Who were the fastest people to memorize an entire deck of cards?
Executive summary
The headline benchmark from Guinness World Records names Zou Lujian of China as the fastest person to memorize and recall a shuffled 52‑card deck in 13.96 seconds at the 2017 World Memory Championships [1], but faster times have been reported under different organizers and event rules — notably a 5.129‑second claim certified by the World Record Certification Agency for Liu Monan [2] and a 12.74‑second “speed cards” record attributed to Shijir‑erdene Bat‑Enkh on memory‑sport sites [3].
1. The Guinness benchmark: Zou Lujian’s 13.96 seconds
Guinness World Records recognizes Zou Lujian’s 13.96‑second performance at the 2017 World Memory Championships in Shenzhen as the official fastest time to both memorize and recall a standard 52‑card deck under their rules, which frame the event as an individual attempt measured to the nearest hundredth of a second [1].
2. Faster claims outside Guinness: Liu Monan and the WRCA
A much faster time — 5.129 seconds for memorizing and recalling a 52‑card deck — is reported and verified by the World Record Certification Agency for Liu Monan, showing that another certification body has recognized a performance that, if measured under comparable conditions, would shatter Guinness’s listed mark [2]; the existence of this claim exposes how records can diverge by certifier.
3. Memory‑sport formats complicate comparisons
Competitive memory events use several formats — single sighting recall, “speed cards” where the goal is fastest memorization, and multi‑deck endurance events — and different federations or forums (e.g., International Association of Memory, Art of Memory community) record separate “world records,” so a fastest‑time figure depends on the exact event rules and timing conventions [3].
4. Other notable speedsters: Alex Mullen, Shijir‑erdene and Nelson Dellis
Prominent names in the sport include Alex Mullen, whose 18.65‑second performance was widely reported in mainstream press as a record at the time [4], Shijir‑erdene Bat‑Enkh, credited on memory‑sport pages with a 12.74‑second “speed cards” record (p1_s4; community discussion [1]0), and veteran memory athlete Nelson Dellis, who is cited by Guinness for other specialized card feats including a 40.65‑second fastest deck memorization listed among his domestic records and for a distinct underwater memorization challenge [5].
5. Endurance and quantity records — a different dimension
Speed is only one axis: Guinness documents endurance/quantity feats such as Dave Farrow’s single‑sighting memorization of 59 decks (3,068 cards) over nearly five hours [6], and Kim Surim’s 2,530 cards memorized in one hour, demonstrating that “fastest to memorize a deck” sits alongside very different records for volume and stamina [6] [7].
6. Why times and “fastest” labels disagree — adjudication, methods and incentives
Discrepancies stem from differing adjudication bodies, subtle rule differences (how recall is verified, whether jokers are used, timing start/stop conventions), the use of memory systems like PAO that favor different split‑second strategies, and incentives: independent certifiers and community forums may promote headline‑grabbing claims that aren’t immediately adopted by Guinness, while Guinness applies its own verification pipeline and event standards [1] [2] [3] [8].
7. Bottom line: who were the fastest?
Under Guinness World Records’ formal listing, Zou Lujian (13.96 s) is the fastest recognized; however, faster verified claims exist outside Guinness — notably Liu Monan’s 5.129 s under WRCA verification — and the memory‑sport community recognizes other sub‑14‑second performances such as Shijir‑erdene’s 12.74 s depending on event definitions, so any definitive answer must state the certifying body and event rules used to define “fastest” [1] [2] [3].