I competed in the World Memory Championships in 2009 in London. It was an experience of a lifetime and when interviewed at the tournament I was asked if I would be back. I replied, ‘Oh yes of course. This is so much fun. I will keep coming back until they tell me I can’t come back.’
Here is a video of me memorizing a deck of cards there that year. It was a ton of fun but I haven’t been back. The sad truth for me is that I must earn a living and it takes too much time away from my business to train for the tournament and compete. My goal one day is to automate my business more so I can return and compete at both the USA and world tournaments. It’s just too much fun.
Speed Cards – Ron White at WMCS 2009 from Flauwy on Vimeo.
Although I won’t be competing this year in China on 10-14 December in Haikou, Hainan (Island), China’s Most Southern Province I will be following along the competitors.
The 10 events are:
1. Spoken Numbers
2. Playing Cards
3. Historic / Future Dates
4. Binary Numbers
5. Random Words
6. Abstract Images
7. Names and Faces
8. Random Numbers
9. Speed Numbers
10. Speed Cards
Spoken Numbers: digits being spoken 1 digit per second and the competitors will listen, memorize and then write down as many as they can recall in order until their first mistake.
Binary digits: 5 minute memorization time of 1’s and 0’s with a 15 minute recall
History/Future Dates: 5 minute memorization of fictional historical dates with a 15 minute recall. For example it may say 1783 – Australia lands polar bear on moon. You have to remember the year with the event. You can’t use actual events because it would then give a person with a good knowledge of history an advantage when this is a memory contest.
Names & Faces: 5 minute memorization with 15 minutes recall. Competitors will be given a papers with pictures of faces and names underneath. They will then be given the same photographs of people in jumbled order with no names and the goal is to write as many 1st and last names as you can recall. Getting 1 point for each correct name
Speed Numbers: How many numbers can you memorize in sequence with no errors in 5 minutes.
Random Words: How many random words can you memorize in 5 minutes
Speed Cards: You are given 5 minutes for this but if you take the full 5 minutes to memorize a deck of 52 shuffled cards you won’t do too well. The tops in the world can do it in under 30 seconds. You are given 2 decks of cards. 1 to memorize as fast as you can and another where you will have 5 minutes to reassemble in the recall stage
Abstract Images: You will be given a paper with ink blots and then you are tested on your recall of each. This can be TOUGH. 15 minute memorization with a 30 minute recall.
Random numbers: How many numbers can you memorize in order in 1 hour. In chart below this is listed as ‘Long Numbers’
Playing Cards: How many decks of cards can you memorize in an hour. This is shuffled decks of cards. Below in the chart this would be listed as ‘Long Cards’
The chart below lists the world records for these events and other world records not including in the 10 at the World Memory Championships:
My belief and hope is this year in 2014 world records will be broken. I am very excited to following the results and scores of the awesome mental athletes. One day I hope to be there competing with them again. I wish all of them a fun time, personal bests and may the best man/woman win!
Going to be fun to follow
