THE 1999 WORLD MEMORY
CHAMPIONSHIPS

RESULTS PRESS RELEASE

1^st September 1999

27 Contestants from nine different countries battled it out for the 1999 World Memory Championships at the third Mind Sports Olympiad in London last week. It was the largest Memory Competition ever held and it was fitting that it turned out to be the most exciting.

Former World Champion Dominic O'Brien returned to the event to reclaim the title that he has already won five times. The expected duel between Dominic and defending Champion Andi Bell turned into a three horse affair with unknown American student Yu Zhang surprising all by setting new world records for the Binary Number Event (2745 in 30 minutes) and the Speed Number Event (314 in 5 minutes).

Clearly shaken by the emergence of a new memory star, the defending and former champions handled the newcomer's challenge quite differently. Andi Bell, always trying to push back the boundaries of performance, attempted high scores but never really managed to pull out his best performances, even failing to score in the speed cards event for which he holds the current world record.

On the other hand, always composed and a good performer under pressure, Dominic took the lead after the 5^th event and continued to post consistently high results in every event to stay on top and win the title. In addition to taking the Senior Silver Medal, Yu Zhang also took the World Junior Title.

The Women's World Title was won by 12 year old Christiane Stenger from Germany who took the Bronze Medal in the Junior Event. Her performance was notable in that she also became the youngest ever Grandmaster of Memory.

Stephen Clarke (UK), Gunther Karsten (Germany) and Dr Yip Swe Chooi (Malaysia) also achieved the Grandmaster title for the first time.

EVENTS

Spread over two days the following events were contested:

All events were carried out in English except for the Poem and the List of Words which were also translated into German, Czech and Turkish.

PRIZES

Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals were awarded for the Junior and Senior competitions and the Ł5,000 prize fund was shared as follows:

Ł2,000 - Overall Gold Medalist (and World Memory Champion)

Ł1,250 - Overall Silver Medalist

Ł1000 - Overall Bronze Medalist

Ł500 - Overall 4^th Place

Ł250 - Overall 5^th Place

Books and tapes were awarded for 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th
and the Junior 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd.

GRAND MASTER OF MEMORY CRITERIA

Successful competitors were awarded the title of Grand Master of Memory if they achieved the following results:

One Hour Numbers - 713 Numbers

One Hour Cards - 365 cards (7 complete packs + 1 additional card)

Speed Cards - A single deck of cards in three minutes or under

1999 PERFORMANCES

The overall results for the 1999 Senior World Memory Championships were:

1^st - Dominic O'Brien (UK)

2^nd - Yu Zhang (USA)

3^rd - Andi Bell (UK)

The overall results for the 1999 Junior World Memory Championships were:

1^st - Yu Zhang (USA)

2^nd - Coral Palmer (USA)

3^rd - Christiane Stenger (Germany)

The top three scores in each event were:

*

Links are given in the table below to the areas of Accelerated Learning
written by Michael Tipper for Project HappyChild.

Michael organised the 1999 and 2000 World Memory Championships but his ever-increasing workload - speeches plus presentations to businesses and schools (see bio) - has compelled him to step down from organizing further Championships. If you would like to find out more about registering as a contestant (or to be an arbiter/judge) for future World Memory Championships, you can e-mail Buzan Centres here.

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