Memory Achievements

Report from the 2009 World Memory Championships

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.

CONGRATULATIONS to Junior Memory Champion Dorothea Seitz and also to the Kids Memory Champion Song Xiatong. 

See videos of Ben and other highlights from the competition on the Official Memory Blog website world-sports.com

Ben Pridmore's previous achievement in Memory   

To compare the results of previous Championships 

Johannes Mallow memory achievments  

Simon Reinhard's memory achievements -   

LONDON TIMES ARTICLE  FROM FRIDAY

CBS Evening News

BBC Radio 4  

BBC - Dominic O'Brien explains the technique memory athletes use to remember number sequences

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.