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 Munkhshur Narmandakh of Mongolia.[4] The current IAM world champion is Andrea Muzii of Italy.[5]
The World Championships consist of ten different disciplines, where the competitors have to memorize as much as they can in a period of time:
# | 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)[edit]
WMSC world champions (2017–present)[edit]
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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.
Discipline | Record | Athlete | Event |
---|---|---|---|
Hour numbers | 4620 digits | ![]() |
WMSC World Championships 2019 |
5-minute numbers | 630 digits | ![]() |
IAM MemoryXL German Championships 2021 |
Spoken numbers | 547 digits | ![]() |
WMSC World Championships 2019 |
30-minute binary digits | 7485 digits | ![]() |
WMSC World Championships 2019 |
Hour cards | 2530 cards | ![]() |
WMSC World Championships 2019 |
Speed cards | 12.74 seconds | ![]() |
IAM Korea Open 2018 |
15-minute random words | 410 words | ![]() |
WMSC World Memory Championship 2020 |
15-minute names and faces | 224 names | ![]() |
IAM World Memory Championship 2018 |
5-minute historic dates | 241 dates | ![]() |
WMSC World Championships 2020 |
15-minute abstract images (WMSC) | 975 points | ![]() |
WMSC World Championships 2021 |
5-minute random images (IAM) | 547 points | ![]() |
IAM Swedish Open Championship 2021 |