Struggling to remember where the car keys are, or what was on the shopping list left at home pales in comparison to the memory challenges on display this weekend in the United Kingdom. A total of 26 men and women from 11 countries are taking part in the UK Open Memory Championships in London, which requires contestants to memorize extraordinary amounts of information in very little time.

 

One event requires individuals to learn the sequence of hundreds of playing cards in just 10 minutes. World champion overall Ben Pridmore previously set the record in this event by correctly memorizing the order of 364 cards. Another competitor, 15-year-old Eva Ball, won the UK’s Schools Memory Championship in July by remembering 94 numbers, 137 words, 12 events and dates, 102 binary numbers and nine shuffled playing cards in sequence.

 

Other events include memorizing historic and fictional dates, memorizing spoken numbers and memorizing abstract images.

 

Memory Experts Meet for UK Championships (by William Langley, Telegraph)

Memory Champs Meet for UK Contest (BBC News)

The UK Open Memory Championships 2009 (World Memory Sports Council)