- World Memory Championships 2007
To view a video showing extracts of the Medal Awards Ceremony go the link for the "Press Room" To see photos of the event go to the "Photo Gallery" on the WMC 2007 link.
ITV "This Morning" programme interviewed UK Memory Champion and Ben Pridmore on September 19th. Watch the programme and see other videos by going to the Press Room link
The Sunday Times carried a feature article on the World Memory Championships on Sunday 26th of August. To read the article in full, click here
Dr Gunther Karsten of Erfurt, Germany has won the 16th World Memory Championship, held over the weekend of 1st/2nd September, in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The tournament, with its 30,000 US Dollar prize fund, attracted entries from China, England, Germany and many other nations.
The Championships were founded in London in 1991 by brain guru Tony Buzan and chess Grandmaster Ray Keene - to promote memory as a ‘Mind Sport’, creating a set of ten Memory Disciplines which are now accepted as the worldwide standard for international competition. The disciplines are designed to measure pure memory skill, rather than any one individual’s knowledge on a particular subject. They are not culturally or language specific, to ensure a level playing field for international competition. Subjects include spoken numbers, playing cards, dates, abstract images, binary digits, random words and names and faces.
Dr Karsten also won the team Gold Medal for Best Team Performance, along with team mates Simon Reimhard and Boris Konrad.
Dr Karsten clinched the World Championship in the last minute when he crushed his closest competitor and previous World Champion Ben Pridmore of England, in the speed memorisation of a single shuffled pack of cards. Clemens Mayer, the 2005 World Champion was unable to compete in this years event.
Tony Buzan welcomed the advent of the new World Champion, saying: “Dr Karsten is a trained athlete who believes in the formula of ‘a healthy mind, a healthy body’ as the key to success in mental sports.”
Overall, the annual World Memory Championship represents one of the toughest mental tests of all time. Competitors must be able to memorise 4,000 digit numbers and recall with absolute accuracy at least ten packs of cards in one hour.
To continue the list of German triumphs, the Junior World Championship was won by Mia Korkemeyer (aged 17), from Hamburg.
Chen Yu Juan of China won the Women’s World Championship. She also collected the Team Silver Medal for Best Team Performance, with team mates Liu Ping and Chuan Wei Guo. This is the first time that China has competed in the World Memory Championships. Chen clinched her title when she set a new world record for female memorisation of a shuffled deck of cards - in 28 seconds. Tony Buzan welcomed the advent of the Chinese competitors, saying he hoped that China would soon host the Championship.
Indian child prodigy astounds experts… Hailed as a genius, Nischal Narayanam, a 12-year-old from Hyderabad, won the Kids World Championship for Memory Skills. Already a Guinness Record holder, Nischal caused Tony Buzan to herald the new onset of a mental prodigy and new ‘genius of memory’.
New Grand Masters of Memory, following the 2007 World Memory Championships are
Liu Ping, Wu Tiansheng, Simon Reinhard, Chuanwei Guo, Huang Jindong, Chen Yujuan, Haizhang Zhuang, and Lee Tai Yiu.
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Ben Pridmore, an accountant from Derby in the UK, and the current UK Memory Champion, achieved the first new World Record at the championships in the second of the ten disciplines, Binary Digits. Competitors have 30 minutes to memorise as many Binary Digits (0101100101 etc) as possible, and recall them perfectly. After 60 minutes of recall time, Ben correctly recalled 4140 binary digits and achieve a new World Record in the process, beating his own previous world record of 3915.
- On Day Two of the competition Johannes Mallow from Germany achieved a new World Record in the Historic Dates Discipline. Competitors have 15 minutes to memorise as many fictitional historic / futures dates as possible and link them to the right historic event. The previous world record had been set by Ben Pridmore at the World Memroy Championship in 2006 with a score of 96. Johannes has now beaten this by three, achieving a score of 99 and taking the World Record.
- This Championship has seen the rise of the Chinese nation as a real force in the Mind Sport of Memory. With a team of thirteen competitors, the highest number from any country, Wu Tiansheng achieved the Gold Medal position in the One Hour Number event. Competitors have 60 minutes to memorise as many random numbers as possible and recall them perfectly. After two hours of recall time, Wu perfectly recalled 1820 numbers. This is a Chinese Record. The World record is still held by Dr Gunther Karsten with 1949.
- In the Hour number discipline, 16 competitors achieved in excess of 1000 points, which is one of the three requirements to become a Grand Master of Memory. The other two requirements are to be able to memorise the order of ten randomly shuffled packs of cards, and the ability to memorise one pack of cards in under two minutes.
- This is the first time that the World Memory Championships have been held in the Middle East, and only the second time they have been held outside the UK.
- The World Memory Championship was brought to Bahrain by Intelnacom, an innovation company registered in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which 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.
- The Championships are being held at the Crowne Plaza Bahrain Conference Centre and was inaugurated on Thursday 30th August at an Opening Ceremony and banquet in the presence of the National Guards Commander, Major General Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa as well as Intelnacom chief executive officer, Professor Dr Bernd Hoefer and the founder of the World Memory Championships, Tony Buzan.
Mind 'wizards' do battle - by Mandeep Singh
Gulf Daily News 1st September 2007
MORE than 90 'mind wizards' yesterday started three days of gruelling competition in an attempt to become the brightest mind in the world, in the process pocketing a top prize money of $10,000 (BD3,780).Tasks that the competitors, most of them from outside Bahrain, will have to undergo will test the human brain's mnemonic skills based on 10 disciplines, including historic dates, speed cards, names and faces.
The World Memory Championship (WMC), brought to Bahrain by Intelnacom, is being held for only the second time outside the United Kingdom and the first time in the Middle East. It is being held at the Crowne Plaza Bahrain Conference Centre and was inaugurated on Thursday night in the presence of the National Guards Commander, Major General Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa as well as Intelnacom chief executive officer, Professor Dr Bernd Hoefer.
Organisers said yesterday there are some Bahrainis and competitors from Bahrain who are taking part but said most of the contestants are from China (Hong Kong). "There are also contestants from Germany, Sweden, Brazil, India and the UK," said eight-time WMC champion Dominic O'Brien.
"This is a great beginning in this part of the world and we are sure there will be even greater response to any such future WMCs here or in any other GCC nation."
He said over the three days of competitions, there will also be a series of workshops, exhibitions and mind games, including chess, sudoku and Scrabble competitions, X-Box games and IQ testing, which all would be open to the public.
WMC founder and inventor of Mind Maps, Tony Buzan said they look forward to having three days of excitement and fun filled with presenters and exhibitors, as well as various specialists from around the world.
"No wonder we think of memory these days in terms of gigabytes rather than as an individual skill that can be learned," he said. "The brain is like a muscle: unless you exercise it regularly, you should not expect it to operate at anything like its full potential."
He said in the past, Homer's poem The Iliad was passed from generation to generation, from memory. "That's a feat that would test even today's top memorisers. Before history was written, it relied on an oral tradition to pass information from one generation to the next. Whilst we undoubtedly still have the capacity to memorise such vast amounts of information, we lack the techniques - and technology is now removing the motivation."
He said competitors at this year's event are proof that you don't need to be born with a good memory to be able to compete. "Nor is age a factor."
Mr Buzan said at the 2006 championship held in the UK, they saw six new world records established.
"We expect an even more competitive level of performance at the Bahrain event. I founded the championships in 1991 to promote memory as a 'mind sport', and created a set of ten memory disciplines which are now accepted as the worldwide standard for international competition."
He said the festival will create a regional awareness about the WMC and will place Bahrain on top holding the first festival of its kind in the region.
Dr Hoefer said they approached Mr Buzan and asked him to hold this championship's international finals in Bahrain.
"As a new high-tech venture capital company established in Bahrain, we were excited about the opportunity of hosting the event in the Middle East for the first time," he says.
"This is a significant international competition, bringing together some of the greatest intellects from around the world. We are delighted that Mr Buzan agreed to have the event here this year. It is a real tribute to his confidence in Bahrain and in our company's ability to host such a significant, noteworthy international championship."
By Mandeep Singh
