Hyderabad girl becomes the first Indian to win open category medal at the World Memory Championships

What's the story?

Vyshnavi Yarlagadda recently became the first Indian to win an open category medal at the World Memory Championships. She achieved the feat at the 24th World Memory Championships held in Chengdu, China.

Vyshnavi also became the first Indian woman and the youngest Indian to win the International Master of Memory title. She achieved the feat at the names and faces category in the World Championships.

In case you didn't know...

She became the second Indian after Prateek Yadav to be awarded the International Master of Memory title. This requires achieving over 6000 points at World stage according to current millennium standards.

Three Indians have been awarded the Grand Master of Memory title till date which requires achieving over 2500 points at the world stage. This includes John Louis, Nishant Kasibhatla and Rajendra Jain. She had also been awarded the 100 Women Achievers Award by President Pranab Mukherjee among which the 20-year-old was the second youngest.

The heart of the matter

Vyshnavi had to memorize over 1,000 digits, 10 decks of playing cards and 1 deck of cards in under two minutes to win bronze at the World Championships. Her skills in recalling things better than anyone else has also made her rank higher than any other Indian in this sport.

She started practising memory games in 2010 in order to hone her chess skills but she later dropped Chess and took up memory games as her primary sport. She studies psychology at the Villa Marie College for Women. Unfortunately, she has not gone any support for her stints at the international stage as of now apart from the award by the President of India and has been self-funded ever since she started taking part in such events.

What's next?

Vyshnavi does not want the lack of financial support to come against her way in future and wants to open up an institution in order to teach people her memory skills which she has honed over the years. She may also look up to convert the bronze into a gold in the next World Championships.

Author's take

Memory games are known by very few people across the country and should get more exposure. A number of Indians have shined on the global stage including Vyshnavi who need public and government support to bring this sport forward.