The soroban
His father noticed an unusually strong memory when he was very small. The decisive moment came around 2011 and 2012, when he watched a relative's daughter calculate at speed and enrolled at a local soroban centre in Lebanon.
The soroban is the Japanese abacus, and the method taught in those centres is not arithmetic in the ordinary sense. Pupils learn to move beads until the movements are automatic, then remove the instrument and manipulate the image of it in their heads. Everything El Mir has since done rests on that transfer from hand to mind.
Japan, then five world titles
In 2013 he attended a mental calculation training camp in Japan, where he picked up the multiplication techniques that competitive calculators use. The following year he won the Junior Mental Calculation World Championship with 1,455 points — the runner-up scored 1,121, a margin that is unusual at that level.
He won his category again in 2016 and, by his own account, has taken an age-group title at the championship five times since 2014. At the 2026 edition in Bielefeld he took silver in the alumni division, the category for former junior competitors, with 2,583 points.
Flash anzan and the World Cup
On 3 October 2016 he set a Memoriad world record in flash anzan, the discipline in which digits are flashed on a screen for fractions of a second and must be added as they appear. It is the purest test of the soroban method, because there is no time to think in words.
At the Mental Calculation World Cup held in 2022 he finished third overall, against a field of adults drawn from the traditional calculating powers of Europe and Asia — the senior event of the sport, rather than an age-group championship.
Four hours a day
His parents wrote practice questions out by hand at first. From 2015 he trained mainly on George Lane's Pegasus software: three hours a day in 2015, four hours a day in 2016, two hours in 2017 — a schedule that maps exactly onto the years of his records.
Asked what he finds hardest, his answer was characteristically direct: the most difficult things are the things I don't like, and in this case it's the inexact deep roots. Away from the numbers he took up chess in early 2019, reads about tourism, politics, history and religion, and keeps two cats.
Vingt questions, huit minutes au chronomètre et un centile mesuré face à tous ceux qui l’ont passé. Sans inscription.
Passer le test de QI →What is documented — and what is not
Documented: the five age-group world titles from 2014, the 1,455-point winning score in 2014, the 2016 Memoriad flash anzan record, third place at the 2022 World Cup, the 2026 alumni silver, and his training history in his own words.
Not documented in these sources: his age and birth year, the city he lives in, his studies or profession, and the exact figures behind the flash anzan record. His scores are public; almost nothing else about him is.
| Personne | Pays | Étape | Âge / Donnée |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wenzel Grüß | Allemagne | Calculateur le plus polyvalent, Coupe du monde de calcul mental 2018 | 9 ans |
| Andrej Živanović | Serbie | Titres du Championnat du monde junior de calcul mental | 11 ans |
| Marc Jornet Sanz | Espagne | Deuxième place aux Coupes du monde de calcul mental 2010 et 2014 | 16 ans |
| Freddis Reyes Hernández | Cuba | Vainqueur en multiplication et Trophée Memoriad à l'édition 2012 | 27 ans |
| Mohammad El Mir | Liban | Cinq titres par groupe d'âge au Championnat du monde junior de calcul mental | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- He has won his age category at the Junior Mental Calculation World Championship five times since 2014.
- He won the 2014 championship with 1,455 points against a runner-up on 1,121.
- He set a Memoriad world record in flash anzan on 3 October 2016.
- He finished third at the Mental Calculation World Cup held in 2022 and took alumni silver in 2026 with 2,583 points.
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- His age and birth year.
- His home city, studies or occupation.
- The exact score behind the flash anzan record.
- Whether he intends to compete at further senior World Cups.
Questions people ask about Mohammad El Mir
What is Mohammad El Mir known for?
Mental calculation. He has won his age category at the Junior Mental Calculation World Championship five times since 2014 and holds a Memoriad world record in flash anzan.
How old is Mohammad El Mir?
The sources used here do not give his age or birth year.
What is flash anzan?
A discipline in which numbers are flashed on a screen for fractions of a second and must be added as they appear. It rewards abacus-trained visual calculation rather than verbal arithmetic.
How does he train?
On George Lane's Pegasus software since 2015 — three hours a day in 2015, four in 2016 and two in 2017. Before that his parents wrote questions out by hand.
What is his best senior result?
Third place overall at the Mental Calculation World Cup held in 2022.
What is the soroban?
The Japanese abacus. Trained users visualise the beads and calculate on the mental image after the physical instrument is taken away.
What does he find hardest?
In his own words: the most difficult things are the things I don't like, and in this case it's the inexact deep roots.
Is Mohammad El Mir on Wikipedia?
The research record finds no article under his name. His results are held by the competitions' own organisers.
Quick quiz: how well do you know El Mir’s story?
How many age-group world titles has Mohammad El Mir won?
What instrument did he train on first?
In which discipline does he hold a Memoriad record?
Sources
- Mental Calculation World Cup 2022 — Results — Mental Calculation World Cup, 2022
- Mental Calculation World Cup 2018 — Results — Mental Calculation World Cup, 2018
- Interview with Mohammad El-Mir — World Mental Calculation, 2019-11-02
- Junior Mental Calculation World Championship 2026: Results — World Mental Calculation, 2026-09-15
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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