Mathematics competition is similar to sports competition. It is a kind of intelligence competition for teenagers, so the Soviet Union pioneered the term "Mathematical Olympics". In similar intelligence contests with basic science as the competition content, mathematics competition has the longest history, the largest number of participating countries and the greatest influence. More formal math competitions, except for the two world wars and the 1956 incident, all started from Hungary 1894. It has been held for more than 90 sessions so far. The math competition in the Soviet Union started with 1934, and the math competition in the United States started with 1938. Both countries have held it more than 50 times, except for three years during World War II. Other countries with a long history of mathematical competitions are Romania (from 1902) and Bulgaria (from the beginning).

1956, Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union formally defined the plan of the international mathematical olympiad. 1959, the first international mathematical olympiad was held in brasov. It will be held once a year from now on. Except for 1980, which was suspended due to the economic difficulties of Mongolia, the host country, it has been held for 40 times so far. More and more countries are involved. Only seven countries participated in the first session, and by 1980, there were 23 countries; To 1990, there are 54.

It must be pointed out that there have been some math competitions before the above history. For example, the Soviets said that 1886 held a math contest in the era of Russian Empire. For another example, 1926 held a abacus competition in China, including students, banks and bank employees. Hua is a freshman in China Vocational School. She won the championship with her wisdom. These are excellent math competitions.

Second, the development of mathematical competitions

Mathematics competition has gradually developed from a single city to the whole country and then to the whole world. For example, the mathematics competition in the Soviet Union began in Leningrad and Moscow, and extended to the whole country in 1962, while the national mathematics competition in the United States did not begin until 1957.

Mathematics competition is also gradually developed from shallow to deep. Mathematics competitions in almost every country are organized by some famous mathematicians. The test questions are very close to the exercises in middle school textbooks, and then gradually deepen. Some mathematicians spend more energy on topic selection and competition organization. At this time, the test questions are gradually out of the scope of middle school textbooks. Of course, it is still required to state the questions in elementary mathematical language and solve them by elementary mathematical methods. For example, at the beginning of the Soviet Mathematical Competition, famous mathematicians André Andrey Kolmogorov, Aleksandrov and Tommy Tam Nie all took part in this work. In the United States, the famous mathematician boekhoff and his sons Paulia and Kaplanski participated in this work.

After the start of the International Mathematical Olympiad, the preparation work of the participating countries is often mainly an intensive training for the contestants to broaden their knowledge and improve their problem-solving ability. This kind of training class is very difficult, much deeper than middle school mathematics. At this time, several mathematicians are needed to specialize in this activity. In countries with good math competitions, the competitions are often conducted in a pyramid-like way with level-by-level and level-by-level selection. For example, the Soviet Union is divided into five levels. That is, school-level, city-level, provincial-level, national-level and all-Soviet-level competitions, the number of participants in each level is about110 of the previous level, and eight special math schools (or math olympiad schools) have been established to train students with good math quality.

Although the mathematical competition has a long history, it has developed and changed greatly in the recent 10 years, and the related work has become more and more specialized. We should pay close attention to its development and understand its laws.