World Memory Championships
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.
The current WMSC World Champion is Ms. Emma Alam of Pakistan.[3]
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:
- One hour numbers (23712892....)
- 5-minute numbers
- Spoken numbers, read out one per second
- 30-minute binary digits (011100110001001....)
- One hour playing cards (as many decks of cards as possible)
- 15-minute random lists of words (house, playing, orphan, encyclopedia....)
- 15-minute names and faces
- 5-minute historic dates (fictional events and historic years)
- 15-minute abstract images (WMSC, black and white randomly generated spots) / 5-minute random images (IAM, concrete images)
- 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 | Dominic O'Brien |
2 | 1993 | London | Dominic O'Brien |
3 | 1994 | London | Jonathan Hancock |
4 | 1995 | London | Dominic O'Brien |
5 | 1996 | London | Dominic O'Brien |
6 | 1997 | London | Dominic O'Brien |
7 | 1998 | London | Andi Bell |
8 | 1999 | London | Dominic O'Brien |
9 | 2000 | London | Dominic O'Brien |
10 | 2001 | London | Dominic O'Brien |
11 | 2002 | London | Andi Bell |
12 | 2003 | Kuala Lumpur | Andi Bell |
13 | 2004 | Manchester | Ben Pridmore |
14 | 2005 | Oxford | Clemens Mayer |
15 | 2006 | London | Clemens Mayer |
16 | 2007 | Bahrain | Gunther Karsten |
17 | 2008 | Bahrain | Ben Pridmore |
18 | 2009 | London | Ben Pridmore |
19 | 2010 | Guangzhou | Wang Feng |
20 | 2011 | Guangzhou | Wang Feng |
21 | 2012 | London | Johannes Mallow |
22 | 2013 | London | Jonas von Essen |
23 | 2014 | Hainan | Jonas von Essen |
24 | 2015 | Chengdu | Alex Mullen |
25 | 2016* | Singapore | Alex Mullen |
IAM world champions (2017–present)
WMSC world champions (2017–present)
|
- * – 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.[11]
- – For comparison, WMSC point totals above from 2017 onward have been normalized using the IAM scoring standards in effect at the time of competition.[12][13] The point component for the abstract images event, which is not performed at IAM events, was not adjusted.
- – Narmandakh also attended the 2017 IAM World Championship, finishing second behind Mullen, who did not compete in the WMSC event.[14]** – 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.[15]
- – For comparison, WMSC point totals above from 2017 onward have been normalized using the IAM scoring standards in effect at the time of competition.[16][17] The point component for the abstract images event, which is not performed at IAM events, was not adjusted.
- – Narmandakh also attended the 2017 IAM World Championship, finishing second behind Mullen, who did not compete in the WMSC event.[18]
Records
An up-to-date list of world and national records can be found on the International Association of Memory Statistics website,[19] and the World Memory Statistics website.[20] The best of them are listed in the following table.
See also
References
- The World Memory Championships - Memory Training - Accelerated Learning
- "World Memory Championships | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.com. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
- Alam, Emma. "World Memory Championship 2020" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
- "World Memory Championships 2017 Overall | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- "World Memory Championship 2018 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
- "World Memory Championships 2019 | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- "26th World Memory Championships, Shenzhen, China Full results | World Memory Championships" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- "27th World Memory Championships, Hong Kong, China Full results | World Memory Championships". www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2018-12-23.
- "World Memory Championship 2019 | World Memory Championships" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
- "World Memory Championship 2020 | World Memory Championships" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
- "World Memory Championships | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- "Scores | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- "Score Calculator | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- "International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
- "World Memory Championships | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- "Scores | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- "Score Calculator | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- "International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
- "World Records | International Association of Memory statistics". iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
- "World Records | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
External links
- World Memory Championships website
- WMSC Statistics website
- IAM website
- IAM Statistics website
- Memoriad - World Memory Olympics website
- Memory Ladder - for Android
- Mnemonics - for iPhone/iPad
- List of Memory Competitions
- RNG v1.0 Random Number Generator for training Working Memory