World Memory Championships

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The cards to be used in the competition

The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time.[1] The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of 1992.[2] It was originated by Tony Buzan and co founded by Tony Buzan and Ray Keene. It continues to be organized by the World Memory Sports Council (WMSC), which was jointly founded by Tony Buzan and Ray Keene. In 2016, due to a dispute between some players and the WMSC, the International Association of Memory (IAM) was launched.[3] From 2017 onward, both organizations have hosted their own world championships.

The current WMSC world champion is Emma Alam of Pakistan.[4] The current IAM world champion is Andrea Muzii of Italy.[5]

Format[]

The World Championships consist of ten different disciplines, where the competitors have to memorize as much as they can in a period of time:

  1. One hour numbers (23712892....)
  2. 5-minute numbers
  3. Spoken numbers, read out one per second
  4. 30-minute binary digits (011100110001001....)
  5. One hour playing cards (as many decks of cards as possible)
  6. 15-minute random lists of words (house, playing, orphan, encyclopedia....)
  7. 15-minute names and faces
  8. 5-minute historic dates (fictional events and historic years)
  9. 15-minute abstract images (WMSC, black and white randomly generated spots) / 5-minute random images (IAM, concrete images)
  10. Speed cards - Always the last discipline. Memorize the order of one shuffled deck of 52 playing cards as fast as possible.

Venues and winners[]

Undisputed world champions (1991-2016)[]

# Year Venue Winner
1 1991 London England Dominic O'Brien
2 1993 London England Dominic O'Brien
3 1994 London England Jonathan Hancock
4 1995 London England Dominic O'Brien
5 1996 London England Dominic O'Brien
6 1997 London England Dominic O'Brien
7 1998 London England Andi Bell
8 1999 London England Dominic O'Brien
9 2000 London England Dominic O'Brien
10 2001 London England Dominic O'Brien
11 2002 London England Andi Bell
12 2003 Kuala Lumpur England Andi Bell
13 2004 Manchester England Ben Pridmore
14 2005 Oxford Germany Clemens Mayer
15 2006 London Germany Clemens Mayer
16 2007 Bahrain Germany Gunther Karsten
17 2008 Bahrain England Ben Pridmore
18 2009 London England Ben Pridmore
19 2010 Guangzhou China Wang Feng
20 2011 Guangzhou China Wang Feng
21 2012 London Germany Johannes Mallow
22 2013 London Sweden Jonas von Essen
23 2014 Hainan Sweden Jonas von Essen
24 2015 Chengdu United States Alex Mullen
25 2016* Singapore United States Alex Mullen
  • * – The 2016 World Championships was hosted by the WMSC and was the first world championship not recognized by the IAM, who did not host their own world championship that year.[13]
  • dagger – For comparison, WMSC point totals above from 2017 onward have been normalized using the IAM scoring standards in effect at the time of competition.[14][15] The point component for the abstract images event, which is not performed at IAM events, was not adjusted.
  • double-dagger – Narmandakh also attended the 2017 IAM World Championship, finishing second behind Mullen, who did not compete in the WMSC event.[16]

Records[]

Up-to-date lists of world and national records can be found on the statistics websites of the IAM[17] and WMSC.[18] The best of them are listed in the following table.

Discipline Record Athlete Event
Hour numbers 4620 digits North Korea WMSC World Championships 2019
5-minute numbers 630 digits Italy Andrea Muzii IAM MemoryXL German Championships 2021
Spoken numbers 547 digits North Korea WMSC World Championships 2019
30-minute binary digits 7485 digits North Korea WMSC World Championships 2019
Hour cards 2530 cards North Korea WMSC World Championships 2019
Speed cards 12.74 seconds Mongolia IAM Korea Open 2018
15-minute random words 318 words England IAM European Memory Championship 2016
15-minute names and faces 224 names England IAM World Memory Championship 2018
5-minute historic dates 154 dates India WMSC World Championships 2019
15-minute abstract images (WMSC) 756 points China WMSC World Championships 2018
5-minute random images (IAM) 547 points France IAM Swedish Open Championship 2021

See also[]

  • World championship
  • Eidetic memory
  • Grand Master of Memory
  • List of world championships in mind sports
  • Memory sport
  • Method of loci
  • Mnemonist
  • Mnemonic major system
  • Extreme Memory Tournament
  • World Junior Memory Championships
  • World Mind Sports Games
  • Mind Sports Olympiad
  • Memory sport
  • Mind sport
  • Mind Sports Organisation
  • International Association of Memory
  • Mental Calculation World Cup
  • Mental calculation
  • Mental abacus
  • WorldSkills

References[]

  1. ^ The World Memory Championships - Memory Training - Accelerated Learning
  2. ^ "World Memory Championships | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.com. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  3. ^ "International Association of Memory | Memory Sports". memory-sports.com. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  4. ^ Alam, Emma. "World Memory Championship 2020" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  5. ^ "World Memory Championships 2019 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  6. ^ "World Memory Championships 2017 Overall | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  7. ^ "World Memory Championship 2018 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
  8. ^ "World Memory Championships 2019 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
  9. ^ "26th World Memory Championships, Shenzhen, China Full results | World Memory Championships" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  10. ^ "27th World Memory Championships, Hong Kong, China Full results | World Memory Championships". www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
  11. ^ "World Memory Championship 2019 | World Memory Championships" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  12. ^ "World Memory Championship 2020 | World Memory Championships" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  13. ^ "World Memory Championships | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  14. ^ "Scores | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  15. ^ "Score Calculator | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  16. ^ "International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  17. ^ "World Records | International Association of Memory statistics". iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
  18. ^ "World Records | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-19.

External links[]

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