World championship in mental calculation for adults

World Mental Calculation Championship

The World Mental Calculation Championship is the most important competition for people who calculate in their heads worldwide.
It is organized by Prof. Dr. Ralf Laue from the Zwickau University of Applied Sciences.

The competition has taken place every two years in different cities in Germany since 2014.
The first city was Annaberg-Buchholz, the birthplace of Adam Ries.
Other cities also had a connection to mathematics, for example:

• Mathematikum in Gießen

• Technische Sammlungen in Dresden

• Phaeno in Wolfsburg

The competition is supported by the Andreas Mohn Foundation and also by Memoriad, an international association for mental sports.

A maximum of 40 people can participate.
If more people apply, a pre-selection is made.
Results from other competitions or tests are considered.
For example, in 2018 there were 79 applications from 23 countries.

Participants are between 15 and 75 years old.
They come from all over the world.
The competition is important, but even more important is sharing knowledge and making contacts.
Interested students are also invited to lectures.

During the competition, participants solve problems over two days.
There are tasks from well-known categories and six surprise tasks.

Examples from previous years:

• 14,130,214 × 17,981,822

• 57,809,355 + 28 × 16,448,333

• √853,748

There are also demonstrations of special mental calculation and memory skills.
Past demonstrations included:

• Mental calculators against a calculator

• Juggling while calculating in the head

These demonstrations are open to everyone interested.