World Memory Championships

The cards to be played in the competition

The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of mental 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 and has been staged by various organisations. The first winner was Dominic O'Brien.

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 Minutes Binary Digits (011100110001001....)
One Hour Playing Cards (as many decks of cards as possible)
Random Lists of Words (House, playing, Orphan, Encyclopedia....)
Names and Faces (15 minutes, world record: 164 names)
5 min Historic Dates (fictional events and historic years)
Abstract Images (black and white randomly generated spots)
Speed Cards - Always the last discipline. Memorize the order of one shuffled deck of 52 playing cards as fast as possible. World record: 21.19 seconds.

Venues and Winners of World Memory Championships

Year	Venue	Winner
1991	London	Dominic O'Brien
1993	London	Dominic O'Brien
1994	London	Jonathan Hancock
1995	London	Dominic O'Brien
1996	London	Dominic O'Brien
1997	London	Dominic O'Brien
1998	London	Andi Bell
1999	London	Dominic O'Brien
2000	London	Dominic O'Brien
2001	London	Dominic O'Brien
2002	London	Andi Bell
2003	Kuala Lumpur	Andi Bell
2004	Manchester	Ben Pridmore
2005	Oxford	Clemens Mayer
2006	London	Clemens Mayer
2007	Bahrain	Gunther Karsten
2008	Bahrain	Ben Pridmore
2009	London	Ben Pridmore
2010	Guangzhou	Wang Feng
2011	Guangzhou	Wang Feng
2012	London	Johannes Mallow
2013	London	Jonas von Essen
2014	Hainan	Jonas von Essen
2015	Chengdu	Alex Mullen