Watch this 19 minute video of 2007 World Memory Championships in Bahrain. Includes interviews with Tony Buzan. People from across the globe came to compete for the ultimate prize.

Australian Memory Championships

For information on the 2009 Australian Memory Championships please email debbie@buzan.com.au

The Australian Memory Championships were held on 27th-28th September, 2008 at The Gold Coast, Queensland.

To launch the event, we released a series of 10 videos to provide insight into how a National Memory Championships is run. These 3-4 minute on-line presentations show examples of the 10 Disciplines and are suitable for people interested in competing in a memory event, volunteers who help adjudicate and journalists and others.   Memory Competition Rules and Examples

THE 2008 WORLD MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIPS

FIVE WORLD RECORDS BROKEN

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.

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.

Full information can be found at www.worldmemorychampsionships.com

Check out http://www.fuzz2buzz.com/en/node/1054/ to see what is involved in a memory championship. 

Perhaps you can join us in 2009!

8th Annual Australian Open Memory Championships

With competitors from Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong came to 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.
       
Thanks to our Sponsors

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.

If you are looking for a great school to prepare international students to study for an Australian Masters degree, have a chat to the QIBA crew–  www.qiba.qld.edu.au 
       
We’d also like to thank Jo-Anne Albert of Lifeplan Funds Management, for sponsoring the two cards events www.lifeplan.com.au 

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 Arbiters and Competition Organisers. It costs £7.50 can be purchased from the WMSC

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.