|
THE WELSH OPEN MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Welsh Open Memory Championships has been re-scheduled and will now take place on Saturday 8th May 2010.
Venue:
Ringland Community Centre
282 Ringland Circle
Newport
Wales
Timings:
8:45am - 6:00pm
The event will follow the National Standard 10 discipline format and competitors' performance will be recorded in the WMSC Official World Rankings.
Entry Fee: £35
For further details or to register please contact:
Dai Griffiths
Telephone 07967719657.
E-mail - daigriffiths1982@googlemail.com
Announcing the first Swedish Memory Championships
The time has come to crown The Best Memory Champion in Sweden when the first Swedish Memory Championships, SMC, is launched on the 26th of September at the Universeum in Gothenburg. The event is the initiative of Idriz Zogaj, co-founder of The Swedish Memory Sports Council. As well as around ten Swedish participants, several international mental athletes are expected to take part.
Work began in 2009 to spread the word about the existence of this mental sport and to bring it to Sweden. Now the work has paid off it is incredible fun and inspiring, says Idriz Zogaj, Chairman of the Swedish Memory Sports Council and project manager for the SMC.
The competition will consist of ten disciplines, each of which involve memorizing as much information as possible in a specific amount of time. It could be, for example, to memorize a deck of cards as fast as possible or to memorize as many binary digits, ones and zeros, as possible in five minutes. After memorizing you are given a specific amount of time – in general double the memorizing time – to recall the information in the correct order.
The competition is the first of its kind in Sweden. However, competing in memory as a sport began in 1991 when the Englishman Tony Buzan instigated the World Memory Championships, WMC, in London. Since 2004 Idriz Zogaj has represented Sweden in several competitions, including three World Championships.
How do you become a memory master?
All the competitors have one thing in common, they have trained their memory to this remarkable level. The techniques used, to associate pictures to information you want to memorize, were first used by the Ancient Greeks. The pictures are then “placed” on a well known “journey”. This could be that you imagine walking around in your apartment. The rest is pure training and just like in traditional sports training gives results. The mental athletes, “Mentathletes”, train their brains to remarkable levels, just like physical athletes do in different Olympic events.
At the end of 2008 the Swedish Memory Sports Council, SMSC, was founded and registered with the World Memory Sports Council. This year the National Swedish Memory team was founded and Idriz is putting a great deal of effort in trying to get others to compete in memory. One of the last pieces of the puzzle is the The Swedish Memory Championships, that will take part on Saturday the 26th of September at the Universeum in Gothenburg.
"It is time to see who has the best memory in Sweden. I have had the unofficial title in the memory world since 2004, now we will see if it’s true", says Idriz laughing.
Around ten Swedes have registered to take part to see who has the best memory in Sweden. The competition is open to non-Swedish competitors and mental athletes from Norway, England, Germany, Denmark and Austria will compete for the title of Best International competitor. Several of the best memories in the world will participate as a last preparation for the World Memory Championships that will take place in London at the beginning of November.
For information and registration contact:
Idriz Zogaj Chairman, Swedish Memory Sports Council
Mobile +46 (0) 730 40 46 40 Idriz@minnesforbundet.se
www.zogaj.se
Ali Mohtadi Tabrizi Contest Manager, Swedish Memory Championships
Mobil +46 (0) 703 10 33 04 ali@minnesforbundet.se
Birgitta Plyhm Public Relation, Swedish Memory Championships
Mobil +46 (0) 707 77 12 90 birgitta@plyhm.se
The Swedish Memory Sports Council, SMSC was founded 2008 and is registered with the World Memory Sports Council. The SMSC’s primary objective is to promote and spread the sport of memory in Sweden. This is done by arranging competitions such as the SMC, by visiting schools and working with the media to spread information. Everyone, regardless of age, is welcome to become a member in the Swedish Memory Sports Council.
www.minnesforbundet.se www.worldmemorysportscouncil.com
BEN PRIDMORE retains the title of World Memory Champion at the conclusion of the 18th World Memory Championships in London
After three days of intense competition, the 18th World Memory Championship had a nail biting finish on Saturday 14th of November, which could not have been closer. However, reigning Champion Ben Pridmore from the UK, emerged victorious, making this his third World Memory Champion title.
Over the ten disciplines, which took place over the three days of the competition, Ben's cummulative Championship points were 7,854. Runner up was Johannes Mallow from Germany with 7,321 Championships points followed, in third place by fellow German Simon Reinhard with 7,137.
Despite achieving a higher score than last year, previous World Memory Champion Dr Gunther Karsten had to settle for forth place with 6,958 - only 28 points less than what it took him to win the Championships in 2007 - a sure sign of the increasing achievments of top competitors year by year.
FULL SCORES http://www.worldmemorychampionships.com/2009_Results_Day_Three.asp
See videos of Ben and other highlights from the competition on the Official Memory Blog website www.memory-sports.com
Ben Pridmore's previous achievement in Memory http://web.aanet.com.au/memorysports/competitor.php?id=29
To compare the results of previous Championships http://web.aanet.com.au/memorysports/championships.php
Johannes Mallow memory achievments http://web.aanet.com.au/memorysports/competitor.php?id=189
Simon Reinhard's memory achievements - http://web.aanet.com.au/memorysports/competitor.php?id=371
Read the article in the Sunday INDEPENDENT newspaper - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/an-unforgettable-memory-contest-1820956.html
LONDON TIMES ARTICLE FROM FRIDAY http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6914846.ece
CBS Evening News http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5651392n
BBC Radio 4 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/today/hi/today/newsid_8358000/8358650.stm
BBC - Dominic O'Brien explains the technique memory athletes use to remember number sequences < http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/today/hi/today/newsid_8358000/8358650.stm >
Gunther broke the first World Record in the 2009 Championships in the Abstract Images. A new world record in the One Hour Number discipline was set by both Wang Feng and Su Ruiqiao also from China, Johannes Mallow from Germany broke the world record in Historic Dates by recalling 118 dates in 15 minutes.
MEDAL TABLE 2009
| Position |
Discipline |
Name |
Raw Score |
Posn |
| Gold |
Abstract Images |
Dr. Gunther Karsten |
318 |
1 |
| Silver |
Abstract Images |
Guo Chuanwei |
250 |
2 |
| Bronze |
Abstract Images |
Boris Konrad |
218 |
3 |
| Gold |
Binary Numbers |
Ben Pridmore |
4105 |
1 |
| Silver |
Binary Numbers |
Johannes Mallow |
3485 |
2 |
| Bronze |
Binary Numbers |
Dr. Gunther Karsten |
3138 |
3 |
| Gold |
Names and Faces |
Simon Reinhard |
164 |
1 |
| Silver |
Names and Faces |
Boris Konrad |
157 |
2 |
| Bronze |
Names and Faces |
Dorothea Seitz (J) |
150 |
3 |
| Gold |
One Hour Numbers |
Su Ruiqiao |
2080 |
1 |
| Silver |
One Hour Numbers |
Wang Feng |
1984 |
2 |
| Bronze |
One Hour Numbers |
Ben Pridmore |
1756 |
3 |
| Gold |
5 Minute Numbers |
Johannes Mallow |
377 |
1 |
| Silver |
5 Minute Numbers |
Ben Pridmore |
360 |
2 |
| Bronze |
5 Minute Numbers |
Cornelia Beddies |
294 |
3 |
| Gold |
Historic & Future Dates |
Johannes Mallow |
118 |
1 |
| Silver |
Historic & Future Dates |
Ben Pridmore |
92 |
2 |
| Bronze |
Historic & Future Dates |
Boris Konrad |
81 |
3 |
| Gold |
Random Words |
Dorothea Seitz (J) |
244 |
1 |
| Silver |
Random Words |
Simon Reinhard |
243 |
2 |
| Bronze |
Random Words |
Boris Konrad |
236 |
3 |
| Gold |
One Hour Cards |
Ben Pridmore |
1144 |
1 |
| Silver |
One Hour Cards |
Simon Reinhard |
1040 |
2 |
| Bronze |
One Hour Cards |
Dr. Gunther Karsten |
939 |
3 |
| Gold |
Spoken Numbers |
Dr. Gunther Karsten |
118 |
1 |
| Silver |
Spoken Numbers |
Johannes Mallow |
108 |
2 |
| Bronze |
Spoken Numbers |
Boris Konrad |
100 |
3 |
| Gold |
Speed Cards |
Wang Feng |
967.117988 |
1 |
| Silver |
Speed Cards |
Ben Pridmore |
950.871632 |
2 |
| Bronze |
Speed Cards |
Yuan Wenkui |
809.061489 |
3 |
The competitors taking part represent the top mental athletes in the world. They all have spent the last few months practicing their memorisation techniques for the 10 Memory Disciplines that make up the three long days of the competition. The World Memory Championships are indeed the most comprehensive test of memory in the world! The countries represented are Ukraine, Lithuania, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Malaysia, China, India, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, England, Wales, Ireland, USA, and Oman.
The joint founders of the competition, Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene OBE were present, alongside Chief Arbiter Phil Chambers, and eight times World Memory Champion, Dominic O'Brien.
The top competitors will win an all expenses paid trip to China including flights and a luxury hotel suite for the 2010 Championships in Guangzhou China, sponsored by New Mind Education. Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists will be awarded a free hotel suite plus return air tickets to the 19th memory championship in Guangzhou 2010 also courtesy of New Mind Education - Places 4-10 inclusive for 2009 - will receive a free hotel room for the 2010 championships in Guangzhou.
The prize fund for 2010 has been confirmed as $92,000-00 ( US dollars) in total, the biggest ever prize fund for a World Memory Championships - again courtesy of New Mind Education, Guangzhou China.
The top three prizes on offer in 2010 for gold silver and bronze will be as follows:
$20,000-00 us dollars for overall gold medal winner in 2010
$10,000-00 for silver $6000-00 for bronze
Report from India on their first National Memory Competition.
It is with utmost pleasure that we, National Memory Council of India, announce the end of National Memory Championship 2009. The event had seen an attendance of more than 3000 participants, with 1500 contestants fighting for the championship title.
NMCI would like to appreciate the efforts of the Vice-Chairman, NMCI, Sri. SVK Reddy who has been critical for the success of the event at such a large scale. He has been instrumental in communicating the concept to more than 60000 families. His efforts were reflected in the 1069 participants who turned up as a result of his communication alone. Sri SVK Reddy is also a revered educationist and a chairman of VR1Forever, a social organization – which he had drawn in to support the championship event. VR1Forever had brought in more than 150 arbiters, a group which constituted graduate engineering students from premier institutions across the country. The arbiters displayed the greatest level of professionalism in handling the event, and ensured that the event is a sweet success.
Squadron Leader Jayasimha, Chairman, NMCI, in association with the Client and Media relations executive of NMCI, Sruti K V, lead the stage effectively throughout the day, with able back end support from Project Manager, Vinay Chaganti and front end support from Memory Trainer, Sharma Dharba.
John Louis was adjudged as the First Indian Memory Champion; with Sai Suhas, a 13 year old kid taking the second place, and Vasavi, a software engineer taking the third place. Bernett Ornaldo and Lakshman D, kids of age 13 years have secured the fourth and fifth spots. The event had seen more than twenty competitors receiving prizes across various categories.
From: Chairman and Vice-Chairman of National Memory Council of India
Welcome to the new National Memory Sports Council of India
NMCI is a non-profit body recognized and licensed by the World Memory Sports Council, UK. The council is headed by Squadron Leader Jayasimha, a Triple Guinness World Record Holder and a Memory Maestro. We are pleased to announce to you, National Memory Championship 2009, an event first of its kind in our country. It is a battle of the brains to identify the strongest among the strong. It is aimed at encouraging the pursuit of learning mind development techniques. The much awaited challenge is here now - on 11th October, 2009 (Sunday) at Hi-Tex, Hyderabad.
More than 40 Schools and 20 Corporate bodies have already ensured their representation. We are now waiting for you and your institution to have your representation in this mega event. Hurry up! Make your presence felt, and Don't forget to Compete, Because it is all about your Memory. Registration closes on 30th September, 2009. The Entry fee to the event per Participant is Rs. 1000/- Only. This is a golden opportunity to win Rs. One Lakh Prize Money, apart from the seventeen medals in various categories. You would also stand a chance to win the coveted title “The First Indian National Memory Champion”. Top ten performers in the event would get the most valued opportunity of representing the First Official Indian Team at the World Memory Sports Championship at London, in November this year.
The other participation benefits include:
-
Rs. 4000 worth, Training for one-day on various memory techniques from Mr. Jayasimha
-
An orientation on using the mind development techniques in day-to-day life, particularly academics
-
Sample Papers to exercise the techniques before the actual event
-
T-Shirt on the event day to exhibit the discipline as the best brain in the country
-
Certificate of Participation indicating a relative standing among the entire pool of participants
-
National Ranking that shall be published at the end of the event
-
And lot more to be won....
Institutions such as schools, colleges and corporate bodies encouraging more than twenty participants would automatically become the “Promoting Partner” of this championship event and would receive the certificate of recognition from one of our “Guests of Honour” for the day. The guests include Smt. Purandhareswari, Sri. Chukka Ramaiah and Sri. Komati Venkata Reddy. The chief guest of the event is Sri. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy garu, the honourable chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Registration Form can be downloaded from the link below:
http://jayasimha.in/images/attachments/RegistrationForm.pdf
For registration and any further details, kindly contact Mr. Sharma (99591 49836).
** TV 9 is the official media partner for the event. More information on the championship event and the council can be found on http://www.jayasimha.in
YOUTH TRIUMPHS AT UK MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIPS!
“I was absolutely terrified when I first arrived” says 15-year-old who beat World Champion
A new generation of Memory competitors achieved amazing results at the third annual UK Open Memory Championships, which took place over the weekend of 15th/16th August in London’s Strand Palace Hotel.
As expected, World Champion - and World Ranked Number One - Ben Pridmore (32) from the UK comfortably won the overall competition with a score of 6,447 Championship points. However, he didn’t have everything his own way…
Spectacular performance from 15-year-old Eva Ball
The results that rocked the Memory community were achieved by diminutive, but characterful Eva Ball (15) from Coventry. Early in July, having trained her Memory for only a few weeks, Eva came top in her school competition and then went on to win this year’s UK Schools Memory Championships. In this, her first World Ranked Memory Championships, Eva achieved a staggering two Silver Medals and a Gold. The Gold Medal was for the 5-Minute ‘Names and Faces’ discipline (this being the very first time she had competed in the event), where she correctly recalled 39, beating Ben Pridmore into 4th place. Eva’s Silver Medals were in ‘5-Minute Random Words’ where she scored 43, and in ‘15- Minute Abstract Images’ where she scored an imprssive 95..
“For a first competition, her results were truly amazing” says 8 times World Memory Champion Dominic O’Brien. “She obviously has a great future in the Sport.”
Says Eva: “I was really pleased to have done so well. I thought I was lucky winning the UK Schools Memory Championships in July, but when I was invited to come to the UK Memory Championships, I didn’t take it too seriously as I was going to be the youngest competitor and I thought I’d just be a novelty! In the end I enjoyed every minute of it, as everyone was very welcoming, but I was absolutely terrified when I first arrived. I was sure I was destined to come last!
“To actually beat the current World Champion in the ‘Names and Faces’ discipline was mind-blowing. I had never competed in that subject before, but I found it quite easy really. I must have the sort of brain that likes remembering things visually.
“I’ve been asked if I am going to compete in the World Championships, which are also being held in London - in November. I’m going to have to think about it, as I’ll be up against the world’s best and most competitive Memory brains – but it is a big temptation to see whether I, as a teenager, can beat any of them!”
Ameel Hoque (21) from the UK - World Ranked Number 44 - was originally introduced to Memory by a chance visit to his school some years ago by Dominic. He beat twenty-five other contestants to take the Silver Medal position with 4,093 Championships points in just his third competition – his best score to date. Florian Dellé from Germany, who has been competing since 2003, also achieved a personal best with a score of 3,035 to take the Bronze Medal position, and was also the top ranked Overseas Competitor in the competition.
For the full results, click here
Cannyminds.com, the sponsors of the event, are the UK’s first web portal to offer a comprehensive selection of brain training books, games, DVDs, and audio books to challenge and stimulate the mind. The range includes language courses, board games, How To books and a reading & viewing group. The site also offers expert articles and advice on mental agility and challenging puzzles and quizzes developed especially for Canny Minds by Mensa’s puzzle editor.
Jenny Low from Canny Minds said: “We’ve been going to the gym for years to keep our bodies fit and healthy so it’s about time we all started putting the same effort into our mental fitness and agility.
Amongst the 18 contestants from ten countries – England, Wales, France Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden and India – are particularly high achieving mnemonists: representing England, the current World Champion Ben Pridmore, and Ameel Hoque (world ranked 44).
The youngest competitor was 15-year-old Eva Ball from Coventry – who recalled 94 numbers, 137 words, 12 events/dates, 102 binary numbers and 9 shuffled playing cards in sequence - to take Gold at the 2009 UK’s Schools Memory Championship last month.
The competitors took part in ten of memory disciplines over the two days: Random Words, Binary Numbers, Names & Faces, Decimal Numbers, Ten Minute Cards, Speed Numbers, Abstract Images, Historic & Future Dates, Spoken Numbers (2 trials) and Speed Cards (2 trials).
To put the mind-boggling feats which these high-flying memory wizards perform into perspective, the current World Record holder for Ten Minute Cards is England’s Ben Pridmore (364 cards), while Germany’s Johannes Mallow holds the record for both Five Minute Numbers (405 digits) and Historic & Future Dates (110.5 items), while in Spoken Numbers Gunther Karsten of Germany currently reigns supreme (202 digits).
Visit the Official Memory Blog site
World Memory Championships 2009
After two successful years of holding the Championships in Bahrain, the World Memory Championships are finally returning to the UK. The event will take place in Execter Suite of the prestigious Strand Palance Hotel, on The Strand in London over the 12th / 13th and 14th of November.
Contact details for the Strand Palace hotel are The Strand Palace Hotel 372 Strand, London, WC2R 0JJ RESERVATIONS: +44 (0)20 7379 4737 SWITCHBOARD: +44 (0)20 7836 8080 www.strandpalacehotel.co.uk mailto:reservations@strandpalacehotel.co.uk
All competitors are encouraged to register as soon as possible. A schedule for the event will be published shortly.
CHANGES TO QUANTITY OF DATA PROVIDED IN COMPETITIONS
& NEW PENALTY RULE IN NAMES AND FACES
After consultation with a number of top ranked competitors, and following lively debate on the Memory Sports Yahoo group, the World Memory Sports Council has passed a resolution to make the following amendments to the official standards for National, International and World competitions:
Henceforth, the amount of data provided in each discipline of a competition will be calculated as the current World Record for that discipline + 20% rounded up or down to he nearest multiple of rows/columns on the memorisation sheet. Therefore the following standards apply:
The exceptions to this rule are 30 minute Binary, Hour Numbers and Speed Numbers where the total above will be supplied as a default but individual competitors may request additional data one month in advance of a competition. In multiple deck card events competitors still have a free choice of the number of decks of cards required.
An amendment to the Names and Faces scoring system has been introduced to bring it in line with the other disciplines that impose penalties for errors.
A penalty of -0.5 points will be made for a totally wrong name (more than 3 letters wrong), 0 points for a almost wrong name (e.g. Martikova instead Mentikova). A name that is exactly phonetically correct but misspelled (e.g. Philip instead of Phillip) will be awarded 0.5 points. This rule will also prevent a competitor attempting to obtain extra points by writing the same name in all remaining spaces at the end of recall time. The Millennium Standard will remain unchanged.
- Phil Chambers (Chief Arbiter, on behalf of the World Memory Sports Council)
27/4/09 (upated 18/10/09)
Memory Maestro Creighton Carvello dies
Carvello: a mine of sporting facts, he remembered the goalscorers and referees in every FA Cup Final since 1872
The Memorable Carvello, as he was known to his friends and admirers, was a legend in the world of memory. The original “memory man”, he was famed for his phenomenal powers of recall — he could recite thousands of numbers and memorise hundreds of playing cards and pages of telephone directories after only a single sighting, and he was a walking compendium of sporting trivia.
Creighton Carvello was born in Patna, India, in 1944; he was the middle child of five whose father worked on the railways. In 1949 the Carvello family returned to England and settled in Middlesbrough, where Creighton would spend the remainder of his years. His father first noticed his extraordinary talent when, aged 7, he started to memorise information from cigarette cards with pictures of aircraft and cars.
After leaving school Creighton honed his talent by memorising more and more information and he soon became a sensation as he toured clubs and pubs entertaining the public with his memory. His pièce de résistance was knowing the telephone number of anyone called Smith who lived in the Middlesbrough area.
He first got into the record books in his thirties after reciting Pi to 20,013 decimal places. He travelled the world appearing on television and baffling audiences with his elephantine memory. On a live television broadcast in Japan he was asked to memorise the order of six separate packs of playing cards which were placed on a rickety card table. While he was in the memorisation phase, the table collapsed and the 312 cards were muddled together. As the Japanese presenter panicked, Carvello asked for the cards to be presented in a single stack, the order of which he memorised after a single glance of each card.
Unawares, Carvello had given impetus to the emergence of a new mental sport as a new generation of memorisers was inspired to train their own memory to emulate his. In 1991 he was one of seven “mnemonists” to take part in the first World Memory Championships, held at the Athenaeum club in London. At the ensuing award ceremony, the winner, Dominic O’Brien, thanked Carvello and explained that he had been inspired to take up a career in memory in 1987 by seeing Carvello memorise a pack of cards on the television programme Record Breakers, presented by Roy Castle and Norris McWhirter.
In 2003 Carvello set a world record by recalling 3,500 facts about every FA Cup Final since 1872, including the names of the referees and goal scorers, the teams, crowd attendances, scores, venues and more. An avid reader, he once memorised the exact sequence of 10,000 words from Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. In 2004 he won a place in the Book of Alternative Records for memorising 17 random digits viewed for only two seconds.
Carvello was a man of many talents, including photography, writing song lyrics, drawing and joke telling. In 2007 his humour was put to the test. After collapsing from a stroke at home where he lived alone — he did not marry — he lay paralysed for four days without food or water before a friend raised the alarm. Recovering in hospital he joked with reporters that the four days of total abstinence was his latest record attempt.
He spent a year in hospital and although his body never recovered from a succession of illnesses, his mind remained sharp. After his long stay in hospital Carvello moved to a care home. Its elderly residents would test his memory with questions such as naming what day of the week they were born on. Only days before he died one lady gave her date of birth, July 29, 1921, and Carvello immediately replied, “Friday”.
Creighton Carvello, memory man and photographer, was born on November 14, 1944. He died after a long period of ill health on November 18, 2008, aged 64
New GRAND MASTERS of MEMORY
Congratulations to five new Grand Masters of Memory who qualified for this prestigious title at the 2008 World Memory Championships in Bahrain.
They are: Yuan Wenkui James Ponder Jurgen Petersen Zheng Caiqian and Yip Siow Hong
World Memory Sports Coucil Website
We are currently making some significant changes to the World Memory Sports Council website to enable us to offer a more comprehensive service to Memory Competitors, the growing network of National Memory Sports Councils around the world, Memory Competition Organisers, and our essential band of Arbiters. During this work, there may be some links or pages which are under construction. Please bear with us at this time. It will be worth it! Thanks!
FIVE WORLD RECORDS BROKEN IN THE WORLD MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIPS AS BAHRAIN HOSTS AN EVENT TO REMEMBER
2nd Annual Festival of the Mind Comes to a close with
BEN PRIDMORE of the UK Crowned World Memory Champion 2008
BAHRAIN: (26th October 2008): Hailed as the most successful ever, the 17th World Memory Championships ended today with Ben Pridmore of the UK, being declared as the World Memory Champion 2008. The event took place for the second consecutive year in Bahrain as part of Bahrain’s ‘Festival of the Mind 2008’, which has been held for the last 4 days, hosted by INTELNACOM, Bahrain under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Fawaz Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.
Almost 50 competitors from 15 countries took part over three days in the most comprehensive test of memory in the world taking part in ten different memory disciplines. These include Spoken numbers; One Hour Cards; Historic / Future Dates; Binary Numbers; Random Words; Abstract Images; Names and Faces; Hour Number; Speed Number and lastly Speed Cards. Ben Pridmore, world ranked number one, beat last year’s World Champion Dr Gunther Karsten from Germany into Silver Medal position with Johannes Mallow from Germany taking the Bronze Medal position.
Mr Tony Buzan, founder of the World Memory Championship announced the results saying: “This has been a record breaking year in more ways than one with Bahrain beating the record for hospitality – an Olympian performance. We would like to say a big thank you to our sponsors INTELNACOM, for hosting the event once again, and an especial thank you for having helped make this event such an astonishing success.”
Mr Buzan went on to say that the event has also be record breaking with the greatest number of finalists from the most wide range of countries ever, including Austria, Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, USA, England, Wales, Sweden, Norway, Malaysia & Hong Kong. He said, “Not only have we had the largest number of competitors ever, but we have also seen a number of records broken in Abstract Images, Speed Number, Historic Dates (with two world records broken) and Random Words”
A number of competitors broke barriers that only a few years ago, people had assumed would never be reached, equivalent to the 4 minute mile in athletics or the 7 ft barrier in the high jump.
For example, Johannes Mallow from Germany memorized, in a mere15 minutes, and perfectly, 110 historic dates, this is more than the average good student remembers in a year of studying history. In the Random Words discipline, Boris Konrad from Germany memorized 255 in 15 minutes.
Mind games played a big part in the festival too and members of the public as well as active players in the Bahrain Mind Games Association, were involved in tournaments of Chess, Scrabble, Dama and Sudoku. In addition Bahrain Schools were given the opportunity to show their skills collectively in mind games by competing in an inter-schools challenge. Pupils from the British School, Al Hekma School, Muharraq School and East Riffa closely fought the battle for the Inter-School Sport Challenge, Mind Games Champions, entering teams to play Chess, Scrabble, Dama and Sudoku.
Mr Fuad Mubarak, Deputy CEO of INTELNACOM drew the Festival to a close by saying: “Once again it has been a great pleasure to hold the World Memory Championship in the Kingdom of Bahrain and we warmly thank our patron Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa for his support of these memory athletes from all over the world. We know that this Festival is a great encouragement to those who are keen to develop their mind skills and every year we see more and more people take up the challenge to improve their memory and expand the capability of their brain – we are keen to help them learn in a pleasant fun way and call it ‘The Brain Edu-tainment Festival.”
INTELNACOM is an innovation company registered in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and focuses on rewarding opportunities offered by emerging high-tech innovation. INTELNACOM actively seeks to identify, develop, fund and bring-to-market concepts and ideas by combining an entrepreneurial outlook with a vision to create bankable solutions for mankind.
Issued on behalf of INTELNACOM by PR and Event Management Company, MICE Management, Bahrain. A For further information, please contact Carol Melrose, on Bahrain telephone number +973 39608905.
New WORLD RECORDS created at the 2008 World Memory Championships;
In Abstract Images, Dr Gunther Karsten, the current World Memory Champion, broke the record he set last year in the German Memory Championships where he achieved a raw score of 244, with an amazing new record of 276.
The World Record for Speed Number has been broken by Johannes Mallow GM from Germany. The original record of 396 digitis in 5 minutes was set by Andi Bell in Germany in 2007. Today, in his second trial, Johannes has smashed this with a score of 405.
In the Historic and Future Dates Discipline, Johannes Mallow GM achieved the top score of 110.5 beating his own previous world record of 99. Hot on his heels is current championship leader Ben Pridmore with 100.5 - also a World Record.
In the Random Words discipline, the current World Record holder, Boris Konrad of Germany pushed up the bar to take the record from 227 word memorised in 15 minutes, to an impressive 255, gaining him 1020 championship points.
National Memory Sports Council of Nigeria
The World Memory Sports Council would like to welcome a the new National Memory Sports Council of Nigeria as the latest country to formally embrace the Mind Sport of Memory. Led by President Adeniji Adeniyi Emmanuel, Nigeria is fielding a team of six competitors in the 2008 Wordl Memory Chmapionships. They are Bassey Mfon Ini, Adetayo Akinsanwo Cosmos, Badmus Muhammed, Adegboyega Malik Adebayo, Olusola Akin and Yusuf Abdulahi. We are also grateful for the team of ten arbiters who also coming to support the event.
Australian Memory Championships versus the AFL Grand Final
Two Great Competitions on One Weekend
Wow, what an event it was! Throngs of people turned out to watch real champions do what they do best. The competition was tight right from the start, with the lead changing quickly and rapidly in the opening rounds. It is fair to say that everyone was on the edge of their seats with excitement, as the athletes showed their mettle.
Okay, so we’re talking about the Australian Football League Grand Final, not the 8th Annual Australian Open Memory Championships, but that doesn’t mean the competition wasn’t great. With competitors from Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong coming into the Gold Coast to participate, the competition was small and the participants first class.
It was difficult to predict who would win - the first four events each had a different event winner. Ultimately, Tansel Ali claimed the title of Australian Memory Champion, with a total of 2801 Championship Points, and Lee Tai Yiu (Hong Kong) was the overall winner with 2864 Points.
The top points were:-
Lee Tai Yiu (Hong Kong) 2864 - Well done!!
Tansel Ali (Melbourne) 2801 - three personal bests
Chris Lyons (Sydney) 1974 - four personal bests. The names and faces guru!
Karen Cheung Chor Kwan (Hong Kong) 1750 - nearly doubled her previous attempt.
The Australian competition is always a fun, friendly event and 2008 was no exception. Congratulations to all who competed and supported the event.
Running the competition for the 8th time now was Jennifer Goddard (Convenor), Director of the Buzan Centre: Aust/NZ and Bill Jarrard (Chief Arbiter) of Mindwerx International, ably supported by Debbie Jarrard.
The competition was held for the first time in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. Our host for the weekend was QIBA – Queensland International Business Academy, and we’d like to thank Lynn, Kevin and everyone at QIBA for their support.
Results from the first French Open Memory Competition
Congratulations to Françoise Thuillier for successfully holding the first memory competitions in France, the Open de Maisons-Laffitte.
1st winner: Ben Pridmore 5 499 points
2nd: Gaby Kappus 4 255 points
3rd: Idriz Zogaj 1 882 points
4th: François Farzaneh 1 058 points
5th: Olivier Boucher 267 points
The next event in France will be the 1st French Championships, January 10-11th, in Maisons-Laffitte.
The second UK Memory Championship - 4 New World Records
In a very successful competition over the weekend we have seen World Class performances that put even Team GB's performance at the Olympics in the shade:
World Ranking Changes:
Ben moves from number two, back to World Ranked Number One (the top spot was taken from him by Gunther Karsten in the 2007 German Championships)
- Ben has 7798 championship points against Gunther's 7631.
With a score of 6356, Boris Konrad moves into the top ten in the world (from 11 place to 9th place). This means Dominic O'Brien, for the first time ever, finds himself outside the top 10!
Katie Kermode, in only her second competition moves up 20 places from world ranking 46 to 26th place (with a score of 4383) - Katie is predicted to rival Astrid Plessl from Austria (the greatest Woman Mnemonist to date). - And she's British!
See the article about the UK Open Memory Championships featuring Bronze Medallist Katie Kermode in the London Times Newspaper by clicking on the link;
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article4485219.ece
Read the aricle featuring BEN PRIDMORE at the UK Open Memory Championships by clicking on
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article1584759.ece
Trophies: Gold - UK Open Champion 2008 - Ben Pridmore Runner up (UK Competitors) - Katie Kermode (overall 4th place) Bronze (UK Competitors) - James Ponder (overall 5th) Best International competitor - Boris Konrad (overall 2nd)
A special mention should be made to Gaby Kappus - The top females competitor in overall 3rd place (not eligible for a trophy as she is second placed international competitor)
World Records:
5 minute random words - Boris Konrad 106 words (previous record 84 held by fellow German Johannes Mallow)
5 minute Binary numbers - Ben Pridmore 930 digits (Ben attempted 930 and recalled them perfectly - no errors) - Ben previously held the record with 795.
15 minute numbers - Ben Pridmore 819 digits (previous record 700 held by Clemens Mayer) - This score also beats the Millennium Standard of 800.
10 minute cards - Ben Pridmore 364 cards (attempted and perfectly recalled 7 decks) - previous record 312 also held by Ben - This score also beats the Millennium Standard of 333.
5 minute Historic and Future Dates - Ben Pridmore 91 - Not a world record but just beats the millennium standard.
Speed Cards interesting observation:
Gold - Boris - 54.41 seconds
Silver - Gaby - 54.50 seconds
Bronze - Ben - 56.41 seconds
Note only 9 hundredths of a second between Boris and Gaby. (Ben is slower as he need to make certain of the pack to clinch the top spot in the World Rankings).
THANK YOU TO THE SPONSORS OF THE UK OPEN MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2008
LEDGER HOLIDAYS INSPIRE EDUCATION ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA SPEED STACKS EPS PRINT ADVANTAGE BUSINESS SUPPLIES THE BUZAN ORGANISATION FILAMENT PUBLISHING PEAK PERFORMANCE TRAINING LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES
There is still time to get Brain Fit in 2008! Tony Buzan will be presenting two of his most popular courses at Henley Business School, Henley-on-Thames:
· MIND MAPPING (R) Tuesday 9 December 2008
· SPEED READING Wednesday 10 December 2008
Book now to avoid disappointment! Visit www.buzanworld.com for full course details.
Some of the dates already in the diary for 2009:
· Buzan Licensed Instructor: Mind Mapping (become a certified Mind Map(R) trainer at this intensive residential course) 26-29 January, 8-11 June, 24-27 August
· Mind Mapping (R) 3 March, 14 July, 6 Oct (all in UK) 3 November, New York
· Speed Reading 5 March, 16 July, 8 October (all in UK) 5 November, New York
· Memory 4 March, 15 July, 7 October (all in UK) 4 November, New York
· Mind Maps in Business 6 March, 17 July, 9 October (all in UK), 6 November, New York (this session is delivered by Hilde Jaspaert, Tony’s Master Buzan Trainer, Europe)
The New Memory Arbiters Handbook
Filament Publishing, who published the Memory Yearbook for the Mind Sport of Memory, have now published a pocket handbook for Artbiters and Competition Organisers. It costs £7.50 can cen be purchased from the WMSC by clicking on the link http://www.worldmemorychampionships.com/Arbiters_Handbook.asp The Arbiters Handbook is also avaiable as a ebook download.
An insight into the Ten Memory Disciplines
Jennifer Goddard, President of the Australian Memory Sports Council and the only Level Three arbiter in the world, has produced an excellent series of ten streamed video to explain the The Memory Disciplines. They can be viewed on http://www.fuzz2buzz.com/en/node/1054
French Memory Competition
The next competition in France will be the 1st French Championships, January 10-11th, in Maisons-Laffitte.
See http://www.championnat-memoire.fr
The event will be in French, English and German and will be supervised by WMSC Chief Arbiter Phil Chambers. The organiser is Françoise Thuillier who can be contacted on fm.thuillier@orange.fr
Welcome to new countries
The Worlds Memory Sports Council welcomes the Phillippines, France, Poland, Slovenia, India and Lithuania as the latest countries to form their own National Memory Sports Council to promote and administer the Mind Sports of Memory. We welcome them on board and look forward to supporting them with thier first memory competitions.
SCHOOL MEMORY CHAMPIONS ASTOUND THE EXPERTS!
HANNAH WARD (14) of Roade School Sports College, Roade, Northampton has just been crowned the first UK Schools Memory Champion
The competition is the brainchild of eight times World Memory Champion Dominic O’Brien, Chief Arbiter of the World Memory Sports Council PhilChambers and Tony Buzan, co-founder of the World Memory Championship, best selling international author and lecturer on the Brain and its workings – all renowned figures in the world of Mind Sports.
It’s been a tense and nail-biting time for over 300 secondary school students as they waited for the judges to announce the overall winners of the very first Schools Memory Championship, with the Awards ceremony for the winners held at The Park Inn Hotel, Northampton, on Monday 2nd June.
Joining Gold Medal winner Hannah Ward on the podium, were Silver Medallist DAVID LUCK (14) from Huxlow Science College, Wellingborough and Bronze winner ELLEN BILTCLIFFE (14) from Magdalen College School, Brackley. The competition is sponsored by Aimhigher, a national government initiative to encourage students into higher education. The Aimhigher programme is run by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), with support from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). Inspire, the Ascot-based educational and training consultancy, and has been co-ordinating the event.
“The UK Schools Memory Championship has been created to help pupils discover the Mind Sport of Memory and to develop their mental skills to aid them with their studies,” explains competition co-founder Dominic O’Brien. “The five Memory disciplines have been chosen to closely correspond with those of the World Memory Championship, whilst being easily transferable to school subjects. “With exam success dependent on making good use of one’s memory, mastering memorisation techniques early on is a great platform for success” adds Dominic.
USA Memory Championships
The 2008 USA Memory Championships were held on Saturday March 8th in Con Edison's headquarters at 4 Irving Place in New York, USA. Please join us in congratulating our seven Finalists: Chester Santos, Paul Mellor, Ram Kolli, Ronnie White, Jenny Frielle, Daniel Naftalovich and Brice Morey!!! The new USA Memory Champion is Chester Santos and the new USA Memory Champion Team is Hershey. Press inquiries...please contact Renee Sall of Maximum Exposure PR for additional information at 201-315-4337. The results of the USA Memory Championship are not included in the WMSC world rankings as a non standard competition format us used. http://www.usamemorychampionship.com/
Australian Memory Championships 27 and 28th September, 2008. Gold Coast, Queensland. Further details will be sent out as soon as possible.
The first Memory Yearbook 2008
The Official handbook for the Mind Sport of Memory
The World Memory Sports Council, the governing body for the Mind Sport of Memory, is proud to announce the publication of the very first Memory Yearbook 2008. For anyone involved in the sport at a competitive level, this new book is an essential.Every memory competition recognised by the WMSC, is included with the results from each discipline. The full World Rankings are included as are the list of all Grand Masters of Memory.
There are articles from and about the top memorisers in the world plus essential information for anyone wanting to organise a memory competition, including a detailed description of each of the ten memory disciplines.
There are reports on the year from the National Memory Sports Councils around the world complete with many photographs of competitions and the personalities in the sport. If you have participated in a memory competition during 2007, you are in the book!
The book also looks back at the way the sport first started with articles for the two founders, Ray Keene OBE and Tony Buzan. There is also information on becoming a member of the International Guild of Mind Sports Arbiters.
The book will be available from early 2008 and can be obtained from the World Memory or the Buzan websites price £15 (USD $30) plus post an packing within the UK of £2. Pre-orders are now being accepted and will posted out as soon as the first copies are received. Email the secretary.
Animated Graph Feature
Have you discovered the animated graph feature on the competition statistics section of the site? You can "replay" a competition, discipline by discipline and see how each competitor fares in relation to the rest. To see this feature, go to "Records and Results" then "Statistics". You will then see a link to "Championships". Select the event you want to see, and you will then have the option of clicking on a tab to select each of the disciplines. The final tab on that line is the "Replay" feature. Depending on the resolution of your computer screen you may need to adjust your view, using the internal scroll bars, to reveal the Replay tab, or the full list of championships. Thanks to our WMSC Official Statistician, Simon Orton for developing this excellent facility.
|
|
|
|
