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. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of 1992. 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. From 2017 onward, both organizations have hosted their own world championships.

The current WMSC world champion is Naranzul Otgon-Ulaan of Mongolia. The current IAM world champion is Vishvaa Rajakumar of India.

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) # 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 Manama Gunther Karsten 17 2008 Manama 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 Haikou Jonas von Essen 24 2015 Chengdu Alex Mullen 25 2016 Singapore Alex Mullen

WMSC world champions (2017–present)

WMSC (World Memory Sports Council)

# Year Venue Winner Combined Rankings262017Shenzhen Munkhshur Narmandakh Non-Champion272018Hong Kong Wei Qinru Champion282019Wuhan Ryu Song I Champion292020Karachi§ Emma Alam -302021Ulaanbaatar§ Munkhshur Narmandakh -312022Ulaanbaatar§ Tenuun Tamir -322023Sanya Huang Jinyao Champion332024Istanbul Enkhjargal Uuriintsolmon Champion342025Ho Chi Minh City Naranzul Otgon-Ulaan Champion

IAM world champions (2017–present) International Association of Memory

# Year Venue Winner Combined Rankings 1 2017 Jakarta Alex Mullen Champion 2 2018 Vienna Johannes Mallow Non-Champion 3 2019 Zhuhai Andrea Muzii Non-Champion - 2020 Competition Not Held - 2021 Competition Not Held - 2022 Competition Not Held 4 2023 Mumbai Tenuun Tamir Non-Champion 5 2024 Lund Enrico Marraffa Non-Champion 6 2025 Mumbai Vishvaa Rajakumar Non-Champion

– 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. Discipline Record Athlete Event Hour numbers 4620 digits Ryu Song I WMSC World Championship 2019 5-minute numbers 642 digits Wei Qinru IMO Korea Open Memory Championship 2024 Spoken numbers 660 digits Hu Xueyan WMSC World Championship 2024 30-minute binary digits 7485 digits Ryu Song I WMSC World Championship 2019 Hour cards 2530 cards Kim Su Rim WMSC World Championship 2019 Speed cards 12.74 seconds Shijir-Erdene Bat-Enkh IAM Korea Open 2018 15-minute random words 335 words Prateek Yadav WMSC World Championship 2019 15-minute names and faces 224 names Katie Kermode IAM World Championship 2018 5-minute historic dates 154 dates Prateek Yadav WMSC World Championship 2019 15-minute abstract images (WMSC) 1048 points Huang Jinyao WMSC China Memory Championships 2022 5-minute random images (IAM) 775 points Enrico Marraffa IAM French Open Memory Championship 2025

Championships by country CountryTitles1555432211

World Memory Championships

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