The Memory Competition (part 1)

GM Timur Gareyev used memory techniques in order to set his blindfold chess world record. I also have an interest in memory and I compete in tournaments. This my story from last year's championship. Next week, I'll post an update with this year's event. To regular readers of this blog: don't worry, I'll go back to writing about chess tournaments soon.

                                                                                                                                                                   

The 2018 National Memory Championship

By Matthew S. Wilson

The journey began in early 2011. I was a first year grad student at the time. I was browsing the news online and there was a New York Times article about memory. Some guy named Joshua Foer had won a national memory tournament and wanted to tell us about it. I started reading the article.

            As I was reading, two things came to mind. First of all, a better memory might help me pass the very difficult qualifying exams (about half of last year’s class had failed, forcing them to drop out of the Economics PhD program). Second, I wonder how my memory would stack up against a former champion? He talked about memorizing the sequence of an entire deck of 52 playing cards. So I found a deck of my cards in my apartment and shuffled. The first few cards were pretty easy. Anyone can memorize 5 cards without much effort. But by the time I got to roughly the 20^th card, it was tremendously straining. There was no way I could get through the entire deck. I stopped and tried something similar to his technique. He had a system that assigned each of the cards to a celebrity or someone he knew; then he mentally placed all the images into a building he was familiar with. I had no interest in developing such a system; I was just wondering if his principles would help me get through the qualifying exams. So instead I placed images of the cards into my parent’s house. Something like the King of Spades knocking on the door, which was answered by the Five of Clubs while the Eight of Hearts swung from the chandelier, etc. It took a long time to get through the whole deck. But I was stunned at how easy it was to remember it all. I was hooked.

            I practiced nearly every day. At first, it took more than 5 minutes to get through half the deck. When I tried to cut that down to 4 minutes, I felt rushed. But I progressed steadily. In less than six months, I was already memorizing the whole deck in under 5 minutes. My efforts started bearing fruit in Spring Quarter 2011. My GPA shot up to 3.9!

            After I passed the qualifying exams – a long story for another time – I decided to keep practicing. My results were good enough that maybe I had a chance at the national memory championship if I kept improving. But I was stuck in a routine where my training was only with decks of cards. For competitions, I would also have to memorize numbers and names and other things. I started with numbers a year or two later, but even then, my main focus was cards.

            Fast forward to late 2017. My memory had been on a plateau since 2014. I had been thinking about going to the national championship for years, but I never got around to it. It was always on the East Coast; the distance deterred me. I had signed up for a memory competition in Canada but cancelled because there was a chess tournament on the same weekend. So I registered for the national championship and figured that I could withdraw if something else came up. I didn’t buy my plane ticket yet.

            In mid-January, I realized that the tournament was just two months away. It was time to get serious with my training. I had only been doing cards and numbers; I needed to memorize poetry and names as well. My friend Joey Frantz recommended a poetry book. For names and faces, I signed up on Memocamp, a memory training website.

            I had a good chess tournament at the end of January, but after the euphoria faded, I was back to being depressed over my failing job search (another long story for a different time). But after a few weeks, I started seeing almost daily improvement in my memory. It was exciting. I forgot(!) that I was supposed to be unhappy about my failed career. As the memory tournament approached, I compared my scores to the results from previous championships. The top competitors would advance to the finals. And one of them will be crowned as national champion. Though I was improving quickly, it didn’t look like it would be enough to qualify for the final. If I matched my best recent results in training for all four events and if the finalists from 2016 failed to improve and if there weren’t any newcomers who could beat me, then I might just barely qualify. There was certainly a chance that I would collapse from the pressure of competing in my first memory tournament. Also, I often don’t sleep very well when I’m not at home. To make matters worse, the first event (poetry) began at 8:45am Eastern Daylight Saving Time. That’s 6:45am Central Standard Time (the event was just a week after the clocks were changed). And I am not a morning person. It was a long shot.

            I had a plan to make the most of my chances. First, gradually go to bed earlier. For a couple of weeks, I moved my schedule back by 5-10 minutes each day. Second, I arrived at the hotel two days early, just in case I didn’t sleep well on the first night. Then there was the plan for the 4 events in the tournament. For random numbers, my practice results were probably on pace to qualify. For poetry? Probably not. For names and faces? Definitely not. Stay within striking distance for numbers, poetry, and names. Then run up the score in my strongest area: cards.

            The big day arrived. I didn’t sleep as well as I would have liked. But I felt okay. To save time, I ate a breakfast bar during the announcements. Good news: Alex Mullen wasn’t there. He was the world champion and he can memorize a deck of cards in under 20 seconds. If he’s absent, the rest of us have a better chance. Unfortunately, Nelson Dellis and a few other stars were present. But there was more good news. According to the website, only the top 7 would qualify for the final, but in the announcements, they changed that to the top 8. And I wasn’t feeling nervous. I still had a chance.

            We had 15 minutes to memorize a poem. Then we had 20 minutes to write down as much of it as we could remember. But when recalling the first stanza, I realized that I was not 100% sure how to spell “easel.” I had never been a good speller. Due to the way the scoring works, a little error like that can be costly. I guessed. I got it right. The rest was fine except for one thing. I wasn’t entirely sure if a certain line ended with a period or a comma. I had to make a guess. The remainder of the 20 minutes was spent cleaning up my handwriting; I didn’t want to risk losing any points if they misread something. I felt that I could have done a bit better. But my performance was still reasonable. I just had to stay close to the top 8 for now. Then in the final event (cards), I would shine and hopefully catch up.

            Event #2: Speed Numbers. We had 5 minutes to memorize as many random numbers as possible. Then we had 10 minutes to write it all down. I collapsed. The pressure must have gotten to me. I only did half as well as I did in practice. To make matters worse, the guy sitting next to me memorized more than 100 digits. And he was a newcomer. I had expected that the stars from the previous championships would fill most of the top 8 spots, but if this new guy also gets a spot, I’m probably eliminated! Fortunately, there was a second chance at this event; we got another sheet of random numbers and only your top score counted. I steadied my nerves and memorized 103 digits in 5 minutes. When I finished writing them down, I was nearly certain that I had nailed it. It was perfect. But my neighbor edged me out, memorizing 104. My chances were slipping away.

            Then an MIT professor gave a presentation while the organizers tallied up the scores. I was around 10^th place so far. That’s okay. Just survive until we get to the cards.

            Then we had 15 minutes for the names and faces event. We were given sheets of color photos; their names were printed below their picture. There was a rustling of papers as the competitors turned over the sheets. Just try to ignore it. I tied my personal record. Fifty-six points. (1 point for each first name, 1 point for each last name). But it wasn’t good enough. Some of my rivals were scoring more than 100 points.

            Speed Cards: the final event of the day. Memorize the order of 52 playing cards in 5 minutes or less. Not many people can do that. But in practice, I was doing it in about a minute and a half. This was my opportunity to stage a comeback and qualify for the final. I got through the deck in 2 minutes and 9 seconds. Slow! But there would be a second chance and only your top score counts. And it was possible that 2:09 would be good enough. Or maybe not – my neighbor’s timer beeped when he stopped the clock. He, too, could memorize a deck in under 3 minutes. If he finishes ahead of me, it’s going to be harder to qualify. I reviewed the deck in my mind while waiting for the rest of the 5 minutes to elapse. Everything was clear. Almost. After the Six of Spades, there was the Three of Hearts. But was this pair placed before or was it placed after a certain sequence? I wasn’t entirely sure. I guessed.

            I was wrong! This mistake happened on the sixth card in the deck, so I was credited with memorizing just five cards. Totally embarrassing! And this was supposed to be the event where I would shine. Yes, there would be a second chance, but I was almost surely busted. The gentleman sitting next to me memorized his deck perfectly. He also bested me in numbers and poetry, I’m bad with names – he’s got to be ahead of me. And if he qualifies, and if the former champions qualify, and if the other stars qualify, there isn’t much space left for me. Maybe I can overtake him if I go at top speed. At my best, I can get through a deck in under a minute. But then there is a very high chance that I’ll make another mistake. It was too risky and besides, I knew at the beginning of the tournament that I probably wouldn’t qualify. I had really really wanted it, but I had been prepared for failure. Finishing in the top 10 would still be respectable. At the very least, it was possible to avoid humiliation and correctly memorize more than 5 cards!

The decks were shuffled and we tried again. I wished that I could go to the bathroom first, but now I just had to ignore it. I was extra slow and careful. After going through the deck I reviewed it twice. I put the deck down and stopped the timer. Two minutes and forty-nine seconds. Very slow by my standards, but it could still provide a big boost to my score. But only if I didn’t make any mistakes. I reviewed the deck in my head while waiting for the rest of the 5 minutes to pass. There was a very tiny bit of uncertainty about one part. Everything else was clear.

At the end, I raised my hand and a judge came over to check. I had recalled the deck perfectly! She recorded my result. I raised my arms in victory. Now we just had to wait for them to calculate all the scores.

The two former champs would certainly qualify. Avi (the guy sitting next to my right) had probably defeated me in every event. Then there were a couple of experienced competitors at the tables in front of us who sounded confident; from what I overheard, their scores seemed higher than mine in several of the events. But if we add all that together, only 6 or 7 of the qualifying spots would be taken. Is it possible that I finished in the top 8?

We all had lunch together and chatted. Then we returned to hear the results. Now I was nervous. I thought that they would start with 8^th place and then build up to 1^st place; that seemed like the most dramatic way to do it. But they started with 1^st place. Former champion Nelson Dellis had the highest score. No surprise there. A few other stars qualified, Avi qualified. But two of the other finalists had not been on my radar screen. Add them to the other people who would probably qualify, and all 8 places would be filled. I thought it was over.

“In eighth place – also a newcomer –” the announcer began.

“ ‘Also a newcomer’? I’m a newcomer! Is it me?” I thought.

“Matthew Wilson!” the announcer said.

I had done it! I walked up to the stage. After a few more remarks, the announcer passed the mic to the finalists. Starting with me. I hadn’t prepared for this. I was just surprised and happy. “So glad to be here – didn’t think I would make it to the final – this is awesome!” –my victory speech.

But there was one more plot twist. I stuck around to watch the conclusion of the high school team championship. Then there was an announcement. They had miscalculated Kyle Matschke’s score; actually, he was the one who finished 8^th and I was 9^th. Would they take my spot away from me?

“ –so we will proceed with 9 finalists instead,” the announcer concluded.

I was still a finalist! You could say that I qualified due to a scoring error. But if I had done as well in the cards event as I had in practice, I may have edged him out. In July, we will reconvene in Cambridge, Massachusetts and compete for the national championship.