Vapi teen is world’s new mental math champion

SURAT: Two years ago, Granth Thakkar had floored all when he won the world's fastest number game, Flash Anzan, by adding 15 numbers flashing past very quickly on a giant screen in Turkey.

Now, this mathematics wizard from Vapi has been crowned the world's fastest mental calculator. Granth, 13, achieved this feat at the Junior Mental Calculators World Championship 2014 (JMCWC-2014) held in Dresden in Germany last week. Around 40 persons from 18 countries participated.

Granth, son of a clerk in Vapi municipality, also won the mental calculation world cup. "Granth scored 1,547 points out of 1,600, which is the highest in the of the competition. His hard work and dedication helped him win," said his father Rakesh.

A class XI student Asha Dham School, Granth aspires to be an astronaut. "I wish to become an astronaut and work in Nasa. I am yet to finalize the courses to pursue after class XII and I am focusing on school studies right now," he told TOI.

Granth gathered the points in 23 different types of mental arithmetic tests. A participant takes tests like addition, multiplication, square root and others. "A candidate is supposed to do calculations of numbers starting from three digits to 10 digits. It require lots of practice and a specialized method for calculation," said Granth.

Granth uses soroban, a Japanese method similar to abacus, to train his mind.

In the mental calculation world cup, there are 10 tests of which five are surprise tests. These include addition of 10-digit numbers in 10 rows and calculating dates.