News and Resources for Competitive and Advanced Mental Calculation
Daniel Timms The annual Mental Calculation event at the Mind Sports Olympiad took place on the 25th August—in person in London for the first time since 2019. This year, the format returned to the original paper exam—although with a shorter time limit—plus with the experimental addition of a live event, similar to the online events of 2020 … Read more
The 9th Mental Calculation World Cup has just taken place on the weekend of the 16th July 2022, organised by Ralf Laue. Many of the competitors had met before at the World Cup or at other international events, but others made their debut here. Congratulations to everyone involved! Personally, I would have loved to be … Read more
** Update: results ** Registration is open for the Junior Mental Calculation World Championship 2022! The event will be held on the 30th September–2nd October 2022 in Bielefeld (Germany). The main competition and the prize ceremony will be on October 2nd, so most people will leave on the morning of the 3rd. Since 2008 this international … Read more
*** Update: Results! *** In advance of the 2022 Mental Calculation World Cup, to be held in Paderborn (Germany) this July, the organizer (Ralf Laue) has released the list of participants. This year the competition will include many experienced calculators from the last decade, from every continent except Oceania, and with a wide range of … Read more
*** Update: Results! *** Registration is now open for the Mental Calculation World Cup 2022! (Organized by Ralf Laue) The event will be held on the 15th – 17th July 2022. This year it will be held in Paderborn (Germany) at the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum. This is the same venue that the 2020 competition was … Read more
Every year, there are opportunities to compete at mental maths. Even the international events are accessible to people of all ages, if you have a good foundation and prepare well! So far for this year, there are expected to be 2–3 events. It is still too early to announce anything yet, shh! But details will … Read more
First of all, some good news! 🎉 At least two in-person international mental calculation competitions are being planned for later in 2022. Details will be announced here (and by email to all subcribers) and by the respective organizations as soon as they are available. In the meantime, the Canadian Mind Sports Association is (again) … Read more
Note: this page was updated on 30th August with results from the Grand Final. Semi Final The main round of the Mental Calculations World Championship, hosted by the Mind Sports Olympiad (official website), was held on Sunday 22nd August. Out of 90 entrants, 32 were qualified to this semi-final, representing India, the UK, Germany, Spain and … Read more
Note: This page was updated August 22nd with new details for the MSO Championship. It’s been a quiet few months in the world of mental calculation in most of the world, but it’s time for a few new updates! Mind Sports Olympiad It is now confirmed that the Mind Sports Olympiad will once again host … Read more
Students who are training in mental calculation often ask me how it’s possible to perform accurate divisions by long numbers, such as: 450 ÷ 34.1826 My preferred method is cross-division, which involves repeated division by a 2-digit number (in this case, by 34) followed by some simple subtractions. The method is fairly straightforward (after some practice), … Read more