Two Italians at the Mental Calculation World Cup 2022

TWO ITALIANS AT THE
9th MENTAL CALCULATION WORLD CUP 2022

Paderborn (Germany), 15-17 July 2022

Domenico Mancuso and Michelangelo Sabatini, respectively 1st and 2nd classified at the last Italian Mental Calculation Championship organized by studiogiochi, represented Italy at the World Cup in Paderborn, Germany. The competition took place at the Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum, the largest computer museum in the world.
Thirty-five of the strongest “calculators” in the world were present, from 18 countries.

Domenico tells us: “…everything considered, we performed quite well, 16th and 19th overall respectively. In the standard tests (addition, multiplication, square roots and dates) we paid for the huge preparation gap with the best, especially Indians and Japanese, who are placed in ad hoc schools from an early age and who have training rhythms and structures similar to those of an Olympic athlete. In the five surprise tests though, where versatility and mental elasticity also do matter, it went much better: I won the last one on par with a Bulgarian, Michelangelo took second place ex aequo in a different test.”

The overall ranking was dominated by Aaryan Shukla, a 12-year-old Indian boy, but boy, we’re really on another planet or even another galaxy. Let’s consider, for example, the multiplication of 8 digits by 8 digits, which are the most difficult questions of the Italian tests and few are able to solve even just one; well, Aaryan solved 21 in the span of 10 minutes, less than 30 seconds each… brrrr, shiver! And as if that weren’t enough, he set a world record by solving a multiplication of 20 digits by 20 digits in less than 2 minutes! You can’t compete.

Dario De Toffoli

In this website, various chronicles: https://worldmentalcalculation.com/2022/07/19/mental-calculation-world-cup-2022-results/

In this website many results: https://www.recordholders.org/en/events/worldcup/2020/results.html

At the bottom of the page there is a link to download all the tests in pdf; the test won by Mancuso is the last, with 10 correct answers.