Once I had all my techniques sorted and I started breaking records for memorization, I realized that I needed a new challenge. I had an idea about holding a memory competition that would pit the world’s best memorizers against one another. We were already trying to outdo each other for entries in the Guinness World Records book every year, so it seemed a natural step to make the competition upfront and official and put us all under one roof to battle for recall supremacy. I knew of a handful of people around the world who were capable of memorizing cards and long sequences of numbers, who I knew would be up to the challenge, but I had one problem. In the interests of fair play, I couldn’t devise the competition and enter myself – especially if there were even a small chance that I could win.
Before I did any more than muse on the idea, fate was to play its hand. In 1991, I received a letter from chess grandmaster Raymond Keene about an event planned for later the same year. This is what it said:
“Dear Mr O’Brien,
Creighton Carvello suggested that you might be interested in the 1st Memoriad, which we are organizing. I enclose details, and I do hope you will attend. I have, by the way, seen mention of your exploits in the bridge column in The Times, where I also write the chess column.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Best Wishes
Raymond Keene OBE”
I couldn’t believe the timing. I felt as though I had spent the previous three years training for such a competition and here it was, handed to me on a plate.
Raymond Keene, with Tony Buzan (who created Mind Maps®; see pp.142–4), had come up with the concept of a Memory Championships and they were now ready to launch this upon the world. The first time I met the two of them, they quizzed me about my techniques and how I’d got involved. When I told them how I performed my memorizations, Tony turned to Raymond with an expression on his face as if to say, “He knows the secrets.”
These two co-founders spoke to a number of potential competitors, listened to our recommendations, and made a note of our various memory strengths. Using all this information, they put together the first ever World Memory Championships, which they called the “Memoriad”. A mere month later, I and six others (Tony Buzan called us “The Magnificent Seven”) competed for the title of first ever World Memory Champion at London’s Athenaeum Club.
Dressed in a tuxedo and as prepared as I could be for the one-day event, when I arrived at the club I think I felt most nervous about meeting Creighton Carvello, my inspiration, for the first time. When we did meet (and he was charming), the first thing I noticed about him was that his black shoes were so well polished, I could almost see my reflection in them. If his performance was going to be as polished as his shoes, I stood no hope at all!
The competition between us all was fierce, but with grave determination I clinched the title in the last discipline – memorizing at speed a single deck of shuffled cards. In what seemed a fitting end to three years of hard brain training, I beat Creighton Carvello’s record for a single deck by a satisfying 30 seconds: I did it in 2 minutes 29 seconds, with no errors.
Two decades of championships later, the rules and individual disciplines have been honed and refined to accommodate the suggestions of first-class memorizers from all over the world. You’ve already learned how to do most of the disciplines in the process of learning how to supercharge your memory power, notably the rounds relating to numbers and playing cards, but also by extension the random words round – all of which you could attempt with the techniques I’ve taught you so far. It’s really heartwarming to me that I can claim responsibility for suggesting two of the other events in the competition: 15-minute memorization of abstract images (more of these later), and the discipline that I want to teach you next, the 30-minute memorization of random binary digits, which I believe to be a supreme training routine for your brain.