World Memory Championships

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The cards to be used in the competition Memory Sports.jpg
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.

Contents

The current WMSC world champion is Enkhjargal Uuriintsolmon of Mongolia. [4] The current IAM world champion is Enrico Marraffa 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

World Champions (1991-2016)

#YearVenueWinner
11991London Flag of England.svg Dominic O'Brien
21993London Flag of England.svg Dominic O'Brien
31994London Flag of England.svg Jonathan Hancock
41995London Flag of England.svg Dominic O'Brien
51996London Flag of England.svg Dominic O'Brien
61997London Flag of England.svg Dominic O'Brien
71998London Flag of England.svg Andi Bell
81999London Flag of England.svg Dominic O'Brien
92000London Flag of England.svg Dominic O'Brien
102001London Flag of England.svg Dominic O'Brien
112002London Flag of England.svg Andi Bell
122003 Kuala Lumpur Flag of England.svg Andi Bell
132004 Manchester Flag of England.svg Ben Pridmore
142005 Oxford Flag of Germany.svg Clemens Mayer
152006London Flag of Germany.svg Clemens Mayer
162007 Bahrain Flag of Germany.svg Gunther Karsten
172008Bahrain Flag of England.svg Ben Pridmore
182009London Flag of England.svg Ben Pridmore
192010 Guangzhou Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Wang Feng
202011Guangzhou Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Wang Feng
212012London Flag of Germany.svg Johannes Mallow
222013London Flag of Sweden.svg Jonas von Essen
232014 Hainan Flag of Sweden.svg Jonas von Essen
242015 Chengdu Flag of the United States.svg Alex Mullen
252016* Singapore Flag of the United States.svg Alex Mullen


Records

Up-to-date lists of world and national records can be found on the statistics websites of the IAM [7] and WMSC. [8] The best of them are listed in the following table.

DisciplineRecordAthleteEvent
Hour numbers4620 digits Flag of North Korea.svg Ryu Song I WMSC World Championship 2019
5-minute numbers642 digits Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Wei Qinru Korea Open Memory Championship 2024
Spoken numbers660 digits Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Hu Xueyan WMSC World Championship 2024
30-minute binary digits7485 digits Flag of North Korea.svg Ryu Song I WMSC World Championship 2019
Hour cards2530 cards Flag of North Korea.svg Kim Su Rim WMSC World Championship 2019
Speed cards12.74 seconds Flag of Mongolia.svg Shijir-Erdene Bat-Enkh IAM Korea Open 2018
15-minute random words335 words Flag of India.svg Prateek Yadav WMSC World Championship 2019
15-minute names and faces224 names Flag of England.svg Katie Kermode IAM World Championship 2018
5-minute historic dates154 dates Flag of India.svg Prateek Yadav WMSC World Championship 2019
15-minute abstract images (WMSC)1048 points Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Huang Jinyao China Memory Championships 2022
5-minute random images (IAM)711 points Flag of Italy.svg Enrico MarraffaIAM World Championship 2024

Championships by country

CountryTitles [1]
Flag of England.svg  England 15
Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 5
Flag of Mongolia.svg  Mongolia 5
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 4
Flag of the United States.svg  USA 3
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 2
Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 2
Flag of North Korea.svg  North Korea 1
Flag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan 1

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The World Memory Championships - Memory Training - Accelerated Learning". Archived from the original on 2012-06-17. Retrieved 2007-01-26.
  2. ↑ "World Memory Championships | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.com. Archived from the original on 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  3. ↑ "International Association of Memory | Memory Sports". memory-sports.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-06. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  4. ↑ "WMC 2024". The World Memory Championships. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
  5. ↑ "IAM Statistics". iam-stats.org. Archived from the original on 2024-04-12. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  6. ↑ "World Memory Championships | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  7. ↑ "World Records | International Association of Memory statistics". iam-stats.org. Archived from the original on 2019-10-24. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
  8. ↑ "World Records | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
  9. ↑ "Final Results of the 4th Asia Pacific Open Memory Championships – Asia Pacific Memory Sports Council & The World Memory Championships" (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  10. ↑ "Final Results of the 2024 World Memory Championships Vietnam Tournament on Jan.27th-28th – Asia Pacific Memory Sports Council & The World Memory Championships".
  11. ↑ "Asia Memory Sports Alliance". www.asia-memory.org. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
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