News and Resources for Competitive and Advanced Mental Calculation
Daniel Timms Jeonghee Lee is perhaps the most accomplished soroban expert in the world, and the only master to have achieved the 11th-dan level at the apparatus. Originally from South Korea, she lives in New York and is currently running Abakidz, a tactile learning center. In addition to her many medals at Memoriad and the Mental Calculation … Read more
In 2009, when Usain Bolt smashed the world record in the 100 metres sprint in 9.58 seconds, the world wondered what was the fastest possible speed that anyone could run. Could anyone run 100 metres in 9.5 seconds? 9.0 seconds? 2.0 seconds? Just as an athlete pushes their body to its limits, a competitive mental … Read more
Registration is open for the Junior Mental Calculation World Championship 2019! The event will be held on the 3rd – 5th October 2019 in Bielefeld (Germany) although many participants will arrive the evening before (2nd October). Since 2008 this international championship in mental calculation has taken place. Caroline Merkel and the team welcome all young people … Read more
Get ready for the Mind Sports Olympiad 2019! All events are open to everybody and cost £10 per entry. The event will be held on the 18th – 26th August 2019 at the usual venue JW3 (Finchley Road) London UK. A huge number of competitions are contested as part of the Mind Sports Olympiad and it … Read more
Hello everyone – March is a quiet month for competitive mental calculation, but I do have a couple of updates! Website Comments Thank you for your inputs into the discussion here! Until recently your comments would take some time to appear because I had to manually approve everything. I’ve recently changed the settings so that … Read more
Competitors and potential competitors – today we announce the first of at least 3 calculation events this year! European Championship of Mental Calculation Junior Mental Calculation World Championship Mind Sports Olympiad (Mental Calculations World Championship) The 2019 European Championship in Mental Calculation will be held on the 29th May – 1st June 2019 in Reken (northwest Germany) and … Read more
Anyone serious about improving a skill can benefit from keeping a note of their performance in training. For example, a competitive footballer could record their running speed in fitness training, their accuracy when practising free kicks, and some notes about their strategy and position during each match. A professional dancer may video some of their … Read more
At all levels of Mental Calculation (especially elite levels) you can gain speed and accuracy by learning more shortcuts. For example: At school we learn our times tables from 2×2 until 12×12 For quickly calculating square roots it is helpful to know the square numbers from 31² = 961 until 99² = 9801 For calculating … Read more
Marc Jornet Sanz first competed in the Mental Calculation World Cup in 2010, winning the overall silver medal. In 2018 he is stronger than ever, winning gold for calendar calculations, silver for multiplications, and 3rd place for the standard tasks. We interviewed him at the 2018 World Cup soon after he set a massive new … Read more
Hello everyone, and welcome to the new subscribers! After a busy few weeks of competitions in August/September, I have an assortment of updates and information to share with you. The 2018 question paper from the MSO Mental Calculations World Championship was available here (PDF) from August, but due to popular request I have uploaded a version … Read more