Every sport needs a super star, a legend that makes it more interesting for the fans: In the 90′s it has been the always perfectly dressed Dominic O’Brien who won the World Memory Championships more often than anbody else until today. In the last decade however memory sports most valuable player was by far the bold bearded man with the black hat. He has the fastest memory in the world and probably the best humor among all athletes of his kind. Memory-Sports.com spoke with the self-appointed “Geek” about his roots, role models and rivals.

When I was at school I was a typical geek.

Memory-Sports: Tell us a little bit about your youth.

Ben: My youth was completely uninteresting to anyone who wants to know about memory sports. When I was at school I was a typical geek (a late 80s, early 90s geek – I didn’t touch a computer from one week to the next), I was good at maths and I spent every spare second at school playing chess or cards with my equally geeky gang of friends. I did memorise a poem once, at the age of 12, for a school event (Macavity the Mystery Cat), but only because Mrs Slater the English teacher told me to. I suppose you could say that set me on the road to becoming a World Memory Champion, but I don’t think it really did.

Memory-Sports: What was your first contact with memory sports?

Ben: The short answer that I give to people who ask me this question is “I went along to the WMC in 2000 to see what it was like, and I’ve been hooked ever since.” The full answer is a little bit more complicated, but only a little:

In 1997, I read in Mensa Magazine about a brand new event called the Mind Sports Olympiad, which was an Olympic Games for mind sports, with competitions in everything even vaguely mind-related, over the course of a week at the Royal Festival Hall in London. I decided to go along and take part in the World Intelligence Championship, a brand-new competition that involved five full days of IQ puzzles. It was great fun (I came fifth out of about twelve competitors), and I also had the opportunity to check out some of the various other board games, card games and mental skills competitions taking place there. One thing I didn’t notice at all, as far as I can remember, was the World Memory Championship, which took place as part of the MSO that year.

In 1998, when the MSO had relocated to the Novotel in Hammersmith with a greatly reduced budget but was still a lot of fun, I entered a lot of other competitions as well as the Intelligence, and for the first time consciously registered the existence of the World Memory Championship. On the first day of the WMC (it was a two-day competition back then) I heard that the favourite discipline there was memorising a pack of cards, and I was curious to know just how difficult that was. So I bought a pack of cards and that evening I tried to memorise it, by repeating the cards to myself until I’d got them all memorised in sequence. It took me 48 minutes.

I tried to memorise a pack of cards, by repeating the cards to myself until I’d got them all memorised in sequence. It took me 48 minutes.

The next day, I was sitting at a desk ready to start the Mental Calculations World Championship, somebody came in (I think it was David Levy, who in those days was one of the ‘big three’ along with Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene who ran the event) and announced that Andi Bell had broken the world record in speed cards with 34.03 seconds. The disparity between those results fascinated me, and I wondered how fast I could get if I kept practicing. So I did keep practicing over the next couple of years, whenever I had a spare moment. I got down to about fifteen minutes in the end, still without using any kind of memory techniques – I had heard them mentioned in an article (an interview with Demis Hassabis, who said he was planning to learn how to do it) but dismissed the whole journey method as some rubbish that someone had made up to sell books, which couldn’t possibly work.

In 1999, at the Decamentathlon (a competition composed of puzzles in ten different mind sports, including memory), I met Tom Groves, who impressed everyone by memorising a pack of cards perfectly in five minutes and who apparently really did use those memory techniques I’d heard about. But I still wasn’t really convinced. Anyway,  I was still interested in the memory championships, so when I found a gap in my MSO schedule in 2000, I decided to compete.

I tried my hand at the first discipline, hour numbers, without any memory technique, and unsurprisingly got a pretty bad score, and then the second discipline was the poem, which to my surprise (and everyone else’s),  I won. That was fun, I thought. Maybe if I could get good at the other disciplines, I could do well in this memory thing. Some of the other competitors managed to convince me that memory techniques really do work, so I went out and bought a book (Use Your Memory, by Tony Buzan) and read the chapters about cards and numbers – I ignored everything else in the book that wasn’t about the specific events tested in the World Memory Championship. I created a couple of journeys and a set of images for cards, and started practicing. The next day in Hour Cards, using my new system, I managed to memorise three packs, and I was very impressed. I still wasn’t fast enough to memorise a pack in under five minutes, but I got it down to seven and a half that night. I was addicted to memory techniques for life from that point onwards.

Memory-Sports: Who was your role model in your early days as a memory athlete?

Ben: In those days, there was only one real role model for everyone – Dominic O’Brien. He was by far and away the best memoriser in the world, and he always won the World Championships comfortably. But his main rival was Andi Bell, and I quickly became a fan of his. In 2000, just before the competition started, Andi came up to me (he had his hair in a ponytail back then, and looked very cool) and said “Hi, I’m Andi, I’m one of the other competitors,” and we had a friendly chat. I was very impressed when I found out a bit later that he was a former world champion and one of the hot favourites. In a lot of mind sports the really good players don’t talk to the nonentities at all, so this was something a bit different. And it turned out that the ‘word on the street’ was that Andi had the potential to be much, much better than Dominic if he could just get his best results more consistently (which he did eventually achieve in 2002, completely blowing away Dominic and everyone else), so I looked up to him as my major inspiration in the early days.

I looked up to Andi Bell as my major inspiration in the early days.

The only thing Dominic said to me during the 2000 WMC, by the way, was “Was it you who was whispering?” – in the spoken numbers, somebody could be heard very loudly whispering the first few digits to himself over and over while the rest of the digits were still playing. But it wasn’t me, it was the guy in front of me. Also in the early days I took a lot of advice from the other British competitors, especially Robert Carder and Tom Groves, who helped me a lot.

Memory-Sports: What made you to come up with the highly sophisticated “Ben System”?

Ben: By 2002, I was a regular memory competitor, but I knew that I had reached the limits of the system I was using. With a basic list of 52 images for cards and 100 for numbers, if you try to memorise a 1000-digit number in an hour, each image will appear an average of five times. If you try to memorise ten packs of cards, each image will show up ten times. And that’s too much,  it’s just not possible to go any further with a system like that. I managed eleventh place in the WMC that year (it was so much easier to do that back then!) using that system and a terrible category-based system for binary that I’d invented myself but which didn’t work at all (I always wanted to avoid translating binary digits into decimal and then converting them into images, so this system was my first attempt at ‘improving’ on the systems everybody else used by creating one of my own. It didn’t work, but that didn’t discourage me), but I knew I could never get any better than that if I didn’t start using a more advanced technique.

In November 2002 I left my job, which I was fed up with (I’d been there since April 1996), borrowed a lot of money at a high interest rate (this debt followed me around and stopped me having any money for a long time until I finally paid it off last year) and devoted some time to ‘working out what I want to do with my life’. This included a holiday in Las Vegas, a one-month course learning to teach English as a foreign language and a lot of sitting around my flat in my pants, watching cartoons. But it also involved taking a bit of time to think about memory techniques and how to make mine better.

The first step was to change to a 1000-image system for numbers. I didn’t want to do it using three Major-system consonants, though, because I thought I would learn them more easily and use them more quickly in competitions if each image was a simple one-syllable word. So I had the idea of using a vowel for the middle digit. So I created a list in that way, and practiced with it (placing three images on a location instead of two, just to see if that would work) until I was fairly sure it was better than the 100-image system I’d been using before. But I didn’t have much time for training, because of all the time I was spending sitting around in my pants, watching cartoons. It was only when I’d completely run out of money and had to get another job that I really started working on my memory system too.

I didn’t have much time for training, because of all the time I was spending sitting around in my pants, watching cartoons.

The inspiration sort of came out of nowhere. As far as I can remember, I was idly thinking to myself ‘What can I do with cards? Person-action-object just doesn’t work for me [I’d tried that in my failed binary system], but how else can you increase your number of images and not have the same old 52 things over and over again? An image for each pair of cards? How many would that be? 2704. That’s not much more than 1000, it sounds possible. But how to convert them into a word?’ I thought about number-suit-number-suit, but that sounded too cumbersome. And I really liked my consonant-vowel-consonant system for numbers. Hey, I thought, there are only sixteen combinations of two suits. Sixteen consonants, thirteen vowels, thirteen consonants – can I do that? Sure, let’s try!

And from that, I realised that there were also sixteen combinations of four binary digits, so I could do that as 4-3-3 and use the same images to make an image for each ten-digit binary number, which is the perfect number to fit each line of 30 digits in a location! And, if I just amended a few of my 1000 decimal images (I still used ‘b’ or ‘p’ for ‘9’ in my first list, and so on), I could have a universal list of 2704 images that would cover EVERYTHING! What a cool system that would be! And so that was the moment of inspiration that turned into a couple of months of work creating images and trying to learn them all.

Memory-Sports: I know you hear that question every know and then. But one last time and you can always say “Read it on Memory-Sports.com!”: How does your system work in detail?

Ben: That really needs an article to itself. I’ll rewrite one of my old forum posts and turn it into a comprehensive “Ben system” guide, some time. But basically, it’s just an image of an object or person for each 3-digit decimal number, 10-digit binary number or pair of two cards, three objects in a location. Simple as that.

Memory-Sports: How long and intensive did you train your system before it was ready to go in a memory championship?

Ben: Very intensively – I realised I was onto something good straight away (this was in spring of 2003) and I spent every spare moment practicing. Luckily, my new job, which was awful in every other way, was a 35-minute train journey away from my home. So I was trapped on a train every day with nothing better to do than to learn my list of images. And when I got home, I would use those images in practicing cards, numbers and binary over and over. It was impressive how very quickly I exceeded my previous best in the marathon disciplines. Speed events took longer, but eventually, I was better than I’d ever been in those too. I never used my old system again after I’d created the new one, that would have been too confusing. So although it wasn’t completely ready to go, I used the new system in the MSO championship in August and to everyone’s surprise won it (beating Gunther and Dr Yip, who were two of the best in the world at that time), and then finished third in the WMC in October in Malaysia. I’m still improving, so you could say my system still isn’t completely ready to go…

Memory-Sports: You are still the MVP in memory sports but athletes like Johannes Mallow, Simon Reinhard, Gunther Karsten, Wang Feng, Su Ruiqiao and many more are getting extremely close. How do you deal with that pressure?

Ben: It’s no fun to be the number one. It is so much easier to improve if you’ve got someone to chase. I just try to remember that everyone on that list is better than me at at least one discipline, so I know I can keep improving if I work at it. But when it comes to a competition, I love the pressure – I always get my best results when I absolutely have to get a good score or lose the championship.

It’s no fun to be the number one. It is so much easier to improve if you’ve got someone to chase.

Memory-Sports: Do you think you can stay on top for much longer?

Ben: It depends whether I keep in training, and whether anybody else comes up with a new system that’s better than mine. Right now, I firmly believe that my system is the best there is, and I’ve got a head-start over anybody else who wants to use it, because I’ve been doing it since 2003. But I have to keep improving every year, because everybody else is improving too. And some day, I’m sure somebody unexpected is going to turn up at a competition with a new technique and will completely wipe the floor with me.

Memory-Sports: How much do you train these days?

Ben: Not NEARLY enough. I haven’t really done any training in the two months since the world championship in November. Even when I’m really motivated, I don’t come close to the levels of obsessive training I did back in 2003 and 2004, before I won the WMC for the first time. Sometimes I feel in the mood to train, and sometimes I don’t. I just have to hope that my motivated moods coincide with memory competitions.

Memory-Sports: Have you thought about an even greater system than the Ben System?

Ben: I have, but not seriously. Right now, I don’t need a better system, but that could all change some time soon. Maybe inspiration will strike me, but I’m not really trying to think of improvements at the moment.

Memory-Sports: Give your opponents some hope: What is your greatest weakness?

Ben: My opponents don’t need hope, they all know I’m inconsistent nowadays. Any one of six or seven rivals could have beaten me this year if they’d been at their absolute best. But my weakness is my lack of training, my hopelessness at Names & Faces and my lack of motivation to win the WMC again, compared to someone who’s never won it before.

My weakness is my lack of training, my hopelessness at Names & Faces and my lack of motivation to win the WMC again, compared to someone who’s never won it before.

Memory-Sports: What do you expect from the next World Memory Championship in China?

Ben: I’m hoping for another competition like 2009, with a whole lot of great memorisers producing amazing performances. The last World Championship was the most exciting ever, and I just hope they’re going to keep getting better!

Memory-Sports: Where do you see the sport in 2020?

Ben: The 2020 World Memory Championship will take place on the Moon. Tony Buzan will have recently made contact with the Royal Family of Moon-Men and agreed to hold the WMC there in return for five thousand tonnes of moon gold. Since space travel will still be restricted to astronauts, there will be no competitors at the 2020 WMC (although the press releases will still describe it as the biggest ever – the Moon-Men of course will not be eligible to compete because they’re not citizens of the World). However, down on Earth, there will be competitions in at least twenty countries, and in all of them the standard will be higher than we can even begin to imagine here in 2010. Probably.

Memory-Sports: Under these circumstances I think I should join NASA. Thank you for your time.

Ben’s Memory Statistics

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He is the tripple Norwegian Memory Champion and author of the international bestseller book “Memo”. The 28 years old Oddbjørn By is famous for his memory in Skandinavia. Memory-Sports.com spoke with him about his book and creative ways to use memory techniques.

I have been into really big trouble with girlfriends who think I should remember better when I forgot what they have been talking about during dinner. Girls should write down any important information, hand it over and give us five minutes to memorize it.

Memory-Sports: Have you been good in school?

Oddbjørn: Before I started with memory techniques I was just a normal student with poor motivation for learning. That changed in January 2004. Since then I’ve been using the techniques for many things like studies in university and salsa dancing for example.

Memory-Sports: What has been your first contact with memory techniques?

Oddbjørn: I read about some techniques to remember numbers on the Internet. It was similar to the Dominic System. Then I started to compete with a friend in Speed Numbers. Via email I came in contact with former world memory champion Andi Bell and he convinced me to come to his World Memory Cup in Weinheim. There I learned a lot from other athletes.

Memory-Sports: The Memory World Cup has been a one time only event and it happened outside of the rules of the World Memory Sports Council. Please tell us about it.

Oddbjørn: It’s been my first competition so I had no experience. But I felt it was very nice. We have been only a few competitors so it was a small and friendly gathering. Although there was a lot of controversy about that competition but it was a nice alternative back then.

Memory-Sports: What has been your next step in Memory Sports?

Oddbjørn: I went to the World Memory Championships Manchester in 2004. Later that year I started writing the book because I felt it was something every student in Norway should know about. I spent one year to write it. And then it was published in January 2006.

Memory-Sports: Your book is called “Memo” and one of its topics is Speed Exams. Please describe what you mean by that.

Oddbjørn: This is what I was doing mostly for fun. I was trying to test the memory systems as much as possible. So I signed up for exams in subjects I didn’t know about. I got some summaries from friends who have been participating in that subject. And then I just memorized summaries and went to exams. It went really good. So I’ve been doing that quite often at my university ever since. Not mostly for fun. It is also very motivational to learn stuff very quickly. But of course to go really into that subject you should follow the lectures. Therefore this is probably not a perfect approach for a student. But sometimes they should try this just for fun.

Memory-Sports: You are writing about the three big different number systems in your book: The Dominic System, the Triple System (or Ben System) and the Major System. What are the main differences between those three in your opinion?

Oddbjørn: For competition the Triple System has huge advantages especially for Historical Dates. But the drawback is that it takes a long time to master. Therefore I think that a Double System is very good for beginners. But in the end I don’t think that it is such a big difference between the systems. It’s about that your method becomes automatic and that your associations are coming quickly. The slight differences doesn’t matter that much.

It is very motivational to learn stuff very quickly.

Memory-Sports: What would you tell someone in a few sentences who wants to improve his learning but never heard of memory techniques before?

Oddbjørn: First of all I would say that it is impossible to remember everything. Of course you can remember the whole Bible or Koran if you spent thirty years of your life. But we don’t have thirty years for our exams. So even if we cannot remember everything, we can use these techniques to remember a lot. The way to do this is for example to use the Journey Method. I would recommend to write down important keywords and to memorize them. For an exam about the Second World War you could memorize keywords like “The Marshal Plan”, “The Blockade of Berlin” and “The establishment of NATO”. You could then memorize a marshmallow (Marshall Plan) outside the front door of your house and so on. In the exam you just walk this journey and pick out the keywords. But also a very important thing is not to write down everything you memorized like a robot. Maybe some of those keywords are simply not necessary for this particular exam.

Memory-Sports: Have you learned a lot using memory techniques?

Oddbjørn: Yes I have been really hungry to learn after I learned these methods. For example I learned seduction techniques with it.

Memory-Sports: Seduction? We should talk about this again with a nice cup of coffee when we see each other in London.

Do you make a special journey for every subject you want to memorize? Or do you use them twice or even more often?

Oddbjørn: If you want to memorize something for a long time you should use new permanently information in the same journey. But you can use it again to memorize temporarily information like a deck of cards.

Memory-Sports: Can you give us some advise in how to create a journey?

Oddbjørn: I would really recommend to use buildings and having one point in each room. The walls of each room are deviding the single stations of the journey from each other. To avoid ending up with an empty room after memorization you should make your associations close to the wall or interact with the room in some kind of way. Also I would recommend to walk through the walls or the roof. To get more points you could start outside of the building like the garden. In my experience the journey shouldn’t be too long. It is better to seperate the journey into several smaller ones. Personally I prefer something around thirty. But a good length could also be about fifty to hundred stations. Than you have better control of the points. Finally you should’t have too similar journeys because you could get confused.

It is better to seperate a long journey into several smaller ones.

Memory-Sports: Let’s talk more about memory competitions: You are the thrice Norwegian champion. When will be your next national event?

Oddbjørn: The next competition in Norway is in 2010. It is hold every two years. I hope it will be an Open the next time.

Memory-Sports: It’s been a while since your last championship outside of Norway. When are you entering the world stage again?

Oddbjørn: Hopefully in this years World Memory Championship in London. The last years I was busy with publishing the book in Sweden and Denmark. Now I fianally have the time to compete again. If I am in shape I will maybe come to Sweden as well.

Memory-Sports: Speaking of which: How are your skills these days?

Oddbjørn: I think it’s very good in Spoken Numbers but in Binary Numbers for example it is rubbish.

Memory-Sports: Which is you favorite discipline in Memory Sports?

Oddbjørn: That is Spoken Numbers because of the drama. If you memorize a hundred digits but you forget the second one you face dramatic consequences. And I like that you are forced into that speed.

Memory-Sports: What kind of system are you using?

Oddbjørn: I use the Double System for numbers. Only for recreational porpuse I use the Triple System from time to time. I am quite slow with it.

Memory-Sports: For what did you use memory techniques in your daily life?

Oddbjørn: I’ve been learning languages because if you remember a lot of vocabulary you get really motivated. You can come really far if you remember for example 1.000 words in Spanish, Italian or German. Also I’ve been using the techniques for presentations. So instead of just reading from a paper I used to memorize my speeches. Even for Salsa dancing I used it to remember the steps and moves. As I told you before I memorized seduction techniques with it. Finally I used it for daily situations like having an idea when I am on my bike. It is really painfull to forget a good idea. So I used to memorize it in an idea journey. When I come home I can recall it and write it down. It is not that I usememory techniques every day. Some days more and some days less.

Memory-Sports: Did your general memory improved even if you don’t use your techniques?

Oddbjørn: Since I became famous in Norway I HAD to remember. Because if I forget the name of people they will start with jokes about it. But I also think that forgetting in the daily life has something to do with being on autopilot. For example if you forget to post a letter on your way home from work, it’s probably because you’ve been driving on autopilot. I have been into really big trouble with girlfriends who think I should remember better when I forgot what they have been talking about during dinner. That’s how it is to be a memorizer.

Memory-Sports: Oh yes, I know that problem. It’s not that we don’t listen on porpuse but sometimes we are just not concentrated enough to memorize everthing they are saying.

Oddbjørn: I think girls should write down any important information, hand it over and give us five minutes to memorize it.

Memory-Sports: Indeed! Thank you for your time.

Buy “Memo” on Amazon

Oddbjørn’s Memory Statistics

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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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He is the chief arbiter of memory sports and Tony Buzan’s right hand: Phil Chambers spoke with us about the early days of the sport. He is also looking into a bright future where many of our dreams might come true. Read more about what the World Memory Sports Council has in mind for the mental athletics.

The most impressive thing is the rapid progression in the sport and seeing what the human brain is actually capable of.

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

Phil Chambers: The main introduction to memory sports was at the World Memory Championship. I was in the ‘Use Your Head Club’ at university. Through that I met someone called James Lee, who was involved in the tournament. He was one of Tony Buzan fellow advisers apparently. So I was invited to watch the competition. I did and enjoyed it, took part in the second year myself, become involved in the marking and from then on I did more and more. Eventually I ended up as chief arbiter as I am now.

Memory-Sports: So you competed once yourself?

Phil Chambers: I did competed in just the card events. That was in 1994 where I became seventh in Hour Cards, with two decks. That was good at the time – now that’s nowhere near good enough. I’m now ranked 551, because your rankings go down, if you not compete. And I haven’t since then.

Memory-Sports: How did it happen that you became an arbiter?

Phil Chambers: I was involved at a time when memory events first started with many competitors but certainly not enough qualified arbiters. So people from the audience where involved in the marking. I was frustrated at the time because the scoring was very paper based. So I introduced the idea of calculating the results with spread sheets on a computer and automate the process. Since then I worked my way through and became chief arbiter.

Memory-Sports: You have seen the sport from nearly the beginning. What is the most impressive thing in its evolution?

Phil Chambers: I think the fact is that at every World Championship at least one record has been broken. It shattered the predictions the psychologists did in the first year of the competition. They said it is impossible to come anywhere near to the results we have now in Spoken Numbers. Within a few years those ultimate barriers were broken. So the most impressive thing is the rapid progression in the sport and seeing what the human brain is actually capable of. Far more than anybody believed is ever possible.

Memory-Sports: Are the top athletes already close to their limits?

Phil Chambers: I don’t think so. As people get more and more sophisticated systems, such as Ben Pridmore’s count system, which is very effective especially for cards, I think there will be an increasing in “mental technology” if you like. Eventually we will come to a point such there is in physical sports, where a limit has been reached. Until that point comes we’ve got plenty of room for improvement.

Memory-Sports: Do you think that it only depends on the technique or is there a certain skill involved?

Phil Chambers: The most likely thing is, that there is about 90 percent technique. If you look at the top memorizers, they are the people with the best technique – not necessary people with a natural brilliant memory. Ben for example claims to be absent-minded and yet is world champion. So I think technique is the biggest thing. But you also need the natural determination drive to actually implement and practise those  – and also put in the time and effort to achieve the ultimate heights.

Memory-Sports: A point against that argument would be Clemens Mayer who used only a second level Major System.

Phil Chambers: Clemens obviously did extremely well. Maybe he had more ability to form strong images. A good imagination, hence him using less sophisticated techniques in a more effective way but I still believe that technique wins out over natural memory most of the time.

I believe that technique wins out over natural memory most of the time.

Memory-Sports: Since you are an arbiter, you probably have seen people cheating at memory events. Can you share your experience with us?

Phil Chambers: It’s very rare. Memory is one of the most honorable sports. 99.9% of all competitors are totally honest and wouldn’t even dream of cheating. But there happened a few instances in the past where competitors have attempted to cheat. Generally it seems that they are under particular externally pressure.

One example was a competitor in an National Championships. The person involved was the oldest competitor in that event and hence the media had a special focus on him. He hadn’t had much time to practice the techniques so was doing badly. So in one discipline he hid some notes of the answers during the memorisation phase. We spotted this and had a quiet word. He apologised and clearly regretted the incident so we didn’t score him for that discipline.

Memory-Sports: Can you please explain how the World Memory Sports Council works?

Phil Chambers: The WMSC comprises of Tony Buzan as the founder and president, myself as chief arbiter and Chris Day as secretary. We also have Dominic O’Brien and Ramond Keene (Co-founder to the World Memory Championships) in very valuable an advisory capacities. The Council encourages advise from the outside. So if we have a potential change of rules, the top competitors in the sport are consulted. We try to be as open and transparent as possible. But nevertheless we take the ultimate decision within the Council itself.

Memory-Sports: The committee is pretty small, but there are plans to create national committees all over the world, right?

Phil Chambers: That’s true. The idea is to set up national sports councils in every country where is a reasonable number of competitors. For example there is already a national council in Germany and Australia. We are aiming to set up others around the world as the sports grows. There are a certain amount of national tournaments under the guidelines of the World Council. They represent the sport in those countries. The people who compete at these championships are members of that particular body which will then feed into the World Championships, the world rankings and so on. The idea was to distribute the running of national events to the national councils around the world.

Memory-Sports: How can you become an arbiter?

Phil Chambers: There are four levels of arbiters. You start of under the supervision of a higher level arbiter doing markings and being involved in running of a national or local event. And once you successfully marked competition papers in that event, you become qualified to be level one. Then you can go and work at other national and international events in that capacity but still under supervision of a higher level. Once you worked both behind the scenes as well as announcing in the competition room itself at a national event and at least once at a World Championship, you become a level two arbiter. That means you can supervise the level one arbiters and actually run a tournament yourself in your own country. In addition to that, if you set up a competition in another country then you become level three. Currently the only level three arbiter is Jennifer Goddard from Australia who worked at the Australian Championship, Thailand and the World Championship as well. And then myself as level four, the chief arbiter, who overseas the other arbiters below that.

Memory-Sports: So what can I do if I am interested in becoming an arbiter myself?

Phil Chambers: Either contact your local memory council or the World Memory Council. Or you just come to an event, ask to volunteer as an arbiter and we can give you some training and involve you in the marking of that initial event.

Memory-Sports: The memory championships are growing all over the world. There are upcoming national tournaments every year. But there is still a lack in visitors. It is just not very interesting to watch. What are your plans to improve that situation?

Phil Chambers: One of our plans to the future is to involve technology. Such as laptops for example where the data you enter is instantly relayed to a screen. So you can present that data in many different ways which makes it a much more exiting spectator sport. One of the ideas that Dominic O’Brien had, is to have a little animated character. For example a little Ben Pridmore, running along a track, as he enters his binary digits. So the character progresses along the track and immediately if he enters a wrong digit he falls over and has to pick himself up and then carry on. That makes it much more visual, much more engaging. And you can compare competitors live as they competing and see how well they are doing. You don’t have to wait for the scoring. During the memorization process there is not much to see except for Speed Cards. It’s just like watching an exam. But once you’ve got that engagement and that excitement, I think that would build interest for visitors and the media. It would be far easier to understand what is going on in the sport.

One of the ideas is to have a little animated Ben Pridmore, running along a track, as he enters his binary digits.

Memory-Sports: With technology the chance for fresh new disciplines arises. Have you put some thoughts into that?

Phil Chambers:  Yes, certainly new disciplines can be built in. But we have to reflect historically the system prior to the new technology. So those new disciplines have to be additional and separate from the main ten disciplines that have been solid within the World Championship. Another addition which comes with the technology is the removal of geographical barriers. That way you can have simultaneous tournaments in multiple places around the world. The data is collated centrally via the Internet and can again be displayed live to visitors. As long as you have an arbiter presence in a location to make sure nobody is cheating, there is no reason why you couldn’t have someone in China compete against someone in Europe at the same time.

Memory-Sports: What do you think about the US Memory Championships? They have a special championship round which is more interesting for spectators.

Phil Chambers: The USA needed to raise media interest in order to run the event. And the only way they could do that is to make it more media friendly like a game show. The problem with that is that it brings an element of chance into the competition. Especially if you have the play offs between competitors sitting on the stage. So a competitor could move himself out the contention before the question reach actually someone in the line. Therefore another one could win the competition through that chance rather than the own achievement. In that sense there are disadvantages to it. Also it means that they’re competing in a different framework to the rest of the world. Hence they can’t be included in the world rankings based on their performance in the American National Championship. I can see why they did it and I also see that it has value. But in order to be effective world wide you have to receive the same type of questions in the same way to be able to compare the performances between each other. A lot of the American champions are now going to the World Championships to test themselves on the world stage and see where they stand globally.

Memory-Sports: The UK Memory Championship is one of the biggest championships in the world and was created by Tony Buzan himself. What can we expect from this years event?

Phil Chambers: We will have parallel lectures as part of the competition. So visitors can come and learn about memory from Dominic O’Brien, myself and possibly Tony Buzan as well. Also we possibly going to run a Speed Reading event in parallel, but that is not confirmed as yet. And the Staunton Memorial Chess Tournament takes place that weekend as well.

Memory-Sports: What can we expect from the World Memory Championship this year?

Phil Chambers: There will be an announcement in the next few weeks with all the details for the 2009 competition. Although the winning bids recently have come from Bahrain we are very open to bids from other countries for 2010 and beyond. We will consider any serious proposition from a country that feels they can match the fantastic support that we have had from Bahrain. Obviously we want to make the event as entertaining and valuable for everyone as possible.

Memory-Sports: Thank you for your time.

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He is the youngest star among the memory elite. With only nine years old he won the World Memory Championship Children’s Competition in 2008. Although the rivalry in this age section isn’t too strong, he got brilliant scores in Bahrain. In 30 minutes he memorized 513 binary digits – moderate for a grown-up athlete but outstanding for his age. Memory-Sports journalist Florian Dellé spoke with his former student from Berlin.

I would let the shoe bounce up and down on the chair and let it jump from one armrest to another. Your stories has to be as crazy as possible.

Memory-Sports: When did you start your memory training?

Konstantin: I watched the North German Championship in 2004 as a spectator. After that I joined a memory class in a club for highly advanced children.

Memory-Sports: How did you come up with that subject?

Konstantin: We’ve got mail from the club, that a new memory class is starting soon. So we went to the competition to get an impression. I learned that memory training is related to numbers. And since I always liked numbers a lot, I wanted to learn the techniques.

Memory-Sports: What do you remember about your first steps?

Konstantin: I remember clearly my first personal best with 24 digits.

Memory-Sports: What techniques did you learn for starters?

Konstantin: We learned the Master-System with 100 images and created a journey with 26 stations – for half a deck of cards. Today I have 227 stations.

Memory-Sports: What have been your first competition?

Konstantin: That was the North German Championship in 2005. I placed sixth and it was a lot of fun.

Memory-Sports: Have you been very ambitious from the beginning?

Konstantin: Actually I first started to train at home, when I placed only seventh in 2006. So I trained for the next championship in 2007.

Memory-Sports: The World Memory Championship is on a whole new level than the North German Championship. What did you like most about that event?

Konstantin: That it has been over several days. So we got the opportunity to see a little bit of the small country Bahrain. Did you know that it only takes half an hour from north to south on the main island? There are 23 islands all together and only three are settled. On the second largest is the airport, in the north of the largest one are most of the markets and in the south is the Formula 1 racing track.

Memory-Sports: No I didn’t know that! – What is the best thing about a memory championship?

Konstantin: You can get in competition with your rivals and find new friends. I met Timo Sprekeler for example. He became North German Champion in 2008, where I wasn’t competing. I bet him then at the following German Championship. Recently I met him again at this years North German Championship, but we weren’t competing against each other. He already joined the juniors and I compete still in the children’s group.

It isn’t fair that there are no rankings for children. Otherwise I would definitely be among the the best.

Memory-Sports: What is your favourite discipline?

Konstantin: Numbers, because I am good at it. Also you have to be less creative than with Names & Faces for example. It is just easier. On the other hand I wasn’t so bad with the names either.

Memory-Sports: Do you train a lot?

Konstantin: Only for competitions. For the World Memory Championship I started training two months and for the North German Championship about three weeks before the event.

Memory-Sports: Do you recognize your improvements?

Konstantin: Yes – I got 96 binary numbers last year and this year I already got 192.

Memory-Sports: What is your best training result?

Konstantin: Only 180. So it was my personal best, too. But I was lucky: The last row was an unbroken sequence of zero and one. When I saw that pattern it was easy to memorize.

Memory-Sports: What do you think could help, to make the sport more popular?

Konstantin: It would help to beam all the numbers for example on a big screen. That way the spectators could try it themselves. Another interesting thing would be, to see what the competitor is just writing down.

Memory-Sports: Can you please give us a few hints how to make a good story? How would you associate a shoe and a chair for example?

Konstantin: I would let the shoe bounce up and down on the chair and let it jump from one armrest to another. Your stories has to be as crazy as possible.

Memory-Sports: Are you quick with your images?

Konstantin: Yes, I can recall my Master-System in 95 seconds – that’s less than one second for each image.

Memory-Sports: Do you have any particular goals?

Konstantin: I want to get under the top 100 in the world ranking list. For that I have to get about 2800 points. At the German Championship I already got 1800, but it doesn’t count, since it was a children’s competition. It isn’t fair that there are no rankings for us. Otherwise I would definitely be among the the best.

Memory-Sports: Who is your role model?

Konstantin: Boris Konrad, because he’s got the world record in Random Words – and I am good with words, too.

Memory-Sports: When will you compete again?

Konstantin: This year at the German Memory Championship and then in November at the World Memory Championship again.

Memory-Sports: Thank you for the interview.

Konstantin’s Memory Statistics

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She was a lovely and normal teenager. But about two years ago Dorothea Seitz started to train memory techniques. Now she is still lovely but stands out of the crowd: In October 2008 she went to Bahrain and competed against 43 memory athletes from all over the world – and became Junior World Memory Champion. Dorothea is able to memorize 189 words in 15 minutes and is not afraid to turn eighteen to compete against the adults. Memory-Sports.com spoke with the sixteen years young lady:

A competition is always a struggle against yourself. It is not about what others think of you, it is about achieving what you aspire.

Memory-Sports.com: When did you first hear about memory sports?

Dorothea Seitz: It was in early 2007. I read something about it online and wished for a book according to the techniques. The one I got was “A Sheep Falls Out of the Tree” by Christiane Stenger. I was fascinated how quick my progress was.

Memory-Sports.com: Did you imagine to follow Christiane’s footsteps and become Junior World Memory Champion?

Dorothea Seitz: No, but I always thought about how great the feeling must be, to be some kind of champion.

Memory-Sports.com: What is your favourite discipline?

Dorothea Seitz: In the beginning I trained binary numbers exclusively. Although it is the discipline with the least daily meaning, I really liked it somehow.

Memory-Sports.com: Did you have any expectations for the North German Championship 2009?

Dorothea Seitz: I always expect too much from myself and get disappointed. My goal was to reach the 4.000 points, but I didn’t. And I wanted to compete with the adults, to prepare for next year, when I become eighteen.

Memory-Sports.com: So you keep on memorizing and don’t stop on top of your success?

Dorothea Seitz: No, it would be to easy to call it quits and keep the title. A competition is always a struggle against yourself. I want to accomplish my personal goals and prove it to myself. It is not about what others think of me, it is about achieving what I aspire.

Memory-Sports.com: Since it is your last year as a junior, which championships are you planning to visit?

Dorothea Seitz: I will go to Hamburg this summer and compete at the German Championship. And of course I will fly to Bahrain once more to the World Memory Championship – to try my luck again.

Memory-Sports.com: You would have placed third, nearly second in the adults event at the North German Championship, if it wouldn’t have been noncompetitive. Are you confident to get into the act, when you will join the adults events next year?

Dorothea Seitz: I am pretty encouraged, especially since I thought about giving up the memory sport on the first day of the competition. But that’s the case at every championship I compete. Now I am highly motivated to go on, since I got a few results I never accomplished before at a tournament. Actually I am satisfied with every discipline except Speed Cards.

It’s fun to train my brain and seek for bigger and better challenges.

Memory-Sports.com: With some of your scores you are already able to hold the candle to the most of adult memory athletes in the world. In Random Words for example, you memorized 189 words in 15 minutes – that’s rank 5 in the world. What do you think about that?

Dorothea Seitz: Words are something I am good with, because you don’t need so much of a technique rather than your natural memory. With numbers and binaries you need much more training, to become excellent. I prefer language orientated disciplines, like Poem, where your techniques don’t have such an impact on your results.

Memory-Sports.com: What are your goals in Memory Sports?

Dorothea Seitz: To get better in the world ranking list, which is difficult in the moment, since the junior scores are not part of it. Apart from that I will go on, because the other athletes are great. And of course it’s fun to train my brain and seek for bigger and better challenges.

Memory-Sports.com: Did you experience anything negative because of the sport?

Dorothea Seitz: Most of the people don’t know it and think strangely about what I’m doing. My classmates call me “World Memory Champion” and “Super-Brain”. They don’t mean it basely, but it’s very annoying. People who don’t know me better, define me through this accomplishment.

Memory-Sports.com: Do you think, there is any potential for memory sports to become a sport for masses?

Dorothea Seitz: I wish it very much. But even on my school, with many highly skilled students and a special class for memory training, there are only a few interested in it. It would be great if the sport would make it big.

Memory-Sports.com: Would you like to compete against your inspiration Christiane Stenger?

Dorothea Seitz: Sure, but I don’t think that she still is in training. She is not competing any more and I doubt getting the chance to match with her.

Memory-Sports.com: You are following Christiane Stenger in other aspects, too: There is a rumor, that you are writing a book about memory techniques – is that right?

Dorothea Seitz: Yes, I was asked to write one and I agreed and signed the contract.

Memory-Sports.com: Do you have any help?

Dorothea Seitz: No, I will work on it allone. On one hand I will write about the history of the techniques and my personal experience. On the other hand I will go into detail about mental arithmetics, speed reading and other possibilities to train the brain. It will probably be called “Neurons on the ready, go!” because that’s the start signal on the championships. I want to popularise Memory Sports and show to the people, who are always missunderstanding me, what I am doing. It will be released in April, 2010.

Memory-Sports.com: We are looking forward to it. Thank you for your time.

Dorothea’s Memory Statistics

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