Welcome to the February edition of the WMSC newsletter, and there is lots to report.

New Council Members

Firstly, we would like to welcome the new Council Members who have recently been invited to sit on the World Memory Sports Council and to represent the interest of the sport in their countries.  They are:

  • Jennifer Goddard of the National Memory Sports Council of Australia
  • Simon Reinhard GM, of Memory XL in Germany
  • Klaus Kolb of the National Memory Sports Council of Germany
  • Mr Lin Chuxu, Chairman of  New Mind Education in China
  • Guo Chuanwei GM  China

We look forward to their help is growing the sport worldwide in the year ahead.

New Rules

The months following the World Memory Championships each year are when discussion takes place about rule changes and the Millennium standards. This year is no exception!  The Council is most grateful for all the submissions and ideas it has received, all of which have been thoroughly evaluated. As is the convention,  the Council agrees these changes at the end of January to give competitors the opportunity to incorporate them in their training in good time.

So at the end of the consultation period the following has been agreed.

Competition Entry:

Junior and Kid competitors may elect to compete in an adult competition if they desire. Any competitor that decides to do so cannot take part in a Junior / Kids event for one year after the adult event, thus preventing “competition hopping”.

Procedural Changes:

  1. Spoken Numbers – In the World Championships trials will consist of 200, 300 and 400 digits. In National Championships trials will be 100 and 300 digits.
  2. Names used in the ‘Names and Faces’ discipline will consist of a equal mix of international names drawn from a wide range of different languages to include European, Middle and Far Eastern, Asian and African (following a similar formula as used in the World Memory Championships). First and Second Names shall be combined entirely at random (eg. a person may have a Chinese first name and a Western surname) and assigned to faces at random. There must also be a full mix of ethnicity, age and gender of faces used. No bias towards an individual country will be accepted in a national competition. As a result all current National, International and World records in this discipline will be reset to zero since a comparison with previous events is invalid.
  3. Speed Cards – The rule will remain that if a competitor recalls less than 52 cards their time will be taken as 300 seconds and they will receive a score of c/52 points where c is the number of cards correctly recalled. The New formula of calculation of points for a full deck is as follows: 11180/(time to the power of 0.75). This gives 1000 points for a deck recalled in 25 seconds.

Millennium Standards – Revised February 2011

Discipline Millennium
Standard		 Calc
Factor		 Original
MS		 Comp
Type
30 min Cards 676 1.479 676 International #
30 min Numbers 1200 0.833 1200 International #
10 min Cards 365 2.747 333 National
15 min Numbers 900 1.111 800 National
5 min Binary 1000 1.000 1000 National #
5 min Names and Faces 70 14.286 100 National
5 min Words 125 8.000 100 National
Poem 375 2.6667 375 Old Comp #
30 min Binary 4000 0.250 4000 WMC #
5 min Numbers 470 2.128 375 WMC
Abstract Images 400 2.500 250 WMC
Historic /Future Dates 125 8.000 91 dates WMC
Hour Cards 1300 0.769 1300 cards WMC #
Hour Numbers 2200 0.455 2200 digits WMC #
Names and Faces 170 5.882 200 points WMC
Random Words 275 3.636 250 words WMC
Speed Cards 25 seconds * 30 seconds WMC
Spoken Numbers 204 70* square root (n) 200 digits WMC #

# = Unchanged
* =  Calculation factor for Speed Cards 11180/(time to the power of 0.75)

Competition Calendar for 2011

12thMarch 2011 North German Memory Championships
26thMarch 2011 Welsh Open Memory Championships
End August 2011 UK Open Memory Championships
First week of October World Memory Championships (China)

Further competitions to be announced in future newsletters.