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. 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 cards to be used in the competition

The current WMSC world champion is Munkhshur Narmandakh of Mongolia.[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 (1991-2022)
#YearVenueWinner
11991London Dominic O'Brien
21993London Dominic O'Brien
31994London Jonathan Hancock
41995London Dominic O'Brien
51996London Dominic O'Brien
61997London Dominic O'Brien
71998London Andi Bell
81999London Dominic O'Brien
92000London Dominic O'Brien
102001London Dominic O'Brien
112002London Andi Bell
122003Kuala Lumpur Andi Bell
132004Manchester Ben Pridmore
142005Oxford Clemens Mayer
152006London Clemens Mayer
162007Bahrain Gunther Karsten
172008Bahrain Ben Pridmore
182009London Ben Pridmore
192010Guangzhou Wang Feng
202011Guangzhou Wang Feng
212012London Johannes Mallow
222013London Jonas von Essen
232014Hainan Jonas von Essen
242015Chengdu Alex Mullen
252016*Singapore 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.[14]
  • – For comparison, WMSC point totals above from 2017 onward have been normalized using the IAM scoring standards in effect at the time of competition (with the exceptions of 2020 and 2021, in which no IAM World Championships were held).[15][16] 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.[17]
  • § – Athletes generally competed in their respective countries given COVID-19 restrictions, with results combined to determine the world champion.

Records

Up-to-date lists of world and national records can be found on the statistics websites of the IAM[18] and WMSC.[19] The best of them are listed in the following table.

DisciplineRecordAthleteEvent
Hour numbers4620 digits Ryu Song IWMSC World Championships 2019
5-minute numbers630 digits Andrea MuziiIAM MemoryXL German Championships 2021
Spoken numbers547 digits Ryu Song IWMSC World Championships 2019
30-minute binary digits7485 digits Ryu Song IWMSC World Championships 2019
Hour cards2530 cards Kim Su RimWMSC World Championships 2019
Speed cards12.74 seconds Shijir-Erdene Bat-EnkhIAM Korea Open 2018
15-minute random words318 words Katie KermodeIAM European Memory Championship 2016
15-minute names and faces224 names Katie KermodeIAM World Memory Championship 2018
5-minute historic dates154 dates Prateek YadavWMSC World Championships 2019
15-minute abstract images (WMSC)756 points Zhang XingrongWMSC World Championships 2018
5-minute random images (IAM)547 points Yolan CohenIAM Swedish Open Championship 2021

See also

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. "Final result of 30th World Memory Championships | World Memory Championships". www.worldmemorychampionships.com/. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  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. "Final result of 30th World Memory Championships | World Memory Championships". www.worldmemorychampionships.com/. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  14. "World Memory Championships | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  15. "Scores | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  16. "Score Calculator | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  17. "International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  18. "World Records | International Association of Memory statistics". iam-stats.org. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
  19. "World Records | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
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