I just got back from Vienna for the 2018 IAM World Memory Championship.
I’m happy to say that I finished in 5th place this year!
Wow…even I’m surprised by this result.
Just for context, I finished in 23rd place last year in Jakarta (but there were more people).
The Championship consists of 10 events over 3 days.
I broke my personal competition record in all 10 events. Consistent training and pushing my limits is what took me there. It’s been a great year of improvement and training for me.
DAY 1
15 min Names & Faces
30 min Binary Numbers (1’s & 0’s)
5 min Random Images
60 minute Numbers
DAY 2
5 min Speed Numbers
15 min Words
60 min Cards
DAY 3
5 min Dates
Spoken Numbers (#’s spoken at a rate of 1 digit/sec)
Speed Cards (fastest u can memorize deck of cards)
My results:
5th place overall!
I also finished with the silver medal in the 5 minute Images event. I tried for the World Record, but came up 18 points short. I scored 395, which is the 3rd best score ever.
Full competition results here: https://iam-stats.org/competition.php?id=WMC2018
This is a sample of what the Image event looks like (memorizing rows of images in order):
![](https://i0.wp.com/gallery.mailchimp.com/21ab45285a43248c52473f8e6/images/3f913f30-4e3f-4658-97e7-09eaf19ce7ae.jpg?ssl=1)
I also memorized:
- 120 international names & faces in 15 mins (4th place).
- 22 decks of cards in 1 hour (4th place).
- 1830 digit # in 1 hr (5th place).
- 282 digit # in 5 mins (6th place).
- A deck of cards in 42.4 secs (4th place).
- A list of 193 words in 15 mins (6th place)
![](https://i0.wp.com/gallery.mailchimp.com/21ab45285a43248c52473f8e6/images/e5f28e02-d55c-4675-bece-a33844bad9bb.jpg?ssl=1)
This is me concentrating before the spoken numbers event (one of the hardest events). Your score ends when you make your first mistake. I memorized a string of 97 digits spoken at 1 digit per second, but when I was writing them out I made a mistake and switched 2 numbers…so I scored 66.
Vienna was such a beautiful city.
Lots of historic buildings, churches, palaces…
And everywhere you looked, there was a Christmas market.
I think I saw 8 different ones.
December is a good time of the year to visit this part of the world…
![](https://i0.wp.com/gallery.mailchimp.com/21ab45285a43248c52473f8e6/images/5358ad2b-6d09-4cd9-af8c-1ad7a69aca29.jpg?ssl=1)
Like everyone else, I drank Glühwein (which was basically hot red wine with a taste of rum and spice) out of a festive mug. I enjoy red wine, but not so much rum. But it tasted better simply by being in a different culture.
![](https://i0.wp.com/gallery.mailchimp.com/21ab45285a43248c52473f8e6/images/b00ccd2e-c9e8-4288-b606-29736407ae70.jpg?ssl=1)
With German friends, and fellow memory competitors, at the Schönbrunn Palace (it has 1,441 rooms!)
Meeting and competing with people from all over the world is a very enriching and unforgettable experience. If you haven’t traveled the world…you must do it in your lifetime.
After the 2014 World Championship in China, I ate at an Indian restaurant with British, a German, a Mongolian, a Costa Rican, and Americans.
After this year in Austria, I ate at an Italian restaurant with French, Germans, a Scot, and Brits.
Fun global experiences 🙂
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