International Quizzing Championships

The International Quizzing Championships (IQC) is an annual multi-disciplinary quiz event, in which representatives from various countries compete as individuals, in pairs, and in teams (club and national).

It was known as the European Quizzing Championships (EQC) from 2004 to 2021 and was open to European quizzers only. To reflect the competition's shift to a more global reach, the 2022 edition was played as the Ultimate Quizzing Championships (UQC). In 2023 it was rebranded to its current name.^[1]

In contrast to the World Quizzing Championship, the IQC is played in one place only, in English only (WQC is played in the language of each country) and has several competitions with more than one player (pairs, national teams - for four players, and clubs - also four players). In 2016 the EQC was part of the 2016 Quiz Olympiad.^[2] In 2021 it was part of the 2021 Quiz Olympiad and in 2024 it will be part of the 2024 Quiz Olympiad.^[3]

The 2010 event attracted media attention from BBC Radio Derby^[4] and was the subject also of a BBC Radio 4 documentary presented by the comedian, and quiz enthusiast, Paul Sinha.^[5] The 2006 event in Lésigny near Paris was also the subject of a well received Channel 4 documentary 'Quizzers' by the director Paul Whittaker, shown in the UK as part of the series 'New Shoots'.^[6] The 2022 edition was the subject of an episode of the Arte documentary series Arte Regards which aired in January 2023.

In 2020 the event was planned to take place in Kraków from 5 November until 8 November, but was postponed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[7]

England's Kevin Ashman and Olav Bjortomt are the most successful candidates with six and four individual titles, respectively. Belgian Nico Pattyn^[8] upset all the locals in 2007 in Blackpool, to become the first Belgian to win the trophy. In 2012, Germany's Holger Waldenberger won with the last question on musician Dr. John, while trailing by one point from Igor Habal. Ronny Swiggers took another Belgian victory in 2013.

Introduced in 2005, Belgian and Anglo-Irish pairs have dominated this event.

The English and Belgian teams have contested in most finals, England has won the most titles, nine. The foursome of Kevin Ashman, Mark Bytheway, Pat Gibson and Olav Bjortomt failed to retain the title in 2008 in Oslo, the winning Belgian team composed of Ronny Swiggers, Nico Pattyn, Erik Derycke, and Tom Trogh, but rebounded in 2009. In 2011 Finland became the third team to win the title, beating Norway in the final. The deciding question after the long and even match with tough questions was about a very common Nordic plant Hepatica. Both teams failed to answer correctly and Finland won. So far six countries have won medals: England, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Estonia and USA.

After the first years the event was dominated by two British teams. Since 2007 the questions have been set by a team of quizmasters from different nationalities, in order to eliminate too much local flavour. Milhous Warriors (2006 line-up Kevin Ashman, Mark Bytheway, Tim Westcott, Sean O'Neill) who won in Lésigny in 2006. Broken Hearts (Olav Bjortomt, Ian Bayley, Mark Grant, David Stainer) made it three straight 2007-2009, then it was Milhous again with Pat Gibson replacing the late Mark Bytheway. 2012 winner JFGI was the first champion to have quizzers from several countries: Tero Kalliolevo and Jussi Suvanto from Finland, Ove Põder and Tauno Vahter from Estonia. In 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022 all top three teams included several nationalities.

People not involved in the National Team Quiz can form teams of four to contest the Aspirational Cup instead. This alternative competition uses the same format as, and runs in parallel to, the National Team Quiz. For the Aspirational Cup, teams can be made up with players from anywhere.

Making their debut at the 2016 Quiz Olympiad, specialist quizzes are individual events consisting of 50 questions across two papers, each of 25 questions. For each non-Olympiad event different specialist subjects are chosen. They are categorised as High Brow (Geography, History, Literature, Nature, Performing Arts, Sciences, Visual Arts) or Populist (Business, Digital World, Film, Food and Drink, Pop Music, Sport, Television).^[15]

• Official website
• Profiles
• IQA Belgium with full results previous World and European Championships Archived 2017-01-20 at the Wayback Machine
• IQA Norway with full results previous World Championships
• IQA Great Britain
• IQA United States Archived 2009-08-14 at the Wayback Machine
• SQON/IQA Netherlands
• Ken Jennings about the 2007 games