As tales of sporting domination go, it is one that sounds woefully familiar. First the British invent a game, then the Germans show us how it is really played, until finally the Chinese arrive and, by sheer weight of numbers — not to mention obsessive training schedules and state intervention — establish themselves as world No 1.
This week in London it is the turn of the World Memory Championships where, after nearly 20 years of Anglo-German domination, China is eyeing the top slot. When it comes to memorising long lists of numbers, or words, or playing cards, it turns out that the Chinese are really good.
Yesterday 74 competitors from all over the world gathered in a hotel in London to take part in the three-day event. China fielded a 16-strong team in matching tracksuit tops (even Germany could manage only 13).
“It is my dream to beat Germany,” said Guo Chuanwei, 28, a medical student from Guangzhou and the Chinese national champion, who is capable of memorising 20 packs of cards, in order, in an hour. Last year he came fourth in the world championships. “The Chinese will be the best team in the world within five years. And I, I hope, will be world champion.”
One of the founders of the world championships in 1991, Tony Buzan, accepts that the arrival of the Chinese might be his fault. “In the beginning England was the dominant nation,” he said. “As it spread, the Germans became very, very strong.” Then one of his books was published in China and nothing has been the same since. “They take it very seriously,” he said.
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Even before the competition began, the Chinese team’s ambition was evident. For the event in which they memorise as many cards as they can in an hour, one of ten competitions in the series, one of them asked for 37 decks — an ambitious target considering that the world record is 27.
“He only did that because I asked for 36,” said Ben Pridmore, the Briton who is not only the holder of that particular record but the current world champion. “It’s all mind games at these championships. Asking for a lot of cards is one of the classic tricks.”
When they are not indulging in psychological warfare, memory experts all use the same basic technique of translating numbers — or cards, or whatever — into mental pictures which they then place on a familiar journey, such as the walk to work. “I was going round the streets of Las Vegas,” said Mr Pridmore, 33, “and a monster was chasing Lisa Simpson, and a sumo wrestler had left her sporran lying around which was picked up by a poodle, which brought it to Pat Butcher from EastEnders.” That was his way of remembering two rows of binary numbers.
While the techniques are the same for all the competitors, the training varies greatly. G?nther Karsten, the 2007 world champion, believes in health, yoga, meditation and taking juggling balls into the competition hall to clear his mind between sessions. Ben Pridmore prefers junk food.
“If you’ve just had a double bacon cheeseburger, you’re in a positive frame of mind. If you’re drinking fish oil and doing press-ups you’re going to think, ‘That was horrible, but I suppose it was good for me’. Your brain does not work so well.”
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At the end of the first event, recalling abstract images, Dr Karsten managed to smash his own world record of 276 with a score of 318 and the Chinese did well enough to put them second in the team placings behind Germany. Fish oil — and, who knows, sweet and sour chicken? — may be good for the memory after all.