How to watch curling at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022

"Chess on ice". If something like that takes your fancy, watching curling at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 might be up your street.

A historical sport with roots in 16th Century Scotland – the first recorded newspaper report about curling was published in February 1740 – this strategic, tactical game of precision captures the public's imagination at every Games.

This self-refereed sport, in which players are expected to uphold the unwritten spirit of curling, is also high on sportsmanship and respect.

Competition begins on Wednesday 2 February with the mixed doubles, while the men's team tournament starts on Wednesday 9 February and the women's a day later.

Read on to find out the schedule of events and what to look out for while you're watching the sport.

Curling disciplines and events at Beijing 2022

There are three events in two curling disciplines at Beijing 2022: mixed doubles, and the team events in men's and women's curling.

A total of 34 teams – 10 in mixed doubles and 12 each in the team events – will compete from 2 February, two days ahead of the Opening Ceremony, to the last day of the Games on 20 February.

In all three events, the teams compete in a single round-robin before the top four qualify for the semi-finals.

However, there are a few differences. Each team gets six rocks an end (five thrown) in eight ends of play in mixed doubles, compared to eight rocks an end for ten ends in the team event.

The team that scores the most points at the end of the game wins.

Curling stars to watch at Beijing 2022

It's usually hard to look past the traditional curling powerhouses of Canada, who in the two team events last year are represented by teams skipped by Olympic champions Brad Gushue (Torino 2006) and Jennifer Jones (Sochi 2014).

There's also Sweden to watch out for, with men's world champion Niklas Edin and women's defending Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg.

Great Britain's Bruce Mouat is due to compete in both the men's team and mixed doubles, and reached the world championship final in both events this year, winning men's team silver and mixed doubles gold.

There are also the veterans to keep an eye on, like Eve Muirhead (Great Britain women) and USA's Tabitha Peterson (women) and John Shuster (men).

Competition schedule

Venue: Beijing National Aquatics Centre
Dates: Wednesday 2 February–Sunday 20 February

All times are Beijing local China Standard Time (UTC +8 hours) and schedules are subject to change.

Wednesday 2 February
20:05 Mixed doubles: SWE vs GBR, AUS vs USA, NOR vs CZE, CHN vs SUI

Thursday 3 February
09:05 Mixed doubles: AUS vs CHN, SWE vs CZE, USA vs ITA, GBR vs CAN
14:05 Mixed doubles: ITA vs SUI, USA vs NOR
20:05 Mixed doubles: NOR vs CAN, SUI vs GBR, CHN vs SWE, CZE vs AUS

Friday 4 February
08:35 Mixed doubles: SWE vs AUS, CAN vs SUI, ITA vs NOR
13:35 Mixed doubles: CZE vs ITA, CHN vs CAN, GBR vs AUS, SWE vs USA

Saturday 5 February
09:05 Mixed doubles: AUS vs NOR, SUI vs SWE
14:05 Mixed doubles: CHN vs USA, CZE vs GBR, SWE vs CAN, AUS vs ITA
20:05 Mixed doubles: GBR vs ITA, NOR vs CHN, CZE vs SUI, USA vs CAN

Sunday 6 February
09:05 Mixed doubles: USA vs CZE, GBR vs CHN
14:05 Mixed doubles: NOR vs SWE, AUS vs SUI, ITA vs CHN, CAN vs CZE
20:05 Mixed doubles: CAN vs AUS, ITA vs SWE, SUI vs USA, NOR vs GBR

Monday 7 February
09:05 Mixed doubles: SUI vs NOR, CAN vs ITA, USA vs GBR, CZE vs CHN
20:05 Mixed doubles: Semi-finals

Tuesday 8 February
14:05 Mixed doubles: Bronze-medal game
20:05 Mixed doubles: Gold-medal game

Wednesday 9 February
20:05 Men: DEN vs CAN, USA vs ROC, NOR vs SUI, CHN vs SWE

Thursday 10 February
09:05 Women: GBR vs SUI, DEN vs CHN, SWE vs JPN, ROC vs USA
14:05 Men: USA vs SWE, NOR vs CAN, CHN vs ROC, GBR vs ITA
20:05 Women: CAN vs KOR, SWE vs GBR, USA vs DEN, CHN vs SUI

Friday 11 February
09:05 Men: SUI vs ROC, GBR vs USA, SWE vs ITA, DEN vs CHN
14:05 Women: USA vs CHN, CAN vs JPN, SUI vs ROC, KOR vs GBR
20:05 Men: ROC vs DEN, GBR vs NOR, CAN vs SUI

Saturday 12 February
09:05 Women: SWE vs CAN, KOR vs ROC, JPN vs DEN
14:05 Men: ITA vs CHN, CAN vs SWE, DEN vs SUI, USA vs NOR
20:05 Women: ROC vs JPN, DEN vs SUI, GBR vs USA, SWE vs CHN

Sunday 13 February
09:05 Men: NOR vs SWE, CHN vs GBR, USA vs CAN, ITA vs ROC
14:05 Women: DEN vs GBR, USA vs SWE, KOR vs CHN, SUI vs CAN
20:05 Men: GBR vs DEN, SUI vs ITA, CHN vs USA

Monday 14 February
09:05 Women: CHN vs JPN, CAN vs ROC, USA vs KOR
14:05 Men: CAN vs ITA, DEN vs NOR, ROC vs SWE, SUI vs GBR
20:05 Women: SUI vs SWE, GBR vs CAN, JPN vs KOR, DEN vs ROC

Tuesday 15 February
09:05 Men: ROC vs NOR, CAN vs CHN, SUI vs USA, SWE vs DEN
14:05 Women: CHN vs ROC, SWE vs DEN, USA vs SUI, GBR vs JPN
20:05 Men: SWE vs GBR, ITA vs USA, NOR vs CHN, ROC vs CAN

Wednesday 16 February
09:05 Women: CAN vs USA, SUI vs KOR, CHN vs GBR
14:05 Men: CHN vs SUI, GBR vs ROC, ITA vs DEN
20:05 Women: KOR vs DEN, JPN vs USA, ROC vs SWE, CAN vs CHN

Thursday 17 February
09:05 Men: DEN vs USA, SWE vs SUI, CAN vs GBR, NOR vs ITA
14:05 Women: JPN vs SUI, ROC vs GBR, DEN vs CAN, KOR vs SWE
20:05 Men: Semi-finals

Friday 18 February
14:05 Men: Bronze-medal game
20:05 Women: Semi-finals

Saturday 19 February
14:05 Men: Gold-medal game
20:05 Women: Bronze-medal game

Sunday 20 February
09:05 Women: Gold-medal game

How to watch curling at Beijing 2022

Curling is all about getting your stones closer to the centre button of the house (scoring area) than your opponents.

But during a game, you'll often see the athletes shouting at their teammates who are sweeping. Great Britain men's skip Bruce Mouat explains to Olympics.com: "We yell because it's the best way to communicate.

"The curling sheet is about, I think it's 44 metres long. So we basically need to yell to communicate, and it's probably the easiest way to kind of get down what you're trying to say to the teammates that you're playing with."

But why sweep? Why does everyone have brooms? It depends – a skip and his teammates use them for different reasons.

Here's Mouat again: "For me, I use it to direct and where I want the stones to go. The boys use it to sweep, which can increase or maintain the speed of the stone and the direction of the stone."

However, that doesn't apply in mixed doubles, where both players on a team have to sweep – and the teammate playing the three middle shots of five in each end has extra work. Additionally, there isn't a skip to help direct the rocks.

Australia's Dean Hewitt, one half of the country's first curling Olympic team (at a medal event), says: "The difference is having you throw a rock and get up and sweep it yourself, like having to actually judge it yourself and then having to go back to the hack and throw again when your heart rate is really high.

Hewitt's teammate Tahli Gill adds that mixed doubles tends to be more of an open game.

The game itself feels more fast paced, and I know a lot of people say you never feel safe in mixed doubles," she notes. "You could be setting really good, but then someone throws an absolute pistol and you're like, 'Oh, we're not safe anymore.' So it just can change so quickly. You have to be thinking all the time about what are you going to do, what are they going to do, what are you going to do."

Hewitt adds: "You can be up three or four in the last end and in men's or women's, that's just game over, you may as well shake hands, but in mixed doubles, it's tough to defend that."

All that adds up to an incredible sport to watch.