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 current WMSC world champion is Huang Jinyao of China.[4] The current IAM world champion is Tenuun Tamir of Mongolia.[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 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

33th 2024  Vietnam

  • * – 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.[6]
  • § – 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[7] and WMSC.[8] The best of them are listed in the following table.

DisciplineRecordAthleteEvent
Hour numbers4620 digits Ryu Song IWMSC World Championship 2019
5-minute numbers642 digits Wei QinruKorea Open Memory Championship 2024
Spoken numbers547 digits Ryu Song IWMSC World Championship 2019
30-minute binary digits7485 digits Ryu Song IWMSC World Championship 2019
Hour cards2530 cards Kim Su RimWMSC World Championship 2019
Speed cards12.74 seconds Shijir-Erdene Bat-EnkhIAM Korea Open 2018
15-minute random words335 words Prateek YadavWMSC World Championship 2019
15-minute names and faces224 names Katie KermodeIAM World Championship 2018
5-minute historic dates154 dates Prateek YadavWMSC World Championship 2019
15-minute abstract images (WMSC)1048 points Huang JinyaoChina Memory Championships 2022
5-minute random images (IAM)618 points Dang Ngoc Phuong TrinhIAM World Memory Championship 2023

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. https://www.worldmemorychampionships.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/WMC32-Ranking-and-Results-Dec-13.pdf. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2024-04-02. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  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. https://www.wmc-asia.com/final-results-of-world-memory-championships-vietnam-tournament/
  11. "Asia Memory Sports Alliance". www.asia-memory.org. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
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