Dear Memory Athletes, enthusiasts and officials.
SCHOOLS MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTATIONS Pictured at the first SCHOOLS MEMORY CHAMPIONSHIP at the Park Inn in Northampton is Raymond Keene for info contact Ray Hodges 01628 894793 or r.hodges@hpsgroup.co.uk Picture by Adam Fradgley

It is now just over six months before the start of our Jubilee Twenty fifth world memory championship set for Singapore. This will be a landmark in the historical development of memory sport with many new records waiting to be created, great new prizes to be won , new titles to be awarded and hundreds of new young stars waiting in the wings to rise to the top. And of course to have our own world record breakers officially recognised by WMSC’s exclusive relationship with Guinness World Records.

Meanwhile, we are delighted to draw your attention to a brilliant article about our new world champion Alex Mullen , the first ever champion from USA, which has just appeared in the prestigious New Yorker Magazine. This is wonderful publicity for our Memory Sport and the article is reproduced in full on our official website, to which the following is the link :www.worldmemorychampionships.com

Our plans for the next twenty five years  include charitable initiatives, such as grants for promising young memorisers, or those who would not otherwise be able to attend our championships, for all of which, of course, we need to raise funds and sponsorship.

We are also looking to better support our National Memory Sports Councils and the memory trainers and arbiters  in their areas by officially recognising the work they do to grow the sport. In addition to our existing certified competitor and arbiter titles, we will be creating a directory of accredited and certified memory trainers, arbiters and masters on the WMC website which will give them further credibility in the marketplace and demonstrate that their training programmes have the WMSC endorsement and official seal of approval.

Next, I am pleased to announce that the WMSC is now planning to create a new and expanded Rules Commission to advise on World Championship and tournament regulations and to provide a conduit of feedback from our competitors to make our sport even better and more democratic.

The Commission will be spearheaded by Chief Arbiter Phil Chambers, head of the Guild of Memory Sports Arbiters (GOMSA) and eight times World Memory Champion, Dominic O’Brien, who is also head of ethics for our sport. They will preside over the make-up of this new body and in particular will be inviting each National Memory Sports Council to provide nominations for competitors to serve on it for a term of one year , when new nominations will be sought.  The nominations will all be published and then put to democratic vote across the entire membership.

In addition we will also be consulting competitors for their views as to how the sport should be developed over the next 25 years.

Where would you like to see the World Memory Championship staged?  Should we be following the Olympic model as an amateur sport without prize money or should we be more professional as a sport and be seeking commercial sponsorship and cash prizes?   We will be sending out a series of short questionnaires to seek your views. Please make sure that you receive our democratic questionnaires by registering  on the WMC website ( www.worldmemorychampionships.com) to get your copy of our newsletter.

Our sport has now grown from one small competition in 1991 to a worldwide movement in 25 years. What hasn’t grown sufficiently in that time are the resources needed to provide maximum support for our competitors and competition organizers.  Moving forward we need to explore ways of achieving this and of making it possible for everyone to participate in our sport , irrespective of age, gender, race, creed , location or personal circumstances. We are determined to make this the case.

With my very best wishes to all members of the worldwide and long established Memory Community as we celebrate our first quarter century and thanks as always  for your invaluable support! I am looking forward to welcoming you all to the 25th World Memory Championship in Singapore. I would like to take this opportunity of  congratulating TTM, with Dr Richard Tang and Dr Pierre and their team, the organisers of the 2016 World Memory Championships for the excellent work they are doing to make our Jubilee Championships the best ever. We also wish them success with the 2016 Singapore National Memory Championships which they will be organising this year.

Please remember to register your entry for the World Memory Championships as quickly as possible if you are in the world’s top 100 ranked competitors, and certainly to enter before your exclusively reserved cut off point of July 31, 2016 . After that date, the floodgates for entry to Singapore will automatically open to everyone else who has met the qualification criteria, on a first come first served basis. Present indications are that we could be heavily oversubscribed. 

Ray Keene OBE
President World Memory Sports Council