The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of
memory sports in which competitors
memorize
Memorization (British English: memorisation) is the process of committing something to memory. It is a mental process undertaken in order to store in memory for later recall visual, auditory, or tactical information.
The scientific study of mem ...
as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of 1992. It was originated by
Tony Buzan
Anthony Peter "Tony" Buzan (; 2 June 1942 – 13 April 2019) was an English author and educational consultant.
Buzan popularised the idea of mental literacy, radiant thinking, and a technique called mind mapping, inspired by techniques used by ...
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. From 2017 onward, both organizations have hosted their own world championships.
The current WMSC world champion is Enkhjargal Uuriintsolmon of Mongolia. The current IAM world champion is Enrico Marraffa of Italy.
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
World Champions (1991-2016)
IAM world champions (2017–present)
International Association of Memory
WMSC world champions (2017–present)
WMSC (
World Memory Sports Council)
* – 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.
*§ – 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 and WMSC. The best of them are listed in the following table.
Championships by country
See also
*
World championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
*
Eidetic memory
Eidetic memory ( ), also known as photographic memory and total recall, is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''photogr ...
*
Grand Master of Memory
Grand Master of Memory (GMM) is a title previously awarded by thWorld Memory Sports Councilto people who are able to successfully negotiate the following three memory feats:
*Memorise 1,400 random digits in an hour
*Memorise the order of 14 decks o ...
*
List of world championships in mind sports
This article gives a list of world championships in mind sports which usually represent the most prestigious competition for a specific board game, card game or mind sport. World championships can only be held for most games or mind sports with th ...
*
Memory sport
Memory sport, sometimes referred to as competitive memory or the mind sport of memory, refers to competitions in which participants attempt to memorize then recall different forms of information, under certain guidelines. The sport has been formal ...
*
Method of loci
The method of loci is a strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, journey ...
*
Mnemonist
The title mnemonist refers to an individual with the ability to remember and recall unusually long lists of data, such as unfamiliar names, lists of numbers, entries in books, etc. Some mnemonists also memorize texts such as long poems, speeches, o ...
*
Mnemonic major system
The mnemonic major system (also called the phonetic number system, phonetic mnemonic system, or Hérigone's mnemonic system) is a mnemonic technique used to help in memorizing numbers.
The system works by converting numbers into consonants, then i ...
*
Extreme Memory Tournament
Memory League is a memory competition platform originally founded and created by Nelson Dellis and Simon Orton under the name Extreme Memory Tournament (XMT).
Memory League differs from traditional memory competitions in the fact that it is entir ...
*
World Junior Memory Championships
*
World Mind Sports Games
The World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) was a multi-sport event created by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) as a "stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games (after the Summer and the Winter Olympics)".
The ...
*
Mind Sports Olympiad
The Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) is an annual international multi-sport event, multi-disciplined competition and festival for game of skill, games of mental skill and mind sports by Mind Sports Organisation. The inaugural event was held in 1997 i ...
*
Memory sport
Memory sport, sometimes referred to as competitive memory or the mind sport of memory, refers to competitions in which participants attempt to memorize then recall different forms of information, under certain guidelines. The sport has been formal ...
*
Mind sport
A mind sport is a game of skill based on intellectual ability.
Etymology
The first major use of the term was as a result of the Mind Sports Olympiad in 1997. The phrase had been used prior to this event such as backgammon being described as a ...
*
Mind Sports Organisation
The Mind Sports Organisation (MSO) is an association for promoting mind sports including Contract Bridge, Chess, Go, Mastermind, and Scrabble. Since 1997 it has annually organised in England a multi-sport competition, the Mind Sports Olympiad.
...
*
International Association of Memory
*
Mental Calculation World Cup
*
Mental calculation
Mental calculation (also known as mental computation) consists of arithmetical calculations made by the mind, within the brain, with no help from any supplies (such as pencil and paper) or devices such as a calculator. People may use menta ...
*
Mental abacus
The abacus system of mental calculation is a system where users mentally visualize an abacus to carry out arithmetical calculations. No physical abacus is used; only the answers are written down. Calculations can be made at great speed in this way ...
*
WorldSkills
WorldSkills is an international charity that organises world and national championships for vocational education, vocational skills and is held every two years in different parts of the world, and also hosts conferences about vocational skills. Wo ...
* Memoride
* Asian Memory Championship - The first Asia Memory Open in 2020 / 2010
* Robo Cup
* Patent
* World competition of inventions
References
External links
World Memory Championships websiteWMSC Statistics websiteIAM websiteIAM Statistics websiteMemoriad - World Memory Olympics websiteList of Memory CompetitionsRandom Number Generator for training Working Memory
{{Memory
Memory games
International competitions
Memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...
Recurring sporting events established in 1991