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 WMSC (World Memory Sports Council), which was jointly founded by Tony Buzan and Ray Keene. In 2016, due to the dispute between some players and WMSC, the IAM (International Association of Memory) was launched.[3] In 2017, both organizations hosted their own world championships.
The current IAM world champion is Alex Mullen of the US.[4] The current WMSC world champion is Munkhshur Narmandakh of Mongolia.[5] Narmandakh also attended the 2017 IAM World Championship, finishing second behind Mullen, who did not compete in the WMSC event.[6]
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 | |
2 | 1993 | London | |
3 | 1994 | London | |
4 | 1995 | London | |
5 | 1996 | London | |
6 | 1997 | London | |
7 | 1998 | London | |
8 | 1999 | London | |
9 | 2000 | London | |
10 | 2001 | London | |
11 | 2002 | London | |
12 | 2003 | Kuala Lumpur | |
13 | 2004 | Manchester | |
14 | 2005 | Oxford | |
15 | 2006 | London | |
16 | 2007 | Bahrain | |
17 | 2008 | Bahrain | |
18 | 2009 | London | |
19 | 2010 | Guangzhou | |
20 | 2011 | Guangzhou | |
21 | 2012 | London | |
22 | 2013 | London | |
23 | 2014 | Hainan | |
24 | 2015 | Chengdu | |
25 | 2016* | Singapore |
IAM world champions (2017–present)
|
WMSC world champions (2017–present)
|
Notes:
- * – 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.[9]
– For comparison, WMSC point totals above from 2017 onward have been normalized using the IAM scoring standards in effect at the time of competition.[10][11]
– Narmandakh also attended the 2017 IAM World Championship, finishing second behind Mullen, who did not compete in the WMSC event.[12]
Records
An up-to-date list of world and national records can be found on the International Association of Memory Statistics website,[13] and the World Memory Statistics website.[14] The best of them are listed in the following table.
Discipline | Record | Athlete | Event |
---|---|---|---|
Hour numbers | 3238 digits | IAM World Championships 2017 | |
5-minute numbers | 568 digits | IAM World Championships 2017 | |
Spoken numbers | 456 digits | World Championships 2015 | |
30-minute binary digits | 6270 digits | IAM Asia Championships 2017 | |
Hour cards | 1924 cards | WMSC World Championships 2017 | |
15-minute random words | 318 words | IAM European Open 2016 | |
15-minute names and faces | 212 points | IAM World Championships 2017 | |
5-minute historic dates | 133 dates | IAM World Championships 2017 | |
15-minute abstract images | 672 points | WMSC Asia Pacific Championships 2017 | |
5-minute random images | 360 points | Korea Open 2018 | |
Speed cards | 12.74 seconds | Korea Open 2018 |
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.
- ↑ "International Association of Memory | Memory Sports". memory-sports.com. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
- ↑ "World Memory Championships 2017 Overall | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.com. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
- ↑ "2017 WMC | World Memory Championships". www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
- ↑ "International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.com. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
- ↑ "World Memory Championships 2017 Overall | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.com. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- ↑ "26th World Memory Championships, Shenzhen, China Full results | World Memory Championships" (PDF). www.worldmemorychampionships.com. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- ↑ "World Memory Championships | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.com. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
- ↑ "Scores | International Association of Memory Statistics". www.iam-stats.com. 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.com. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
- ↑ "IAM World and National Records | International Association of Memory statistics". iam-stats.com. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
- ↑ "WMSC World and National Records | World Memory Statistics". www.world-memory-statistics.com. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
External links
- World Memory Championships 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