World Quizzing Championship


The World Quizzing Championship is an individual quiz contest organised by the International Quizzing Association. The competition has been staged annually since 2003 with an increasing number of contestants from an increasing number of nations. Since 2006, the competition has been staged on the first Saturday of every June.

Multiple WQC winners

List of WQC winners

YearWinnerRunner-upThird place
2019 Olav Bjortomt Steve Perry Tero Kalliolevo
2018 Olav Bjortomt Steve Perry Pat Gibson
2017 Kevin Ashman Didier Bruyere Pat Gibson
2016 Kevin Ashman Olav Bjortomt Pat Gibson
2015 Olav Bjortomt Kevin Ashman Pat Gibson
2014 Vikram Joshi Steve Perry Kevin Ashman
2013 Pat Gibson Tero Kalliolevo Kevin Ashman
2012 Jesse Honey Pat Gibson Steve Perry
2011 Pat Gibson Kevin Ashman Tero Kalliolevo
2010 Pat Gibson Kevin Ashman Ronny Swiggers
2009 Kevin Ashman Ronny Swiggers Mark Bytheway
2008 Mark Bytheway Ronny Swiggers Tero Kalliolevo
2007 Pat Gibson Kevin Ashman Mark Bytheway
2006 Kevin Ashman Pat Gibson Nico Pattyn
2005 Kevin Ashman Pat Gibson Nico Pattyn
2004 Kevin Ashman Pat Gibson Krishnakant
2003 Olav Bjortomt Pat Gibson Alan Gibbs

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 inaugural event was won by Olav Bjortomt. The event has full official status but only took place in one country and is sometimes erroneously omitted in statistics.

2004

In 2004, following the foundation of the International Quizzing Association, the event was held simultaneously in five countries: the United Kingdom, Belgium, Estonia, India, and Malaysia. Over 300 quizzers took part. The UK leg was staged at Manchester United's Old Trafford football stadium. The 2004 winner was Kevin Ashman.
  1. Kevin Ashman – 154
  2. Pat Gibson – 135
  3. Ashish – 128
  4. Nico Pattyn – 126
  5. Frank Van Nieuwenhove – 124
  6. Ian Bayley – 118
  7. David Stainer – 117
  8. Arul Mani – 116
  9. Stephen Pearson – 115
  10. Lauri Naber – 115

    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: '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 countries.
Efforts to encourage the participation of women in the contest 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. In India, another woman, Debashree Mitra of Bangalore took 3rd place overall also.
  1. Kevin Ashman – 161
  2. Pat Gibson – 154
  3. Nico Pattyn – 151
  4. Marc Van Springel – 144
  5. Arul Mani – 144
  6. Dorjana Širola – 139
  7. Ove Põder – 138
  8. Lauri Naber – 138
  9. Erik Derycke – 138
  10. Ian Bayley – 138

    2006

On June 3, 2006 the World Quizzing Championships were held at more than 15 locations. First time organisers were Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, Liberia and Sri Lanka. People of a multitude of nationalities took part, including representatives from the United States, Australia, Russia, Singapore, Hungary, and France. The title was, for the 3rd year running, won by Kevin Ashman.
  1. Kevin Ashman – 166
  2. Pat Gibson – 163
  3. Nico Pattyn – 155
  4. Marc Van Springel – 146
  5. Olav Bjortomt – 142
  6. Ronny Swiggers – 140
  7. Dorjana Širola – 140
  8. Mark Bytheway – 136
  9. Erik Derycke – 136
  10. Ian Bayley – 133

    2007

On June 2, 2007 the World Quizzing Championships was held at locations including the Netherlands, the US and Hungary for the first time. Pat Gibson took the crown from three-time winner Kevin Ashman.
  1. Pat Gibson – 179
  2. Kevin Ashman – 176
  3. Mark Bytheway – 171
  4. Olav Bjortomt – 164
  5. Jesse Honey – 159
  6. Ronny Swiggers – 158
  7. Ian Bayley – 151
  8. Mark Grant – 151
  9. Nico Pattyn – 150
  10. Arul Mani – 150
Dorjana Širola of Croatia was the highest placed woman in 12th position. Paul Paquet from Canada placed highest in the New York City leg, the first time the WQC was held in North America.

2008

The 2008 World Quizzing Championships were held on June 7, 2008 at more than 30 locations, including for the first time Australia, the Philippines, Canada, China, Bangladesh, and Latvia. Mark Bytheway took the world title in a close race with Belgium's Ronny Swiggers and Finland's Tero Kalliolevo.
  1. Mark Bytheway - 173
  2. Ronny Swiggers - 172
  3. Tero Kalliolevo - 170
  4. Kevin Ashman - 167
  5. Pat Gibson - 165
  6. Nico Pattyn - 163
  7. Olav Bjortomt - 155
  8. Ian Bayley - 154
  9. Jesse Honey - 152
  10. Dorjana Širola - 150

    2009

The 2009 World Quizzing Championships were held on June 6, 2009 at more than 45 locations, including 10 venues in the US, 9 in India and 4 in Russia. 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, placed eighth.
  1. Kevin Ashman - 177
  2. Ronny Swiggers - 174
  3. Mark Bytheway - 166
  4. Olav Bjortomt - 165
  5. Nico Pattyn - 165
  6. Pat Gibson - 164
  7. Tero Kalliolevo - 156
  8. Jerome Vered - 155
  9. Jesse Honey - 152
  10. Thomas Kolåsæter - 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, 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.
Dorjana Širola of Croatia was the highest placed woman in 17th position with 140 points.

2011

The 2011 World Quizzing Championships took place on Saturday June 4 with the planned addition of venues in Denmark, Gibraltar and Madagascar. Reigning champion Pat Gibson achieved the highest score in England with 186 and retained his title. Four times champion Kevin Ashman made 176. Tero Kalliolevo achieved the highest score in Finland with 176. Ronny Swiggers achieved the highest score in Belgium with 168. Steve Perry achieved the highest score in USA with 164. Mark Grant achieved the highest score in Wales with 163. Thomas Kolåsæter achieved the highest score in Norway with 158.

2012

The 2012 event was held on June 2, 2012, with over 1,700 participants competing at 88 locations in 35 countries. Defending champion Pat Gibson was beaten into second place by Jesse Honey with a score of 186. For the first time ever, someone scored full marks in one genre with Ishaan Chugh, a quizzer from India, scoring 30/30 in the Media section.

2013

The 2013 World Quizzing Championship took place on the 1st of June. A record 1,992 participants competed with India being the most represented country.

2014

The 2014 World Quizzing Championship took place on the 7th of June with 1,833 participants.

2015

The 2015 World Quizzing Championship took place on the 6th of June with over 2,000 participants.

2016

The 2016 World Quizzing Championship took place on the 4th of June with over 2,500 participants.

2017

2018

2019

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 at approximately the same time. There are 240 questions, divided into eight categories, and two hours in which to answer them. 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 are a combination of academic and popular culture topics including:
In 2014, the two UK-based individuals among the WQC organizers created the daily 2020Quiz.com online competition. The format was licensed from LearnedLeague.