In these series of articles, we will be discussing about the ins and outs of diet and nutrition that are essential in peak mental performance. We will take a glimpse at what our brothers in mental sports, the chess masters, does in their nutritional regimens and see how it can be applicable to our sport. “Brain foods” and supplements that are not only of interest to us memory athletes but also to people who would want to know more about other ways of boosting their memory and preventing cognitive decline, will be given enough room for discussion in their own articles. Another topic to be covered is about Nootropics; these are chemicals or drugs that claim to boost our memory and mental capacity. We will try to shed some light on the risks and benefits of these memory medicines together with the different herbs and supplements like Gingko biloba and Bacopa Monniera. And of course, we will be tackling the different vitamins and minerals that are not only essential in maintaining normal cognitive function but also vital in maintaining a sharp memory. There is a lot to be written when it comes to diet and nutrition, particularly for the memory athlete’s regimen; but let’s take a look at where we are right now…

A Memory Man’s Diet

In order to compete in the highest levels of this sport, it is not enough to just focus on an athlete’s memory skills. Much like what most of the professional athletes are doing, we also need to have specific training regimen that not only enhances our skills but also our bodies.

It has been a common practice for professional athletes to breakdown their training programs to manageable areas that are easy to tweak and adjust, to gain even the slightest advantage against their competitors. One such area is in the field of diet and nutrition. By modifying what we eat and how much we eat according to our activities and needs, we are allowing our bodies to function at an optimal state. That is why we frequently see professional athletes who count every calorie they consume, gulp on their supplements, and even take a shot of their own urine, just to get that winning edge.

Food serves as fuel for the body. It directly affects our physical and mental state. Although there are many factors that may influence an athlete’s performance, it is the food intake we receive throughout our preparation and at the actual day of the competition that plays a significant role in our overall performance. But in a sport that is in its nascent form, memory sports athletes have yet to be as regimented in their overall training program (Can’t really say that about our Chinese friends though), especially in diet and nutrition. This is especially true when your world champion is a self-admitted junk food junkie and hails for the forces of fast-food. We can’t argue with the man though, when you are that good, you are almost entitled to do anything.

As much as I want to follow on the footsteps of Mr. Pridmore, I’m not yet sold on the idea that junk food is very much the way to go if you want to be a great memoriser, So I decided to look for other sources of information that may help us in forming a dietary regimen that is better suited for the average memory athlete. Even though the internet is replete with references about “Brain foods and supplements,” resources regarding the nutritional needs and guidelines for a memory competitor are quite lacking. The only available write-up about it that I found is this bit by Christopher regarding in-competition nutrition in his very useful article on how to handle memory competitions:

AVOID DRINKING ALCOHOL on the day before the competition! In addition to that restrict your common alcohol use to maximum one or two drinks a day.

DRINK ENOUGH WATER!

DO NOT DRINK TOO MUCH WATER! In the one hour disciplines you cannot visit the toilet for at least one hour that should be obvious.

EAT WISELY! Eat your breakfast otherwise your level of attention might drop rapidly. Do not eat too much and eat the right food. Tony Buzan told me 2007: It is better to waste food than to waste your body. He added that I could eat everything I want after a championship.

RESTRICT YOUR SUGAR CONSUMPTION especially during competition! Although some memory athletes make world records while eating lots of sugar products this behavior might lead to problems later on. A short term consequence can be that you get tired. Of course you can eat even more sugar but then you might be seriously exhausted on the evening which might be not so good for the next competition day. If you eat lots of sugar on a regular basis this can lead to health problems. However: keep in mind that sweets taste good and enjoy your life! I recommend that you delay sugar consumption to the latest time possible, but in the end you have to find your personal highway to success. World memory champion Ben Pridmore probably would say: as long as you are world champion you can eat any kind of food you like. For championships I recommend pure water along with some fruits and nuts.

I’m sure that there are lots of discussions about this in other memory forums like the Brainboard, China’s memory forum, and the Memory-masters forum. But most of them are in a language other than English, and online translation is not entirely accurate, so I’ve yet to rifle through all the information there. But you can also share links to threads in these forums and message boards about the topic in the comments section below.

The Grand Master’s Diet

Even though there are no definite diet that can be called as a “Memory Athlete’s Diet,” there is, however, the Grand Master’s Diet. This is the diet recommended for the Chess Grand Master as presented by Michael Klein in his article in Chess Life [Subscription needed, but full article can be found here]. Thankfully, we have Yury Markushin of thechessworld.com who wrote a masterful summary in his article Chess Diet: eat or play? To wit:

On the importance of diet and nutrition [emphasis mine]…

… Many factors influence player’s performance, but food intake before and during the competition plays significant role in any chess event. Food intake before and during chess tournament significantly affects player’s performance. In particular, nutrition impacts player’s psychological state, alertness, memory recall and overall brain performance – the most crucial characteristics for chess. Therefore, chess players should develop individual diet to fit their needs…

The effect of food during competition…

… All food consumed approximately two hours before the round kicks off will affect how well player feels and performs during the game. Eating too much, too little or simply a wrong type of food can significantly low down player’s position in tournament standing…

A high protein and high carbohydrate diet recommendation…

… Kelly A. Hammer, healthy food expert, recommends a high protein and high carbonate meals before the chess competition begins. “The carbs will help sustain the focus, while the protein will add to the needed nutrients for brain connections”, Hammer says (Klein, Grandmaster Diet, 21)…

… Amy Taylor-Brill, healthy food specialist, believes in study that correlates brain activity with protein intake (Klein, Grandmaster Diet, 23). There are plenty of options for during a game snacks: nuts, cheese sticks, sandwiches and tuna are all high on protein…

Why take Fish oils, caffeine, and B-complex…

… Nearly all nutrition professionals agree that food rich with fish oil is especially beneficial for chess player’s brain. Skolnik, a professional sport’s nutritionist, states that “there is an of the chart upward trend in use of fish oil by athletes and non-athletes alike” (Klein, Grandmaster Diet, 21). It’s believed that Japanese have higher IQs because of regular seafood consumption, rich with food oils (Klein, Grandmaster Diet, 21)…

… “caffeine is an individual thing” (Klein, Grandmaster Diet, 22). It helps one player to stay alert but the other one can lose concentration and focus because of the drug. I do not trust caffeine during a serious game. One day it can help you to wake up, but another day it can make you sleepy. Consuming caffeine during a game is a gamble: sometime you win, sometime you don’t. That’s why caffeine free drinks are preferred…

…Tiger Woods in his book, How I Play Golf, writes that vitamins B1, B6 and B12 are essential for high accuracy sports (Klein, Grandmaster Diet, 23).  Since playing golf and playing chess require similar rate of concentration vitamins play important role in brain activity. It is a good idea to take a big apple or a banana on game with you…

Conclusion

This sport requires us to be in great mental and physical shape in order to perform well in these gruelling memory competitions. It cannot be denied that diet and nutrition has a direct effect on our overall performance. However, when it comes to how well we do in memory competitions, it all boils down to practice, practice, and more practice. Maybe when the time comes when all of the competitors are at a similar level of skill with Zoomy, the athletes that will dominate are those who have a more superior knowledge on proper diet and nutrition, not to mention those who have access to “Smart drugs.”

There is still a lot to be unwrapped when it comes to diet and nutrition, especially in the area of memory enhancement. What I have presented here is just the tip of a largely undisclosed area. As I mentioned earlier in the introduction, we will devote separate articles for each particular topic as we try to dig deeper into it. A memory athlete’s diet, as it seems, is mostly an individual thing. We will try to present as many information about diet and nutrition that we may able to develop our regimen that suits our preferences. As an ending to this debut article, I will leave you with this witty quip by the current World Memory Champion on a quote attributed to Tony Buzan.

Quite Simply…

“Good Food = Good Brain

Junk Food = Junk Brain”

Tony Buzan

And an alternative quote from someone whose brain is generally held to be not too shabby:

“Junk food is great! What are you talking about, Tony?”

Ben Pridmore (World Memory Champion)

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Using memory techniques can get complicated when you want to memorize a lot of different information. Memory godfather Tony Buzan came up with the idea of putting your major system into a matrix and stretching it that way up to 10.000 combinations. Frank Gazerro is making his debut as an author for Memory-Sports.com by writing this article for you.

Many of us use mind mapping as a way to organize our thoughts and plan projects. Google it, and you’ll find a slew of sites praising, teaching, and selling the art of mind mapping.What many don’t realize is that mind mapping was created by Tony Buzan, one of the most prolific writers on memory and accelerated learning.

In his book, Master Your Memory, Buzan outlines his memory system, the Self Enhanced Memory Matrix or Sem Cubed (Sem³). Sem³ is an elaborate peg system allows you to store 10,000 pieces of information in a giant table. It combines the major Major System with a set of 100 Sem³ pegs, each of which is based on a theme.

The 10×10 Grid

It all starts with a 10×10 grid.

Each column represents a block of 1000 numbers divided evenly between 10 cells. Each cell contains 100 numbers, represented by each row. Lets break this down a bit:

• If we look at the cell marked “A”, we see it’s in the 3000′s column and the 200-299 row. Therefore, the “A” cell contains the numbers 3200-3299.
• Next, let’s look at the cell marked “B.” It contains numbers 8500-8599.

Get the idea? Good, let’s move on.

Themes and Pegs

Next, Buzan creates the 100 Sem³ peg words by assigning a theme to each row. Each cell within a row is assigned a peg word reflecting its theme. If the first row (0-99) was given the theme animals each cell would be assigned an animal peg.

Now we can begin to put it all together. Combining the Sem³ grid with the major system allows you can create at least 10,000 unique images on the fly.

Take the number 5025. An image representing this number could be a goat wielding a knife. How did we arrive at that image?

1. Determine the cell that contains the number. In this case, it’s the goat cell, since our number is between 5000 and 5099.
2. Use the Major System to create a word representing the specific number within the cell. In this case, 025 = knife.

To sum it up:

(Goat = Any number between 5000-5099) + (Knife = 25) = 5025

Applying the System

We now have 10,000 unique peg images. To use this system, we simply allocate part of the grid to the information we want to memorize and link our information accordingly.

Let’s say we want to remember some information about each member of the Beatles. We’ll place this information in the 1000-1099 cell, the cat cell. The first four numbers within that cell and their images are as follows:

• 1000: A cat with a hand saw.
• 1001: A cat dressed up as King Tut.
• 1002: A cat acting as Noah building a big ark.
• 1003: A cat mooing like a cow.

Now we include each of the Beatles in this image.

• 1000: A cat performing as a magician and sawing Paul McCartney in half.
• 1001: John Lennon is an explorer who opens King Tut’s tomb only to find a giant cat.
• 1002: Ringo Star is helping Cat-Noah build the ark.
• 1003: George Harrison and a cat are brazing in a field mooing like cows.

We have now assigned each of the four Beatles to a block of numbers in the Sem Cubed grid. Now, we can use the link system to tie more information to each of the Beatles.

• Paul McCartney played bass. If we think of “bass” as the fish: Paul McCartney getting eaten by a giant bass.
• Paul also had a band called Wings. We can chain this information to “bass” by imaging a bass growing wings and flying away.

By using the link system to tie long strings of information to individual locations on the Sem³ grid, the possibilities are limitless. Go give it a try and share your thoughts in the comments!

Editor’s Note

The Sem Cubed is strongly related with the Person-Action-Object (PAO) and the Dominic System. It is also another way of approaching the keyword method which I described as The locked Wardrobe Method.

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Good results at memory championships depend on doing the right things correctly. However that does not only include knowing basic or even advanced memory techniques and constant training. It is also important to know how to prepare oneself for a contest and how to avoid known mistakes at championships. In this article I will outline common mistakes and discuss how you can handle a championship as a participant to maximize your overall score. This article does not focus on routine training. A few of the mistakes mentioned in the text I have experienced by myself, others I have heard or read by first or second hand. The idea to write this article was born at a dinner table in Cambridge while discussing the recent championship.

1. Before a championship

Pack the stuff you need:

• BASIC WRITING MATERIAL like a pen and some paper to make notes between the events. In one of the first championships I joined one participant did not even had a pen. After borrowing one from another person he was nevertheless able to win that championship. Ensure to bring your own ball point pen without extra lubrication otherwise you might be unable to read some of the numbers.
• OTHER OFFICE EQUIPMENT (if needed) like ruler (in an adequate size!), eraser, crayons or highlighters, pencil and pencil-sharpener and other things like that. A pencil should be blunt to prevent rupture of your papers.
• TIMING DEVICES like a watch or a count up/ down timer. If your timing device has a sound function make sure that you can handle it properly and that you do not disturb other people (especially in the learning phase).
• FOOD AND WATER SUPPLY: Although sometimes championship locations are stuffed with free food you are on the safe side if you bring along your own food. An advantage of this is that you have already planned in advance what you will eat without the danger of being seduced by inadequate food.
• ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT: Think about all the electronic devices you want to use like timing devices and cameras, including batteries, chargers and power adapters.
• Bring your LUCKY STUFF along if you need it and do not forget it on the train! This can be a lucky T-Shirt, a lucky cap (not an advertisement cap), a lucky belt, a lucky stuffed animal or whatsoever.
• Bring the ADDRESS of the venue and a MAP or a navigation device along or take a look at an Internet map. Make sure that you can easily find the location of the championship – this is an easy way to prevent stress and bad luck.

Train every discipline at least once at home:

• LOCI-POINTS: Make sure that you have enough loci-points for every discipline. If you have to use a loci-point twice try to fill it with different content the next time you use it (for example first cards then numbers or the other way round to prevent chaos in your head). You should also plan which loci-points you want to use for which discipline, especially if your pool of loci-points is limited. Side note: loci is the plural for the Latin word locus which is just another word for a location used to memorize items. Read more about the method of loci.
• LONGER DISCIPLINES: A mental marathon is not just an extended short discipline. Doing a marathon usually requires different repetition cycles than shorter disciplines. Without simulating that at least once you are clueless how much repetition cycles you might need and risk scoring zero points in those disciplines. If you want to equal the grandmaster norm with just one shot per year at the world memory championships this is a very important thing to consider.
• DRAW THE LINE: You should be aware that unlike training with some computer software there will be no lines drawn in advance on your learning and recall papers. You have to be prepared for this. That means that you have to choose if you want to draw lines or not. If you do not draw lines you have to be absolutely focused otherwise you might get lost in the forest of digits (especially if they are just ones and zeros). If you draw the lines by yourself you will loose time needed for repetition (compared with an online trial). Therefore it might be a good tactic to try less (binary) digits than at home. In addition to that most people are having trouble drawing lines that are not straight. So if you memorize for example sex digits on a loci-point there will be four digits left in the decimal number discipline with 40 digits in every row. Of course you can memorize the last 4-digits-column separately but if you forget this one column you might get zero points for the whole discipline. Think about how you want to solve this problem in advance!



• LIMITED TRAINING MATERIAL: If your training material is limited (like the abstract images training sheets) you should consider how to optimize your training. In that case it is important when you do your training. Do not be surprised if you encounter new items during a competition and try to adapt your speed and repetition cycles to it.
• SENSE OF TIME: You should develop a good sense of time. Knowing how much time is left can be very important if you want to adapt your strategy while memorizing.
• To SUMMARIZE all that with the words of Ben Pridmore: it is important to train [at least once] at home exactly the same way you will compete in a real championship.
• STOP TRAINING some time before the competition to keep your loci-points fresh for the competition!
• In my opinion SUCCESS IS THE RESULT of a good preparation flavored by a little bit of luck.

Pay attention to physiological needs:

• Do some PHYSICAL SPORT besides your periodical memory training at least once a week! Sport is important to provide your body with oxygen and can build new cells. Although the last round at the world memory championships 2008 between Ben Pridmore and Gunther Karsten was won by Ben I assume that Gunther’s physical sport (and eating) habits are much closer to the ideal than Ben’s. Of course if you have excellent techniques, good memory training habits and lots of talent you can win a championship without paying attention to your physiological needs, especially if the other contestants make other mistakes.
• GET ENOUGH SLEEP before the competition! :sleeping:
• AVOID DRINKING ALCOHOL on the day before the competition! In addition to that restrict your common alcohol use to maximum one or two drinks a day.
• DRINK ENOUGH WATER!
• DO NOT DRINK TOO MUCH WATER! In the one hour disciplines you cannot visit the toilet for at least one hour that should be obvious.



• EAT WISELY! Eat your breakfast otherwise your level of attention might drop rapidly. Do not eat too much and eat the right food. Tony Buzan told me 2007: It is better to waste food than to waste your body. He added that I could eat everything I want after a championship.
• RESTRICT YOUR SUGAR CONSUMPTION especially during competition! Although some memory athletes make world records while eating lots of sugar products this behavior might lead to problems later on. A short term consequence can be that you get tired. Of course you can eat even more sugar but then you might be seriously exhausted on the evening which might be not so good for the next competition day. If you eat lots of sugar on a regular basis this can lead to health problems. However: keep in mind that sweets taste good and enjoy your life! I recommend that you delay sugar consumption to the latest time possible, but in the end you have to find your personal highway to success. World memory champion Ben Pridmore probably would say: as long as you are world champion you can eat any kind of food you like. For championships I recommend pure water along with some fruits and nuts.

2. During a championship

• BE EARLY AT THE VENUE! Consider that there might be traffic jams and changes in place you do not know in advance.
• POSTPONE INVENTIONS FOR YOUR TRAINING SESSIONS! It is possible to be better when changing your strategies in competitions in the very last minute. I always do that in the abstract images dicipline. However, in my last memory championship I tried three new inventions – two times my results were much lower than before. One example for a change of strategy could be the change from a sequenced learning strategy to a cherry-picking strategy. Some people can successfully pick the history dates and names and faces which match the least-effort-principle. However think about that it also takes extra time to scan the material which might be better invested by learning a fixed interval. If you hear about new strategies do memorize them or write them down but wait until you are back home to try them.
• CLARIFY HOW MANY POINTS YOU CAN GET! Clarify how many points you can get in each discipline respectively the whole championship in three different scenarios: a most likely case, a worst case and a best case scenario! Decide if you aim for gold, silver or bronze medals (for the whole competition or just some disciplines), if you want to break a national record (even if there are just one or two participants competing that might be fun for some people), if you want to become the best newcomer or beat your own records (like personal bests, training records, overall records et cetera).



• DECIDE YOUR AIMS AND YOUR WILLINGNESS TO TAKE RISKS! Decide what your aims are and adapt your way of handling risks to it! You cannot assume that you will repeat all your training records within a real championship particularly if you have not trained all the disciplines in a row. A top ten memory athlete once said that if you can beat a record once in training you can also do it in a competition. Of course that is correct one could actually add if you were close to a record in training you can achieve that in competition. For example: until now my results in the abstract images discipline were always higher in competitions than during training sessions! Being able to achieve something does not necessarily mean that you will achieve it always. Trying to achieve something in a competition discipline that is above your average performance level contains a high risk potential to fail in that discipline. The top ten memory athlete continued to say that not risking enough is the number one reason to miss a victory. I disagree with that. If you take a look at the world memory championship results from 2007 Ben Pridmore broke a world record but failed in the two cards disciplines. Therefore the new world memory champion was Gunther Karsten who did not break a single world record. 2008 Ben changed his strategy and broke not a single world record but became world memory champion once again. Gunther on the opposite broke two world records but that did not help him to win the world memory championships. Conclusion: Pushing it to the edge is a good way to win a single discipline, to strengthen your confidence, to motivate yourself and to make your opponents insecure but it does not necessarily help to win a championship because of the high risks you have to take.



• USE THE CONCEPT OF EXPECTED VALUE! Taking more risks can ensure a leading position in a single discipline. However if you want to win a championship it is important that you do not fail too often. To maximize your overall scores I would recommend using the statistic concept of expected value (EV) which also could be described by the law of big numbers. Let me explain this with an example. If your record memorizing speed cards is 60 seconds (worth 500 points) with a probability of 10 percent, your medium time is 75 seconds (worth 400 points) with a probability of 50 percent and your safe time is about 150 seconds (worth 200 points) with a probability of about 95 percent you will receive the following expected values: 500 * 0.1 = 50, 400 * 0.5 = 200, 200* 0.95 = 190. In that case you get the highest expected value at 75 seconds with 200 (EV) points in the long run. Of course if you remember all the cards correctly you get 400 championship points for this performance. After you have successfully recalled a card game within that time you can still aim for 60 seconds. Of course if you want to avoid risk you can at first gor for 150 seconds and if you need the points to win you might directly try the 60 seconds. Knowing your expected value does not prevent you from adapting your tactics to the current situation in the competition.



• BE CONFIDENT! On a good day everything is possible even if you are very new to the sport! For example the 17-year old Dennis Mueller accomplished after just 6 months of training to be placed 22 in the world rankings and he still has the chance to become better than anyone else in the sport. Joshua Foer a reporter who wrote about the USA Memory Championships became the winner of this event just one year later and earned a big amount of money afterwards. When I was a pupil I sometimes had problems to remember even tiny pieces of information like seven words in a row. I once even forgot my text when I was rehearsing a play for one week. My text consisted of just three words! After learning basic memory techniques as a student at university I could memorize about 20 to 30 words in five minutes. At that time all world memory champions came from the UK and it seemed impossible for me that anyone not British could win the title of world memory champion. Today Great Britain has to share its role model with Germany. Other Countries like India, China, the USA or even smaller countries like Sweden might follow within the next years. I stayed on my plateau from university studies for about ten years and thought that I had attained about 80 percent of my capabilities. The world memory championships seemed to be very far away. After I heard that there are national and international championships I began to train systematically. Today I have managed to learn 40 words in five minutes within a championship. In training I even managed to learn up to 70 words without a single flaw which could qualify me for a top ten position in that discipline if could replicate that in a championship in the near future. By now I think that at least half of my potential is still uncovered. 2009 I will probably enter the world memory championships for the first time to compete with the best memorizers of the world. I doubt that I ever can be a world memory champion, but with respect to my moderate performance in the past I am very satisfied with what I have achieved until now. Having trained successfully many persons in memory techniques by myself I learned that anyone can be far better than one can believe at the beginning.
• THINK FASTER! Try to activate your “turbo boost” of thinking. Nutrition including water, fresh air during the competition breaks and motivation can help to achieve this.
• THINK SLOWLY! Take the time you need to learn anything correctly. In a competition it is much more important to learn with the speed you can master than just trying to mimic the speed of better participants. Pushing it over the edge will probably not help you to get the points you do expect but will reduce the amount of points you get even more. If you encounter an item which seems to be impossible to learn try to calm down and use your creativity to search for new associations.
• HIGHLIGHT ITEMS! Avoid looking at items you already have perfectly mastered to memorize! If you definitely know that you have learned something correctly you do not necessarily have to repeat it again. Try to highlight these items (at least in your head) to prevent looking at them again. Highlighting stuff can also be important if you have decided to skip specific items.



• CHECK YOUR ANSWERS FOR PLAUSIBILITY! In the longer card disciplines for example there should be 13 cards of every color on your recall paper – if not you definitely know that there is at least one mistake left to correct. To have enough time left to check the answers you have to answer fast.
• TAKE CHAMPIONSHIPS SERIOUSLY! Taking championships seriously means for example to organize your recall deck in speed cards before the recall phase and to switch off your mobile phone and other sources of sound during the learning phase.
• RELAX! You should take a championship serious but a championship is also a social event, so use the time to get to communicate with people and enjoy the ride. If you learn playing cards in the speed cards discipline it is better to stop the time quiet and safe in 30 seconds than to finish after 27 seconds while smashing your cards with loud noise on the table risking to let them fall on the floor. Whatever may happen how unsatisfied your may are – never loose your countenance! After all nobody is perfect – unless your name is “Nobody”!
• CHECK YOUR GRADING! If you do wonder why your scores are so low you might recheck the grading of your answer sheets. Most of the times grading will be correct but sometimes even correctors make mistakes.

3. After a championship:

• CONGRATULATE THE WINNER and thank all the people who organized and conducted the championship! Very often most of these people sit unnoticed in another room and work voluntary the whole day for example as a corrector to make it possible that you can participate in a well organized championship.



• ENJOY THE EVENING with old and new buddies! NOW you can drink some alcohol though it is still allowed to drink orange juice. If you order drinks for your buddies make sure you do not forget what they want. NOW you have the possibility to eat whatever you want (as long as you can afford it). If you decide to sing in a karaoke bar make sure you choose a song in the right key for your voice. Try to find your way home (in case you drank too much call a cab.) This is the time to impress your buddies for example with detailed knowledge about birthday dates of their family members. Never reveal your free time memorizing tricks – other memory athletes might get disappointed if they understand how simple it can be to memorize some things.
• ANALYZE THE CHAMPIONSHIP! Analyze the results of the championship including the experiences you have made, revise your strategy, train and try to get more points (or even win) at your next championship. If you already are a world memory champion always remember: the world is not enough!
• SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS AND FOLLOW YOUR OWN ADVICE! Last but not least: if you have analyzed, experienced, read, listen, said or written some insights on how to handle a championship – share your insights with your team mates and try to follow at least some of your own advice.

Comment this article!

Other readers will benefit much more from this article if you improve it by making a comment on it. This implies to discuss my suggestions, to expand the list of dispositions and common mistakes and to share your experience. No matter if people can memorize very well or very poorly – they can always learn from each other.

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With the official launch of Memory-Sports.com, it is in my duty to keep you posted about upcoming memory events. But what‘s about the past two decades of stunning championships? I gathered ten interesting facts about the dawn of memory sports:

1. When did it all started?

In the year 1991 Tony Buzan, father of the Mind-Map, and Raymond Keene, the British Chess Grand Master set up the very first World Memory Championship.

2. Who is the most successful memory champion?

That depends:

• Most World Memory Champion Titles: The British author Dominic O’Brien has won the World Memory Championships eight times altogether and became a memory legend.
• Best Brain: The No.1 memory champion of all time is the British athlete Ben Pridmore. With seven world records in 18 different disciplines he is dominating the sport.
• Financially: One of the most financially successful memorizers is the American journalist Joshua Foer. He only competed once at the USA Memory Championship in 2006 and won. After that, he sold his first book, Moonwalking with Einstein, for a reported $1.2 Million to Penguin for publication in 2009.

3.    How many different championships are there?

There have been 26 different competitions altogether. Six are taking place regularly for five years and more.

• World Memory Championship (since 1991)
• German Memory Championship (since 1997)
• USA Memory Championship (since 1998)
• Australian Memory Championship (since 2001)
• North German Memory Championship (since 2003)
• South German Memory Championship (since 2003)

4.    How many countries have national championships?

There are thirteen different nations with either national only or open championships. The youngest among them are France, Poland, Thailand and England (although the British had the World Memory Championships taking place there from 1991-2006).

5.    What kind of disciplines are there?

On a memory championship you have five to ten different disciplines. The common standard for regional events like the North German Championship is seven disciplines. The common standard for national and international events is ten disciplines (the decathlon).

The fastest discipline with one second for each number is:

• Spoken Numbers

Then you have the speed disciplines with five minutes memorisation time:

• Speed Cards
• Speed Numbers
• 5 Minute Binary Numbers
• 5 Minute Words
• Historic Dates
• 5 Minute Names & Faces

The only discipline with ten minutes is:

• 10 Minute Cards

The medium range disciplines with 15 minutes are:

• 15 Minute Numbers
• Abstract Images
• Names & Faces
• Poem
• Random Words

The long disciplines with 30 minutes are:

• 30 Minute Binary
• 30 Minute Cards
• 30 Minute Numbers

And the World-Memory-Championship-only disciplines with one hour are:

• Hour Cards
• Hour Numbers

6.    How can I become a Memory Grandmaster?

There are three different conditions for a Grandmaster:

• Memorize a deck of cards in less than two minutes
• Memorize ten decks of cards in an hour
• Memorize 1.000 Numbers in an hour

7.    What can I win at a Memory Championship?

You can win national honour and a bigger self confidence. You also train your brain for good and keep yourself focused. That’s not enough? At the World Memory Championship the total prize fund is US$ 30.000.

• The Winner receives $10.000
• The Silver Medallist receives $5.000
• The Bronze Medallist receives $3.000
• Rank 4 to 10 are receiving $1.000 each

For each of the 10 disciplines:

• $250 First Prize
• $150 Second Prize
• $100 Third Prize

8.    What is the most famous discipline?

That depends on the preferences of each competitor, but altogether I would say Speed Cards. This discipline is always the last one at a competition and also the only one (except for the other card disciplines), where you hold something other in your hands than a sheet. It is also the most fascinating discipline to watch, since every competitor gets his own competition timer (sponsored by Speed Stacks) and a big digital display for the audience. The official out-of-this-world-record is 26.28 seconds (for 52 cards!). Congratulations Ben.

9.    Are there any children competing in memory championships?

Of course there are: Germany arranges special championships for children (age 6-12) and juniors (age 13-17). At all the other championships they compete against the grown-ups. The children and junior World Memory Champions are Konstantin Skudler (10) and Dorothea Seitz (16).

10.    How will I know about upcoming championships?

Relax, I will keep you posted. In the next weeks I will put up a competition calendar, where you can check all officially announced championships. Another way is to visit the “Upcoming Championships”-page on the Memory Sports Statistics.

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