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

memory sport Memory sport, sometimes referred to as competitive memory or the mind sport of memory, refers to competitions in which participants attempt to memorize then recall different forms of information, under certain guidelines. The sport has been formal ...

competitor and accountant.

Achievements

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

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, Pridmore achieved this by winning a 10-discipline competition, the

World Memory Championship The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. The championship has taken place annually since 1991, with the exception of ...

, 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 consists of arithmetical calculations using only the human brain, with no help from any supplies (such as pencil and paper) or devices such as a calculator. People may use mental calculation when computing tools are not availab ...

skills and took part in the

Mental Calculation World Cup The Mental Calculation World Cup (German: Weltmeisterschaften im Kopfrechnen, or World Championship in Mental Calculation) is an international competition for mental calculators, held every two years in Germany. Mental Calculation World Cup 2004 Th ...

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-disciplined competition and festival for games of mental skill and mind sports. The inaugural event was held in 1997 in London with £100,000 prize fund''Mind Sports Olympiad Su ...

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, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

and

reversi Reversi is a strategy board game for two players, played on an 8×8 uncheckered board. It was invented in 1883. Othello, a variant with a fixed initial setup of the board, was patented in 1971. Basics There are sixty-four identical game pieces ...

.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 la, Attalensis grc, Ἀτταλειώτης , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 07xxx , area_code = (+90) 242 , registration_plate = 07 , blank_name = Licence plate ...

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), better known by his stage name DJ Shadow, is an American DJ, songwriter and record producer. His debut studio album, '' Endtroducing.....'' was released in 1996. Biography Early years (1989–1995) DJ Sh ...

'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 The major system (also called the phonetic number system, phonetic mnemonic system, or Herigone's mnemonic system) is a mnemonic technique used to aid in memorizing numbers. The system works by converting numbers into consonants, then into words ...

. 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 Que ...

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 m ...

, 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