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World Quizzing Championships

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Banner publicising the championship in Bangalore, one of a number of cities simultaneously holding the July 2005 event

The World Quizzing Championship is an individual quiz contest organised by the International Quizzing Association (the umbrella organisation of various quizzing organisations from more than 25 countries around the world). The competition has been staged annually since 2003 (since 2004 in more than one country simultaneously) with an increasing number of contestants from an increasing number of nations. The reigning champion is Pat Gibson of England, who won the competition in 2010, regaining the title from countryman Kevin Ashman[1].

List of WQC winners

Year Winner Runner Up Third Place
2010 Pat Gibson (Eng) Imam Muhammad Habib Abu (Ban) Ronny Swiggers (Bel)
2009 Kevin Ashman (Eng) Ronny Swiggers (Bel) Mark Bytheway (Eng)
2008 Mark Bytheway (Eng) Ronny Swiggers (Bel) Tero Kalliolevo (Fin)
2007 Pat Gibson (Eng) Kevin Ashman (Eng) Mark Bytheway (Eng)
2006 Kevin Ashman (Eng) Pat Gibson (Eng) Nico Pattyn (Bel)
2005 Kevin Ashman (Eng) Pat Gibson (Eng) Nico Pattyn (Bel)
2004 Kevin Ashman (Eng) Pat Gibson (Eng) Ashish (Ind)
2003 Olav Bjortomt (Eng) Pat Gibson (Eng) Alan Gibbs (Eng)

Competition history

2003

A fledgling event was first staged by Quizzing.co.uk in 2003 at Villa Park football stadium, Birmingham, England. This saw 50 quizzers representing a handful of nations compete in a written test of quiz knowledge. The event has full official status but took only place in one country and sometimes erroneously omitted in statistics (results).

2004

In 2004, following the foundation of the International Quizzing Association (IQA), the event was held simultaneously in 5 countries: the United Kingdom (joined by quizzers from elsewhere, including Ireland), Belgium (joined by quizzers from The Netherlands), Estonia, India and Malaysia. Over 300 quizzers took part. The UK leg was staged at Manchester United's Old Trafford football stadium. The winner this year was Kevin Ashman.

2005

The 2005 championship on July 2, saw further significant growth with the event benefiting from the sponsorship of MSN Search. Countries joining the original five competing nations included Australia, Finland, Indonesia, Norway and Singapore. Quizzers sat eight papers of 30 questions each, covering different subject matters: 'Culture', 'Entertainment', 'History', 'Lifestyle', 'Media', 'Sciences', 'Sport and Games', and 'World', with the lowest score from the eight genres being dropped - although these did come into play to settle tie-break situations. The eight genres were won outright or shared by quizzers from seven different countries (Belgium, England, Estonia, Finland, India, Ireland, and Norway).

Efforts to encourage the participation of women in the contest (competitive quizzing has hitherto been something of a male-dominated pastime) were rewarded in 2005 with a win for Trine Aalborg of Norway in the 'Lifestyle' category and a sixth place overall for Dorjana Širola of Croatia (who also finished 3rd among those competitors who had gathered at Silverstone motor racing circuit for the UK leg of the competition). In India, another woman, Debashree Mitra of Bangalore took 3rd place overall also.

  1. Kevin Ashman (England)
  2. Pat Gibson (England)
  3. Nico Pattyn (Belgium)
  4. Mark Van Springel (Belgium)
  5. Arul Mani (India)
  6. Dorjana Širola (Croatia)
  7. Ove Põder (Estonia)
  8. Lauri Naber (Estonia)
  9. Erik Derycke (Belgium)
  10. Ian Bayley (England)

2006

On June 3, 2006 the World Quizzing Championships were held at more than 15 locations around the globe. First time organisers were Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, Liberia and Sri Lanka. People of a multitude of nationalities took part, including representatives from the USA, Australia, Russia, Singapore, Hungary and France. The title was, for the 3rd year running, won by Kevin Ashman.

  1. Kevin Ashman (UK)
  2. Pat Gibson (England)
  3. Nico Pattyn (Belgium)
  4. Marc Van Springel (Belgium)
  5. Olav Bjortomt (UK)
  6. Ronny Swiggers (Belgium)
  7. Dorjana Širola (Croatia, and the world's highest placed woman)
  8. Mark Bytheway (UK)
  9. Erik Derycke (Belgium)
  10. Ian Bayley (UK)

2007

On June 2, 2007 the World Quizzing Championships was held at many locations around the globe, adding The Netherlands, the USA and Hungary for the first time. Pat Gibson took the crown from three-time winner Kevin Ashman.

  1. Pat Gibson (England)
  2. Kevin Ashman (UK)
  3. Mark Bytheway (UK)
  4. Olav Bjortomt (UK)
  5. Jesse Honey (UK)
  6. Ronny Swiggers (Belgium)
  7. Ian Bayley (UK)
  8. Mark Grant (UK)
  9. Nico Pattyn (Belgium)
  10. Arul Mani (India)

Dorjana Širola of Croatia was the highest placed woman in 12th position. Paul Paquet from the Canada placed highest in the New York City leg, the first time WQC was held in North America.

2008

The 2008 World Quizzing Championships were held on June 7, 2008 at more than 30 locations around the globe, including for the first time Australia, the Philippines, Canada, China, Bangladesh and Latvia. Mark Bytheway took the world title in a close race with Bangladesh's Imam Muhammad Habib Abu and Finland's Tero Kalliolevo.

  1. Mark Bytheway (UK) 173
  2. Ronny Swiggers (Bel) 172
  3. Tero Kalliolevo (Finland) 170
  4. Kevin Ashman (UK) 167
  5. Pat Gibson (England) 165
  6. Nico Pattyn (Belgium) 163
  7. Olav Bjortomt (UK) 155
  8. Ian Bayley (UK) 154
  9. Jesse Honey (UK) 152
  10. Dorjana Širola (Croatia) 150 (best woman)

2009

The 2009 World Quizzing Championships were held on June 6, 2009 at more than 45 locations around the globe, including 10 venues in the US, 9 in India and 4 in Russia. Living legend Kevin Ashman regained his title and became the first ever to win 4 World Quizzing Championships. Second again was Ronny Swiggers from Belgium. Third was last year's champion Mark Bytheway. Jeopardy! legend Jerome Vered, whose all-time single-day winnings record lasted 10 or 12 years (depnding on whether adjustment for the doubling of the clue values is used), placed eighth.

  1. Kevin Ashman (UK) 177
  2. Ronny Swiggers (Belgium) 174
  3. Mark Bytheway (UK) 166
  4. Olav Bjortomt (UK) 165
  5. Nico Pattyn (Belgium) 165
  6. Pat Gibson (England) 164
  7. Tero Kalliolevo (Finland) 156
  8. Jerome Vered (USA) 155
  9. Jesse Honey (UK) 152
  10. Thomas Kolasaeter (Norway) 148

Dorjana Širola of Croatia was the highest placed woman in 22nd position with 135 points.

2010

The 2010 World Quizzing Championships were held on June 5, 2010 at almost seventy locations around the globe, adding Armenia, Bulgaria, Morocco and the Republic of Ireland for the first time. Over 1200 people participated. Five nations were represented among the competitors placed in the top 10 overall. The overall winner was Pat Gibson.

  1. Pat Gibson (UK) 180
  2. Imam Muhammad Habib Abu (Ban) 169
  3. Ronny Swiggers (Belgium) 169
  4. Tero Kalliolevo (Finland) 166
  5. Olav Bjortomt (UK) 165
  6. Nico Pattyn (Belgium) 151
  7. Mark Grant (UK) 149
  8. Thomas Kolasaeter (Norway) 147
  9. Erik Derycke (Belgium) 147
  10. David Beck (Belgium) 146[2]

Dorjana Širola of Croatia was the highest placed woman in 17th position with 140 points.

Format

The World Quizzing Championships are in the form of a written test taken by individuals that is conducted at various points around the globe. Each competitor faces the same questions (translated into their mother tongue in many cases) at approximately the same time. There are 240 questions, divided into eight categories, and two hours in which to answer them (during one hour halves with a break in between). At the end of the allotted time, the papers are marked and each quizzers' top seven category scores will be added together to find the winner.

The categories [and general content areas] are a combination of academic and popular culture topics including:

  • Culture [Architecture, Fine Arts, Philosophy, Museums, Religion, Mythology]
  • Entertainment [Music (Classical, Blues, Film Score, Jazz, Rock, World), Ballet, Musicals and Operas, Radio, Television]
  • History [(<450AD),(450-1492),(1492-1900),(1900-date), Current Affairs, Explorations, Famous People, Civilizations]
  • Lifestyle [Costume, Design, Fashion, Food & Drink, Handicrafts, Health & Fitness,Human Body, New Age Beliefs, Products & Brands, Tourism]
  • Media [Movies [(1900-1980), (1980-2000)], (recent), Literature [(<1900),(1900-1980),(recent)], Poetry, Drama, Comics, Language]
  • Science [Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Social Sciences, Fauna, Flora]
  • Sport [Track and Field, Team Sports, Motor Sports, Winter Sports, Games, Hobbies & Pastimes, Records]
  • World [Geography, Cities, Space, Technology, Transport, Inventions]

Notes

  1. ^ "Norwegian Quiz Association Interview".
  2. ^ http://www.iqa.be/iqa_wqc_uk2010.htm
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