News and Resources for Competitive and Advanced Mental Calculation
Daniel Timms 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
Last weekend was the 8th Mental Calculation World Cup, organised by Ralf Laue and attended by possibly the strongest-ever field of participants. Congratulations to everyone involved! More details about the competition are available at its official website maintained by Ralf Laue – including the full 2018 results tables. Individual Events: The competition contained 10 rounds: Calendar: … Read more
This year’s JMCWC was held in Bielefeld on September 21-23 – organized for the last 10 years by Caroline Merkel. Over 70 competitors from as far away as India and Peru were competing in the main championship, and around 20 more for the German Hectoc Championship. Today I’m pleased to share the results of the … Read more
Nodas Boukovalas is Greece’s top mental calculator, and one of the most enthusiastic participants in the scene since 2010. Today we talk as he prepares for his 5th Mental Calculation World Cup. How did you first get involved in Mind Sports? It started in High school in the late 1990s in Greece. I participated in … Read more
Results are in for both calculation categories of this year’s Mind Sports Olympiad! Mental Calculations World Championship This year 12 entrants competed in this event – from Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Chris Bryant was defending his position as 2017-2018 champion, with the added difficulty of not having slept the previous night! 5-time gold medalist … Read more
Get ready for the Mind Sports Olympiad 2018! All events are open to everybody and cost £10 per entry. The event will be held on the 19th – 27th August 2018 at JW3 (Finchley Road) London UK. A huge number of competitions are contested as part of the Mind Sports Olympiad and it is a great opportunity to … Read more
Roughly 3 months in advance of the 2018 Mental Calculation World Cup, the competitors have now been informed of this year’s Challenge Task. Every year the competition includes 10 rounds: addition, multiplication, square roots and calendar dates a difficult “challenge task” announced some time before the competition 5 “surprise” rounds unknown to any competitor beforehand … Read more