The World Memory Championships were founded in 1991 by Tony Buzan, a former editor of MENSA’s international journal. Buzan’s goal was to promote memory as a “Mind Sport” and he created 10 memory disciplines which are now accepted as the worldwide standards for international competition.

Buzan’s ten disciplines are designed to measure a person’s pure memory skill. They are not culturally or language specific ensuring a level playing field for all competitors. Subjects include random words, binary digits, speed numbers and dates and each recall must be completed under intense time pressure.

Total recall

The top British contender in Bahrain was Ben Pridmore, a 30 year-old accountant from Derby. A former world champion, Ben recently broke the “30 second barrier” – the holy grail of Mind Sport – for memorising a shuffled deck of playing cards and then recalling them in correctly and in order in just 26.28 seconds in front of a stunned audience at the UK Memory Championships.

Although Pridmore's skills were good enough to earn a place on the podium, he fell at the final hurdle to German mentalist Dr Gunther Karsten. Karsten claimed the $30,000 winner's prize after besting Ben in the speed memorisation of a single shuffled pack of cards.

Dr Karsten's victory wasn't the only German triumph at the World Memory Championships. Karsten, along with his colleagues Simon Reimhard and Boris Konrad, claimed took the gold medal for Best Team Performance while 17 year-old Mia Korkemeyer from Hamburg was crowned junior world champion. In the remaining categories, Chen Yu Juan of China won the women's world championship while 12 year-old Nischal Narayanam, a Guinness World Record Holder in his own right, confirmed his genius as he won the Kids World Championships for Memory Skills.

Fancy mixing it with Mind Sport's finest? Use the Live Search links below to find the lowdown on the memory disciplines tested at the World Memory Championships.