnable game:

Game theorists have analysed rock-paper-scissors and come to the conclusion that the optimal way to win a game of rock-paper-scissors is to play completely randomly; random play will win as many throws as it loses and hence draw every match. However, consider trying to win a tournament by drawing every match!

Therefore, when trying to win a rock-paper-scissors tournament, you should assume that players will be trying to win the whole event and hence will not be playing optimally. Therefore you shouldn't play optimally - instead, you should figure out how to play in order to beat your opponent.

Slightly OT, but...

I'm more interested in seeing someone write a strong Go opponent. It's pretty obvious that chess is rather simple for a powerful computer to brute force, but even the most sophisticated hardware and software can be beaten by an amateur Go player. The strongest Go programs rate at around the 8-kyu level (Go ratings start at 30-kyu for complete beginners, on up to 1-kyu, then from 1-dan to 9-dan for pro players).

There have been cash awards (on the order of a million dollars in at least one instance) put out on the table for developers who could write a Go program capable of beating a certain level player. So far, nobody's succeeded. MindZine has a nice (albeit a bit dated) article explaining why this is.

When a computer can play a really strong game of Go, I'll be impressed. :)

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Like the Mind Sports Olympiad, perchance?

Mind sports already have their own "Olympic games" : see The Mind Sport Olympics. Not only for chess, but also numerous other mind sport games, and variations on them. A bit redundant to put them into the "official" olympics too.
Then again, think of the possibilities for expanded paralympics: chess-matches for people with IQ lower then 120.....

What happened to them sounded pretty lame, I hate it when people can't just fess up and admit they made a mistake.

The rules sounded somewhat weird, but it's probably no weirder than the programming contest I've been doing lately (its monthly, so hold your horses). (and MazeMan can admit he makes mistakes. :)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Heh heh heh.

This one. Since I told you about it, send me $50 if you win or something. ;)

Anyhow, I wrote my entry in C on Linux, it's like under 4k and runs in 80ms. I think the last version I submitted actually works correctly too, which really matters more. But it's a pretty simple problem. I just didn't want to change my simple algorithm any more. :)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.