Ben Pridmore (born 14 October 1976) is a former world memory champion, memory sport competitor and

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...

Achievements

Pridmore is a three-time World Memory Champion winning the title 2004, 2008 and 2009. From

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, Pridmore achieved this by winning a 10-discipline competition, the World Memory Championship, which has taken place every year since 1991. He has also earned the prestigious title of Master of Memory. He held the official world record for memorizing the order of a randomly shuffled 52-card deck, and has memorised a pack in a time of 24.68 seconds on television. This record was beaten in 2010 by German memory athlete and lawyer Simon Reinhard. Pridmore's victory at the 2009 World Championship was his eighth consecutive memory competition win since coming second at the 2007 World Championship. He is the title holder for the UK Memory Champion for the years 2007–2011 and 2013 and Welsh Open Memory Champion 2009–2012 and 2014. Besides memory sports he is famous for his

mental calculation Mental calculation (also known as mental computation) consists of arithmetical calculations made by the mind, within the brain, with no help from any supplies (such as pencil and paper) or devices such as a calculator. People may use menta ...

skills and took part in the Mental Calculation World Cup in 2004, 2006 and 2010. He has also won several medals at the

Mind Sports Olympiad The Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) is an annual international multi-sport event, multi-disciplined competition and festival for game of skill, games of mental skill and mind sports by Mind Sports Organisation. The inaugural event was held in 1997 i ...

including becoming the 2001 World Champion at the ten disciplined mind sport competition the decamentathlon including also

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

and reversi.Mind Sports Olympiad page on the Decamentathlon http://www.boardability.com He also participated in the Memoriad World Mental Olympics in the year 2012 in

Antalya Antalya is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey and the capital of Antalya Province. Recognized as the "capital of tourism" in Turkey and a pivotal part of the Turkish Riviera, Antalya sits on Anatolia's southwest coast, flanked by the Tau ...

and won one gold medal with the title "Memoriad Speed Cards World Memory Champion". He is thought to have an IQ of 159 putting him in the genius range. He was prominently featured in the music video for

DJ Shadow Joshua Paul Davis (born June 29, 1972 in San Jose, California, San Jose, California), better known by his stage name DJ Shadow, is an American DJ and record producer. His debut studio album, ''Endtroducing.....,'' was released in 1996. He uses l ...

's single "Scale It Back".

Method

Like most memory experts, he creates a mental story, comprises a sequence of images in a variation of the Mnemonic Major System. In Pridmore's system for cards, two cards are represented as a three-letter word by the first consonant derived from the suits, the vowel from the first card's number, and the final consonant from the second card's number. For example, an ace of hearts and a two of clubs = "fan" with his predetermined letter associations for a total of 2704 unique images. Numbers are represented similarly with the first digit a consonant, vowel, and third consonant respectively meriting 1000 images; binary is the same with chunks of 4 numbers being given a single letter representation and used in the same fashion. Using these words, Pridmore often creates a story using his old school,

Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle, is a co-educational grammar school with academy status in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England. In 2009, there were 877 pupils, of whom 271 were in the sixth form. Although royally chartered by Qu ...

as the framework for these memory sequences."Memory Champion's secrets"
BBC News, 7 April 2009 This style of memorizing is known as the

method of loci The method of loci is a strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, journey ...

, sometimes known as a memory palace.

References

External links

Profile at World Memory Championships website

MEMORIAD – World Mental Olympics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pridmore, Ben Reversi players British accountants British mnemonists Living people People educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle 1976 births Mental calculators