Dominic O'Brien, International Man of Memory [From MSO 1999 News 5]

Last year's Mind Sports Olympiad was all the poorer for the absence of the five-times World Memory Champion Dominic O'Brien. This year he is back and determined to regain a title that, over the past few years, has come to be regarded by many as his private property.

What have you been working on recently?

Over the past few months I have been training for this year's Memory Skills event and have also become involved with the Alpha Learning Institute. In a way these two activities overlap as they are primarily concerned with brain training and this is obviously an area in which I have an interest. 

One of the crucial qualities for a competitor in a World Memory Championship is concentration. We are all familiar with the techniques used for memorisation - journeys, visual representations etc. - but improving concentration is a less explored area as it is more difficult to practice. This is where Alpha Learning and their machine, Brainwave 1, come in. The equipment was developed by Sean Adam who, incidentally, holds the world record for Speed Reading.

The purpose of Brainwave 1 is to train the brain to work at the frequency, between seven and eight cycles a second, where concentration is at its best. The brain states that can be achieved using the equipment are typical of those which arise after prolonged periods of meditation. However, rather than taking 30 years of disciplined practice, Brainwave 1 allows you to achieve this quickly and easily.

How did you become interested in this?

I was attracted to this idea because the equipment was originally designed to make people smarter. However, it was soon realised that it can also be used to repair forms of brain damage such as dyslexia. Having suffered from dyslexia as a child this naturally piqued my interest. Interestingly, some other memory champions have had problems with dyslexia and perhaps overcoming dyslexia is what has sparked us to research how to improve our memories.

Two of the symptoms of dyslexia are poor concentration and a bad memory, both of which I suffered from at school. I have obviously managed to improve my memory greatly, and now I am focusing on concentration. 

What else do you do to prepare for memory events?

I take ginkgo biloba, a plant extract which greatly aids blood circulation. For any Mind Sport you need to channel as much blood, and thus oxygen, to the brain as possible. Gingko biloba helps to achieve this by dilating the blood vessels. I also keep fit by running and do my normal memory exercises - practising with packs of playing cards and a computer program I have developed.

Will we see memory records tumble this year?

I am optimistic that many of the current records can be broken. For example, the competition record for a pack of cards is 34 seconds and my personal best (not in competition) is 27.5 seconds. There are also other targets which I feel are achievable.

What do you know about the entry for this year's event?

I believe that there is quite a cosmopolitan field with entrants from Turkey, South Africa, the Czech Republic and Malaysia. However, I suspect that the event may turn into a two-horse race between myself and Andi Bell, last year's winner.

Is your memory still improving?

Yes. I have won the World Memory Championship on five occasions, and as I am now 42, it has been suggested that I might consider retirement. However, I am still improving every year and I see no reason to stop just yet.

What is your favourite event?

I like the spoken number. It is a double-edged event as you have to aim for a score of 200+, but it is possible to blow out with just three or four numbers. As it occurs towards the end of the competition, an element of strategy comes in as you have to decide whether to 'go for it' and try for a big score, or play safe.

What are your plans over the next few months?

I am writing a book, Learn to Remember, soon to be published by Duncan Baird. It is not particularly detailed on actual memory systems - I have covered these in depth in earlier books - but will concentrate on how to exploit an improved memory, e.g. how to relax. I am also working on a Blackjack video course and will be running Blackjack master classes in Las Vegas. It is a fascinating experiment. We will be taking 45 people out for a one-week course, and then seeing how they get on.

The schedule for the Memory Championship is as follows:

Day One (Thursday)
1. One hour numbers
2. Poem - 15 mins
3. Names and faces - 15 mins
4. Binary numbers - 30 mins
5. Random words - 15 mins

Day Two (Friday)
6. One hour cards
7. Speed numbers - five mins
8. Spoken number
9. Speed cards

Also at the MSO on Saturday afternoon the South African memory star Kevin Horsley will be making an attempt on Philip Bond's Pi matrix world record, which currently stands at 53 minutes to recall 50 groups of five numbers from the 10,000 possible sequences.

Click here for Part 2