The Canadian Mind Sports Organization (CMSA) is a new dynamic non-profit organization dedicated to helping as many people as possible discover the joy of the art of memory, of mental math and of speed cubing. Those three disciplines have very little in common with each other except that they are good examples of what could be called mind sports. They are good intellectual exercises that also happen to be very fun and addictive. They are wrongly perceived by most people to be too difficult. And finally, especially when it comes to the art of memory and mental math, we think they aren’t nearly as popular as they should be. We will be promoting those activities through the competitions we will hold, through the instructional material that will appear on this website and through the free workshops we will sometimes be presenting.
For memory and mental math, the CMSA championships will be the best place to be in Canada to have a chance at becoming the national champion or just to have fun, to challenge yourself and to meet people who share your interests. Experimented competitors can sign up for the advanced section and face off against other experts while casual hobbyists and beginners can sign up for the regular section and enjoy a less strict format. So even if you only discovered memory techniques or mental math a few days before an event (or even if you have absolutely zero experience), you can still compete, have fun and possibly do quite well. If you aren’t already an expert, check out some of the links and resources in the Learn and train section of this website and see how much you can improve with some practice. No matter who you are and no matter how much or how little experience you currently have, we thank you for being here right now and we’re hoping to meet you soon!
Some fun facts about the CMSA:
- Some or our memory and math championships were covered extensively in the media.
- Although we do like to celebrate outstanding achievements, our foremost concerns and interests remain the promotion of brain training and good learning habits to as many people as possible. We do our very best to make sure that our events are accessible and welcoming to people of all skill levels, including complete beginners.
- In Quebec city, we’ve been working in collaboration with l’Association des participants à la maîtrise en administration de l’Université Laval (APMAL) as well as a Université Laval’s teacher named Philippe Grégoire to help students discover the art of memory.
- Through our workshops and instructional materials, we’ve helped a significant number of people quickly develop their memorization skills way beyond what they initially thought was possible. One example is a young student named Alex McAdams who commented “I went from having a 70% average in school to about 90% in a matter of weeks. I really didn’t know what my brain was capable of doing.” We have every reason to believe that anyone can achieve similar results as long as they’re willing to learn how to use the art of memory and invest enough effort.
- In April 2019, CMSA board member Valérie Grenon along with Canadian Cubing and others organized a huge cubing competition in Montreal with over 120 competitors attending. The Journal de Montréal wrote this great article about it.
- CMSA cofounder Francis Blondin built a free French-language instructional website as well as an English-language instructional website that has been used by tens of thousands of people around the world during the last 3 years. Francis has appeared in the media no less than 20 times and his conferences have consistently received particularly positive feedback from those in attendance.