World Cup 2018: List of Participants

In advance of the 2018 Mental Calculation World Cup, to be held in Wolfsburg (Germany), here is the provisional list of participants!

This year the competition will feature an exceptionally strong field of competitors from 20+ countries and a wide range of ages! Sign up to the email list for more updates on all competitions, and interviews with some of the participants.

Algeria:

  • Hakim Belouad
  • Mohammed Seghir Said
    • silver medalist for multiplication (2004 & 2008)

Austria:

  • Erich Prem

Bulgaria:

  • Georgi Georgiev
    • gold medalist for calendar dates (2016) and bronze (2014)
    • bronze medalist for square roots (2016)

Cuba:

  • Freddis Reyes Hernandez
    • world record holder for multiplication (2012-2016)
    • gold medals for multiplication and fastest calculator (2012)
    • gold medal at Memoriad for multiplication (2012)
    • world record holder for calendar calculations (2010)

Dominican Republic:

  • Angel Mejía [was unable to attend]

France:

  • Jean-Jacques Bruyant

Germany:

  • Alexander Drygalla
  • Andreas Berger
    • overall 4th place (2016)
    • gold medal for surprise tasks (2014)
    • bronze medal in the (MSO) Blitz (2018)
  • Bjoern Gumboldt
  • Christopher Beeg
  • Dirk Ewers
  • Martin Drees
    • bronze medalist in the Junior Mental Calculations World Championship (2017)
  • Tina Bauer
    • silver medalist at calendar calculations (2014 & 2016)
  • Wenzel Grüß
    • overall 5th place (2016)
    • gold medal in the (MSO) Blitz (2016, 2017 & 2018)
    • gold medal in the (MSO) Mental Calculations World Championship (2018)
    • gold medal in the Junior Mental Calculations World Championship (2017 & 2018)

Greece:

  • Nodas Boukovalas
    • bronze medalist at calendar calculations (2016)
    • silver medal for square roots at Memoriad (2012)

India:

  • Aaryan Gupta
  • Granth Thakkar [was unable to attend]
    • current world record holder for square roots and 20-digit multiplication
    • gold medal for addition (2014)
    • silver medal for multiplication (2014)
    • overall 1st place (2014)
  • Hetansh
    • under-15 age category silver medal in the Junior Mental Calculations World Championship (2018)
  • Nandini Garg
  • Sreenidhi Neermanvi

Iran:

  • Ali Bayat Movahhed [was unable to attend]
    • competing in his 8th World Cup

Japan:

  • Hiroto Ihara
  • Takuma Osaka
  • Tomohiro Iseda

Kyrgyzstan:

  • Arsen Rakhymbekov

Lebanon:

  • Mohammad El-Mir
    • 5x gold medalist in the Junior Mental Calculations World Championship
      • Under-12 age category (2014 & 2015)
      • Under-15 age category (2016, 2017 & 2018)

Pakistan:

  • Jamshaid Aslam [was unable to attend]

Peru:

  • Arturo Mendoza [was unable to attend]
    • overall 3rd place (2008)
    • silver medalist for addition (2008) and gold (2006)

South Korea:

  • Jeonghee Lee
    • overall 3rd place (2016)
    • gold medals for addition, multiplication, division and flash anzan at Memoriad (2016)
    • current world record holder at multiplication
    • the only living 11th-dan soroban master

Spain:

  • Alberto Rodriguez
  • Marc Jornet Sanz
    • gold medal in calendar calculations (2014)
    • silver medal in addition (2014) and bronze (2010)
    • gold medal in multiplication (2010 & 2014)
    • 2nd place overall (2010 & 2014)

Switzerland:

  • Pascal Kaul
    • silver medal for square roots (2014)

United Kingdom:

  • Andy Robertshaw
    • bronze medal for surprise tasks (2012)
    • 7 medals at the (MSO) Mental Calculation World Championship
  • Daniel Timms
  • George Lane
    • creator of the Pegasus software
    • bronze medal for surprise tasks (2014)
    • silver medal for surprise tasks (2012)
    • 20 medals in the (MSO) Mental Calculation World Championship, including 5 gold (1998-2018)
  • Kenneth Wilshire
    • bronze medal in the  (MSO) Mental Calculation World Championship (1997)
    • bronze medal at the World Memory Championships (1991)
    • gold medal in (MSO) Pentamind (1997)
    • 4 medals in (MSO) Triolet, including gold (2005) and silver (2006 & 2018)
  • Robert Fountain
    • competing in his 8th World Cup
    • gold medal for square roots (2016) and bronze (2008 & 2014)
    • silver medal for addition (2006 & 2012)
    • overall 1st place (2004 & 2006)

USA:

  • Samuel Engel

9 thoughts on “World Cup 2018: List of Participants”

  1. Hello, I’m Marc, one of the participants. I like your blog a lot. Now that there are only two weeks left for the World Cup, do you know if this is the definitive list of participants? Or is there any change?

    • Thanks Marc,

      From my understanding, Jean Béland is unfortunately unable to come, and there may still be some more small changes. Hopefully everybody else listed can attend!

  2. Hi Daniel, thank you for your fine blog, very seriously and I guess very helpful in the future too. Just a quick information: Andreas Berger won silver in 2018 Blitz and Pascal bronze. See you in Wolfsburg then.

    • Tom, I don’t know. There is usually a group of young Indian competitors who come with adult coaches or parents so I can appreciate it’s a more complicated task for them to attend than for me to fly from the UK for example. Sometimes they have a national qualification stage too. Ralf Laue will know their reason(s), but it might not be public information anyway.

  3. Excellent summary of the participants! Here you have some more information:
    – Georgi Georgiev was bronze medalist for calendar dates 2014, not for square roots 2014.
    – Freddis Reyes was gold medalist in multiplication 2012 and multiplication Memoriad 2012.
    – Granth Thakkar has world records in multiplication of 20 digit numbers and square roots.
    – Marc Jornet has world record in multiplication of 5 digit numbers since 2010.
    – Arturo Mendoza was silver medalist in addition 2008 and gold medalist in addition 2006.
    – Mohammed Seghir Said was silver medalist in multiplication 2008 and 2004.

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