He is the hottest newcomer of this season. In only three championships in a row he climbed from zero to rank 22 in the world. He has prooven an extraordinary ability with memory sports in competition. His scores with the MemoryXL trainer and with the Online Memory Challenge are close and or even above most of the world records. The elite is already shaking with him in competition. It will only be a matter of time and experience before he aims for even higher positions. Memory-Sports.com was asking him about his techniques and his amazing synesthesia.

Everyone who is interested in memory sports should give it a try. It certainly isn’t that difficult how many might think. It rather is a lot fun.

Memory-Sports: What do you do for your living?

Dennis: I make an apprenticeship as a computer scientist and work on my A-Levels via distance study. Occasionally I teach math and computer science at the University of Cologne.

Memory-Sports: That keeps you quite busy, right?

Dennis: It’s ok. I still have more free time than others.

Memory-Sports: How did you come to memory sports?

Dennis: I watched Dorothea Seitz last year in November. Thereupon I bought the book by former Junior World Champion Christiane Stenger. I think it is called „Warum fällt das Schaf vom Baum?: Gedächtnistraining mit der Jugendweltmeisterin“
(English version: A Sheep Falls Out of the Tree: How Anyone Can Develop a Fantastic Memory)

Memory-Sports: What do you mean by „I think“, Mr. Memory Athlete? *both are laughing*

What has been your motivation to start to train your brain?

Dennis: I just thought it is super interesting and totally different to common sports like football or swimming.

Memory-Sports: What did you do after reading the book?

Dennis: I started training binary numbers and Speed Cards. They said in television that Dorothea was able to memorize a pack in two minutes. I wanted to do the same. At this point it took me ten minutes for a deck. The first six months I trained about 30 minutes up to an hour each day. Later I trained one of the seven basic disciplines once a day which resulted in doing each of them at least once a week. Today my effort decreased.

The first six months I trained about 30 minutes up to an hour each day.

Memory-Sports: What has been your first memory system?

Dennis: I started with the 2^nd-level Major System (100 pegs) and a 52 peg system for cards. Soon I realized that this is not what I wanted and I worked on creating bigger systems. That’s been after about four to five weeks of training.

Memory-Sports: What exactly do you mean by “bigger systems”?

Dennis: The 3^rd-level Major System (1.000 pegs) and the 2^nd-level card system (2.652 pegs). But ever since I went back to a Person-Object System (PO) for the digits because I like it better.

Memory-Sports: Your effort is awesome! But what is your problem with the 3^rd-level Major System?

Dennis: It is a similar problem with the words: I place several objects on each location and mix them up. Using a PO is more effective to save locations and make sure to keep the order at the same time. On the other hand it is quicker to use the 3^rd-level Major System because you have fewer pictures to remember.

Memory-Sports: Only three memory athletes are using a 2^nd-level card system: World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore, German Champion Simon Reinhard and you. How long did it take you to create all the 2.652 pegs?

Dennis: About a week. I spend about four nights to gather the pegs and three days to memorize them and be able to use the system in practice. For this purpose I took a week off from work. It was worth it because I finished it in that time. But there are still about 400 pegs which cost me more time to remember than all the others.

Memory-Sports: How did you create your 2^nd-level card system?

Dennis: Just like with the digits I used PO for the cards. From each combination out of the persons and objects I associated a third peg. For example Britney Spears (person) and the axe (object) reminded me somehow of an executioner. Doing this it was quite fast to create and memorize all the 2.652 pegs.

Memory-Sports: That is very clever. It is indeed much quicker to memorize your new system by using natural associations from your previous pegs to create your new ones, instead of using a certain code like Simon and Ben did. On the other hand you have to remember your old associations first instead of just “reading” the cards. Regarding your own experience with that matter, what method would you suggest to others who are looking forward to create such a huge system?

Dennis: I think everybody should find out for himself how to do it. One may like Ben’s method better, another one mine and a third one a completely different technique. You cannot trivialize it.

Memory-Sports: Tell us a little about your first competition experience.

Dennis: My first championship has been the North German Championship in April 2009. Two weeks before that I was somehow discouraged and at the competition I was extremely nervous. Nevertheless I ended up second.

Memory-Sports: Your position has been great but even better has been your score: 3.190 points is amazingly good for a newcomer – especially since it was only Regional Standard (seven disciplines). You jumped from zero to somewhere in the sixties of the world rankings. What did you learn most from your first event?

Dennis: That the difference between training and competition results is much bigger than with other sports like football or chess. The memory sport is extremely unmerciful with mistakes.

Memory-Sports: Even before your first competition you have been treated like a secret favorite. Why the entire rumor about you?

Dennis: I think that was because I got a perfect score with the MemoryXL software. That probably scared several people in the first place because the highest level is extremely difficult. For example you have to memorize 400 digits in 5 minutes without a mistake.

Memory-Sports: A newcomer with the ability to memorize 400 digits in 5 minutes is indeed very scary. The gossip seems absolutely understandable under these circumstances. Didn’t those expectations put you under a lot of pressure?

Dennis: I might have thought about this too much and ended up with far worse results than in my training. My pretensions have been influenced by the expectations of the other athletes. In my next championship I only aimed for my own goals instead of listening to others.

Memory-Sports: And it obviously paid off. You have won your second competition shortly after that.

Dennis: Exactly. At the Cambridge Memory Championship in May I got closer to some of my training results. In Speed Binaries for example I memorized 630 digits. On the other hand I failed in other disciplines again. I hope this will stabilize soon.

Memory-Sports: Meanwhile you competed in two more championships: Out of competition at the South German Championship and at the German Memory Open. What is your experience after four memory events?

Dennis: I learned not to think about failure in the first place. You cannot change it before the discipline and you can’t do it after it as well.

Memory-Sports: What has been your most important success in memory sports so far?

Dennis: That would be the result in 30 Minute Binary at the German Memory Championship where I ended up with 2.421 digits. I wanted it to work out and it did.

I learned not to think about failure in the first place. You cannot change it before the discipline and you can’t do it after it as well.

Memory-Sports: Very impressive! Let us have a look at your personality. You told me once that you have synesthesia. Can you tell us something about it?

Dennis: Synesthesia is an entanglement of different senses. In my case I see numbers and letters in colors. The five for example is pink. That results in seeing a much more colorful world than a normal person without that ability. If you look at a book page the letters only appear in black. For people like me it is multicolored because every letter has a different color.

Memory-Sports: Do you think that your synesthesia is a benefit for your life?

Dennis: The advantage is that I see the world more open minded. The structure of each text reminds me of shapes. But that brings me to its disadvantage too: If I say that out loud people think I am crazy or on drugs. They just don’t know this ability and cannot understand it. There are only very few people I know with synesthesia. Junior World Memory Champion Dorothea Seitz is one of them.

Memory-Sports: Does your synesthesia benefit you in memory sports?

Dennis: Especially with binary digits it does. As soon as I translate a block of three binaries into a single decimal digit it will turn into a certain color. If I translate 111 for example it will turn red because the seven is red (read more about binary systems: How to become a Memory Champion – Part 5). It gives me a much better overview over the whole page. Meanwhile I am able to see the blocks of three digits nearly immediately in the right color.

Memory-Sports: Does your synesthesia influence you beside letters and digits?

Dennis: I can taste the voices of some people. That means I will literally have a certain taste in my mouth when they talk with me. But that only happens once in a while. Your voice for example is neutral. In all my life I met about 350 people whose voices tasted like something. It is still a mystery to me why some people taste like they do. The voice of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for example tastes like beer.

Memory-Sports: Really? That is a funny coincidence since we Germans are well known for our beer. Have you met people with – let me say – less delicate tastes than beer?

Dennis: Yes, it happened to me with my old German teacher in school. But what his voice tasted like is – ahem – negligibly.  *laughs*

Memory-Sports: Ok, we better leave it at that. Did you suffer in your youth when you realized that you are not like the other kids?

Dennis: I wouldn’t call it suffering, but there certainly have been strange situations in school. For example in the first grade: My teacher wrote something on the blackboard with a colored chalk to improve the readability for us. But I couldn’t read it because it was flickering the whole time. When I told him that he should use white chalk instead because the red and green glint confuses me I earned very strange looks from him and the entire class. You have to know that synesthesia is additive. When you see a digit written in blue but your personal color for it is red it will result in an unsteady change of the two colors. That can be very confusing.

The voice of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for example tastes like beer

Memory-Sports: What will be your next step in Memory Sports?

Dennis: I will compete in Sweden in September and of course at the World Memory Championship in November. My goal for this year is to achieve 6.000 championship points and get my Grand Master of Memory.

Memory-Sports: World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore called you one of the hot candidates to succeed him in the future. Do you plan to get the memory crown?

Dennis: I certainly aim for it but I don’t think it will happen in the next two years because I lack experience. Ben is doing it for so many years now that his know-how is far more superior to mine. Directly attacking the crown will take at least two or three years of experience before it gets realistic. It just is very difficult to keep a top level over all the ten disciplines.

Memory-Sports: Do you have any last words for the readers?

Dennis: Everyone who is interested in memory sports should give it a try. It certainly isn’t that difficult how many might think. It rather is a lot fun.

Dennis’ Memory Statistics

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In the previous episodes of How to become a Memory Champion you learned all about the basic techniques of a memory athlete. Step by step I showed you the method of loci, creating good associations and learning the systems for numbers, cards and binaries. If you have followed my lead you should now be prepared for your first introduction into memory championships. We will start with two of the easier disciplines: Speed Words (regularly called “5 Minutes Words”) and Random Words.

Foreword

Memorizing Words is probably the first discipline in memory sports you ever had contact with. Maybe it has been the typical shopping list (which personally I’ve never used and also never heard of anybody who did – but this is another story), keywords for a speech or an exam or to learn a long poem. Anyhow you will have realized that this discipline is extremely intuitive and easy to do. There is nothing easier for a student of mental improvement than memorizing a list of 20 words. But it can become extremely difficult, too. It is a huge difference if you are learning a small shopping list without any pressure of time or if you are memorizing as many words as fast as possible in a memory championship. So let’s prepare you for your first discipline.

Speed Words and Random Words

In each memory championship following the national or international standard by the World Memory Sports Council there will be the discipline 5 Minutes Words (I call it Speed Words). The competitors have five minutes to memorize random words. After the memorization period their sheets will be collected by the arbiters and the 10 Minutes recall starts. This discipline was introduced to the sport in 2006 to help shorten a normal memory competition. The second discipline of this category is Random Words. It has been the standard for all championships until 2006. Nowadays it is only used for the two big fishes: The German Memory Open and of course the World Memory Championship. The only difference between those two disciplines is the time of memorization and recall: In Random Words the competitors have a 15 Minutes memorization period and a 30 Minutes recall period.

• Speed Words: 5 minutes memorization / 10 minutes recall
  • World Record: 109 words by Katie Kermode
• Random Words: 15 minutes memorization / 30 minutes recall
  • World Record: 280 words by Boris Konrad

The Rules

For both Speed Words and Random Words the rules are the same (except the time, the amount of presented words and the championship points):

Memorizing Period

1. Each competitor gets memorizing sheets with 100 generally known words on each paper. The words are ordered in columns of 20 with five columns on each page.
2. Contestants must start at the first word of column 1 and remember as many of the words as possible in order.

Recall Period

1. Contestants may write down the list of words on the Recall Papers provided.
2. If a contestant wishes to use his/her own Recall Papers, these must be approved by the adjudicator before the competition.
3. Each word must be clearly numbered and the start and finish of each column of words easily identifiable.

Scoring

1. A point is awarded for every word in a complete column where all 20 words are correctly spelt.
2. One mistake (including any gaps) in a column of 20 words gives a score of 10 for that column (20/2).
3. Two or more mistakes (including any gaps) in a column of 20 words scores 0 for that column.
4. The contestant may use upper or lower case letters.
5. For the final column only: If the final column is partially complete, a point is awarded for each word if every one is correctly spelt. One mistake (including any gaps) in the partial column means the points awarded will equal half the number of words recalled. Two or more mistakes (including any gaps) will score 0 for the column.
6. *If a word has been clearly memorized, but has been spelled in an incorrect way, no points are given for this word. It will not, however, cancel other words in a column. For example, if somebody writes ‘rythm’ instead of ‘rhythm’, no points will be given for this word, and, if all other words in the column are correct, full marks minus one will be given for that column (e.g. 19).
7. If there is both one memory mistake in a column and a spelling mistake, than first the maximal points given for the column will be halved and than a point for the wrong spelled word will be subtracted (e.g. max 20 points, divided by 2 gives 10 points, minus one is 9.) [The different order leads to 9.5 points]
8. The points for each line will be added up. If a non integer result is obtained, it will be rounded up (72.5 points => 73 points).
9. In the case of tied winning scores, the winner will be decided by looking at the extra columns the contestant tried to recall but for which he/she got 0 points. For every correctly positioned word there will be given 1 decision point. The contestant with more of those decision points is the winner.

*This rule has been introduced to limit the complications that may arise from spelling ambiguities, mistakes in translations, dyslexia, and handicaps for foreigners etc.

How to Memorize Words

Actually you already learned what it takes to memorize words. Use your elephant path and associate your locations with the words. There are several ways to do that:

One word per location

The upside of this technique is a quick association with an absolutely clear order. You will not have problems to put the words back into their original positions as long as you remember your images. The downside is a massive amount of locations. Trying to break the world record in Random Words would cost you at least 281 journey points.

Two (or more) words per location

This is a commonly used technique. Create an image out of two words and your location. You will need 50% less journey points. Also it is a matter of fact that the images will strengthen each other. In most cases it makes a perfect story. The downside however is the omnipresent chance of mixing up the order of these two words. To avoid it you have to follow certain rules. Very popular is to concentrate where you place the words in the mental picture: The first image is on top and/or on the left side. The second one is on the bottom and/or on the ride side. Rules like these will help you to establish a save recall. Make up your own if those don’t fit you. Using more than two images is possible but increases the chance of mixing them up. Be careful if you want to go this path young padawan.

Repetition

I think that nearly everybody is repeating the words at least once – even in Speed Words. In Random words you should repeat them twice to stabilize your pictures. Since each word will be unique and probably a first time appearance since you train this discipline, you will struggle with less security than with numbers and cards. Try to make a quick recall of your pictures instead of just reading them again. Improve your images if necessary.

Common Mistakes

Regarding the strict rules of this discipline it is very important to make no mistakes at all. Here are the most common ones which will cost you many points:

• Plural/singular: Make sure that you don’t mess this up in your images. The difference between “tree” and “trees” will cost you half a row. Try to focus on the appropriate amount in your pictures and you will be fine.
• Spelling: There are several ways to spell a word with slightly changes i.e.” jump” and “jumping”. Although this will also change its meaning in most cases it is still difficult to remember because the general sense stays the same. This also depends on your language. I am not completely certain but I think it happens far more often in German than in English. You should use mental helps to difference between them. For my example above you could imagine that you are “jumping” yourself instead of telling your journey point to “jump”. Come up with a good idea and you will avoid this common mistake.
• Synonyms: This is a bad one. Since we are using images to improve our memory ability, our brain can trick us in the recall. We will just remember the picture of an item but it might have several names i.e. “ship” and “boat”. You should always be aware of this fact and concentrate in the first place to avoid confusion in your recall. You could break down the word into its elements. For example a manufactory will easily be confused with factory. But if you think about Manchester United (Manu) working in a factory it will help to remember the difference.
• Abstract words: Very often you will be confronted with abstract words. In order to memorize them using your journey points you will have to transform them into some kind of stereotype image. The verb “invent” could be memorized as a glowing bulb. But you also could end up in recall with a similar association like “idea”. Sometimes it is enough to make clear that the bulb doesn’t mean “idea”.  But quite often you don’t have the time to look for similar associations in the first place and just use what pops into your mind. Therefore you have to be very carefully and precise with your images. A glowing bulb maybe wouldn’t be the best idea in this case, would it?

Instruction video

Third level arbiter Jennifer Goddard created a tutorial video for Speed Words. It will help you further to understand this discipline better.

In memory of Mareen Blaß

This article is dedicated to Mareen Blaß. Since 2005 she has been a memory athlete. She ranked 144^th in the world when she passed away. Her fondly character will be remembered in our hearts.

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