Live-Report: WMCS 2009 – Day 2

Posted on 13. Nov, 2009 by Flauwy in Memory Championships, News

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Live Report

• 10:00 AM: Good morning everyone. Werlcome to day 2 of the World Memory Championship 2009.
• 10:00 AM: The competitors are already in the recall period of todays first even “Names & Faces”.
• 10:01 AM: Please be patient with me for a little while. I have to prepare the results of the Binary Numbers and the One Hour Numbers for you.
• 10:02 AM: Just to give you a heads up: China has been very strong in the One Hour Numbers event.
• 10:04 AM: Ok, you can already look up results of the 30 Minutes Binary event. memory-sports.com
• 10:19 AM: So, I had to take a picture of nearly everyone in this discipline. Now I can go back to the Hour Number results…
• 10:26 AM: Steffen Buetow – Good Morning memorizers – show us good results for Germany ;-)
• 10:28 AM: And the first discipline is over.
• 10:29 AM: There have been a huge crowd of cameras around Boris Konrad. You know he is the favourite for this discipline. It was very difficult getting pictures of him. But I did it.
• 10:39 AM: Results of the Hour Numbers are online: No. 1 – Su Ruiqiao with 2080 raw score and 945 – New world record!
• 10:40 AM: Followed by Wang Feng with 1984 raw score and 902 points. This would have been also a new world record!
• 10:41 AM: Third is Ben Pridmore with 1756 raw score and 798 points.
• 10:44 AM: After this it looks like this in total:
  
  01 – Dr. Gunther Karsten with 2842 points
  02 – Ben Pridmore with 2460 points
  03 – Johannes Mallow with 2413 points
  04 – Wang Feng with 2411 points
  05 – Su Ruiqiao with 2312 points
  06 – Guo Chuanwei with 2277
• 10:45 AM: And we have started the Speed Numbers discipline. Johannes Mallow is able to memorize about 500 numbers in training. Will he beat his own record of 405 digits?
• 10:50 AM: And they are done!
• 10:53 AM: And recall.
• 11:03 AM: I am uploading my entire picture collection from yesterday. I am afraid I had no time to edit them.
• 11:03 AM: 5 Minutes remaining of the Speed Numbers recall.
• 11:06 AM: 1 Minute remaining.
• 11:08 AM: I just checked: Johannes wrote down 10.5 rows of digits – that would be about 420 digits and a new world record – IF he did it correctly!
• 11:10 AM: He is not quite confident but he feels good. He might end up with a great result – record or not.
• 11:11 AM: Listen I just finished uploading my pictures from yesterday. Check out the article for Day 1 of the competition. memory-sports.com
• 11:17 AM: Do you know: Austria is just represented by Corinna Draschl – and Austria is on rank 7 in the countries ranking. How funny is that?
• 11:17 AM: You know, there are 20 countries represented
• 11:21 AM: I am just checking how my pictures on flickr are locking on my iPhone. They do look great I have to say.
• 11:46 AM: We will now hear the results of the Names & Faces…
• 11:49 AM: No. 7 – Christian Schäfer
  No. 6 – Boris Konrad
  No. 5 – Wang Feng
  No. 4 – Gunther Carsten
  No. 3 – Cornelia Beddies
  No. 2 – Ben Pridmore
  No. 1 – Johannes Mallow
• 11:49 AM: Extremly unexpected results
• 11:50 AM: Boris only on rank 6! And Gunther and Ben on great position. How uncommon ist this? Normally Ben and Gunther are very bad in this one. Good for them.
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• 11:51 AM: Henry – Good morning Florian. I look forward to following your live reports through the day.
• 11:51 AM: Steffen – What about Doro?
• 11:51 AM: Sorry everyone
• 11:52 AM: It wasn’t Names & Faces. I repeat – IT WASN’T Names & Faces!!!
• 11:52 AM: It was the result of the first Speed Numbers!
• 11:53 AM: No new world record for Johannes: He got 377 digits followed by Ben with 360.
• 11:54 AM: @Steffen: Dorothea got 186 in this one. Although I think you have been keen on how she did in the names though.
  
• 11:54 AM: They are doing now the second attempt in Speed Cards.
• 11:59 AM: Anonymous – No Problem, just called the emergency due to my haert attack..
• 12:00 PM: Anonymous – Thanks! Seems, that they offered more difficult numbers as usual ;-)
• 12:00 PM: Sorry again for the false information. I hope you guys survived.
• 12:01 PM: And the second attempt of Speed Numbers is now going to the recall period.
• 12:13 PM: 5 minutes remaining of the recall. Let’s see how Johannes is doing.
• 12:19 PM: Johannes was going for 10.5 rows again but it seems the he was missing a few images. He was shacking his head like he wouln’t be any confident.
• 12:19 PM: And the second Speed Numbers is over.
• 12:27 PM: I will now try to make an interview with Ron White.
• 12:29 PM: Ah there wasn’t enough time. They will start now with the Historical Dates.
• 12:29 PM: By the way: I will post the Speed Numbers result when I got both attempts.
• 12:34 PM: They are handing out the different languages for the memorization.
• 12:34 PM: Pretty difficult with so many languages,
• 12:35 PM: One minute mental preparation starts now!
• 12:36 PM: Neurons on the ready…go!
• 12:39 PM: God I so hope to see a new record from Johannes Mallow. Honestly, this guy is just great. I am so happy for him that he found himself a sport where he can put (nearly) anybody else in the pocket. It is like showing his nasty desease the cold sholder. If you want to find out more about Johannes Mallow read my interview with him I did last March. memory-sports.com
• 12:41 PM: 60 seconds left.
• 12:41 PM: Stop
• 12:46 PM: They are still handing out the recall papers.
• 12:46 PM: This takes like forever with so many languages. We should improve this task next time.
• 12:47 PM:
• 12:47 PM: A fresh picture from Johannes I took three minutes ago.
• 12:47 PM: Recall starts now!
• 12:56 PM: Maybe you want to read a little bit on Dave Farrow’s Blog. I mentioned him yesterday as the man memorizing the most deck of cards (59) ever. davefarrow.wordpress.com
• 12:57 PM: I think I will make an interview with him later today. His work is very interesting and he seems like a great guy.
• 1:01 PM: One minute left
• 1:02 PM:
• 1:03 PM: And it is over. We will now go into the lunch break. The next results will be announced at 13:45. It is now 13:05.
• 2:14 PM: Anonymous – Please forward my greetings to Doro! Guten Appetit …
• 2:14 PM: Nelson Dellis – Just woke up over here in America! This is so much fun, feels like christmas to wake up to all this awesomeness, haha!
• 2:14 PM: magi13 – I’m looking forward to the results. :3
• 2:14 PM: Nelson Dellis – For the hour numbers, was the raw score the number of digits memorizes?
• 2:15 PM: Sorry for the delay guys. They are preparing their decks of cards. Believe this looks just ridiculous. There are about a million cards in this rooms.
• 2:16 PM: @Nelson: Yes, the raw score is the amount of memorized information. In case of the Hour Numbers it means the amount of digits.
• 2:17 PM: We haven’t heard any other results so far. They are hoping to finish the correcting until the end of todays competition.
• 2:18 PM: I will send you some pictures of this event right away.
• 2:19 PM: One minute preparation time starts now.
• 2:19 PM: Neurons on the ready…GO!
• 2:20 PM: This will be the last discipline for today. Anyhow it will take THREE HOURS until it is done. The competitors have 60 minutes to memorize their cards and another 120 minutes to write them down.
• 2:20 PM: Ben Pridmore has 36 decks of cards in front of him.
• 2:26 PM:
• 2:26 PM: Ben Pridmore with Dave Farrow.
• 2:27 PM:
• 2:28 PM:
• 2:29 PM: Dr. Gunther Karsten
• 2:29 PM:
• 2:30 PM:
• 2:36 PM: Ok, I made a video of this amazing event because many have voted this discipline as their favourite. Wait for it. Maybe it is ready before the competitors are done with the cards.
• 2:40 PM: It really takes a while to upload so we might be already in the recall period before you can see it. Although…the collecting of the cards will take approximately five hours before they will be able to start writing them down.
• 2:40 PM: Steffen – wish to be there… very nice picures.
• 2:57 PM: We have passed half time. The video will take another 30 minutes to upload. I took some pictures in the meantime.
• 3:05 PM: 15 minutes left. I am reading on Ben Pridmore’s blog. Between this competition he is still finding time to write funny notes. zoomy.blogspot.com
• 3:08 PM: What do you think of Ben’s writing style? I just love it and I wish I could write as funny as he does but in my opinion that wouldn’t fit the porpuse of my website. What is your opinion?
• 3:14 PM: 5 Minutes left.
• 3:16 PM: If I would have time for it I would run a private blog similar to Ben’s. Actually I did that before but it was kind of exhausting to do so much online. I mean I am a memory athlete myself in the end and it happens that I want to jump under top twenty at some time. And to be honest – this is still a long way to go for me. So I rather spend my spare time training my skills than blogging like crazy.
  
• 3:20 PM: And it is over. I started a countdown to see how long it takes to collect all the cards and start the recall.
• 3:22 PM: For all of those who don’t know it yet: Memory-Masters.com is my other website where I write about How to improve your memory (beside the sport) together with my associate Charles Cave. Maybe you’ll find interesting new ideas over there. memory-masters.com
• 3:23 PM: We also have a memory forum where you can discuss your questions, theories and ideas about learning, mnemo technques and memory sports. memory-masters.com
• 3:30 PM: They are still collecting…
• 3:31 PM: Ok, they are handing out the recall sheets now.
• 3:37 PM: They started recalling. It took 16.5 minutes between the end of memorizing and the start of the recall. This is a lot of time.
• 3:38 PM: Of course it is a very delicate operation. They have to make sure that all cards are collected properly, labeled correctly and get transported to the arbitors room without mixing them up.
• 3:40 PM: The video finished uploading but it seems to take a while for converting.
• 3:49 PM: Sorry folks, I just realized that the embedded box on my website, where you can follow this live blog, was to small. I updated it now. You can hit F5 for a page refresh to see it in a larger size.
• 3:53 PM: I haven’t made any interviews today. What or who would you like to see?
• 3:53 PM: I will make one with Ron White and one with Dave Farrow. Any other interests from your side?
• 3:57 PM: Another interview I will make will be with Mattias Ribbing (Swedish Champion) and Oddbjorn By (Norwegian Champion). This will be funny since both of them are charismatic young guys and also they have some kind of a funny rivalry between these two countries.
• 4:10 PM: The video is finally up: www.vimeo.com
• 4:10 PM: How great is this? You can now watch the guys memorizing and they are still not even half finished with the recall!
• 4:10 PM: Tom – How about an interview with one of the Chinese contingent? It would be interesting to hear from one of their top guys about the popularity of memory sports in China. Loving the live coverage, thanks!
• 4:12 PM: @ Tom: Excellent idea and I think this is more than essential to bring the Chinese community closer to the rest of us. They are still a little bit seperated because of the language barrier.
• 4:28 PM: Steffen – Great video! Am I right, that Gunther has a 2card-system as well (looking on his moves)
• 4:28 PM: @Steffen: I don’t know for sure but I don’t think so.
• 4:31 PM:
• 4:32 PM: This is a picture of the trolley carrying all the cards out of the room…
• 4:32 PM: Doesn’t really look impressive on there.
• 4:50 PM: Jennifer Goddard writing: Over 55 bananas, 15 cans of Red Bull and Diet Coke consumed today to keep the brains sharp.
• 4:54 PM: k.nikhil – We will wait..
• 4:54 PM: Anonymous – Hi Florian, what do you think: What could be the reason for this unsual delay in showing results by the abitors?
• 4:58 PM: I suppose the delay of the results is partly a problem with the Chinese correction. There is one arbitor for Mandarin and one for HongKong Chinese. Both of them are probably facing troubles to correct the names properly. Of course this is pure speculation. The next thing is, that we have to sit out this three hour discipline before they can announce the next results. In the meantime they are trying to solve the problems they are facing. Hopefully they will be done by the end of this event.
• 4:59 PM: Half of the competitors already left the room.
• 5:00 PM: The elite is still writing of course. Boris Konrad on the other hand has left early because he was going for save 11 decks since he somehow messed up his hour numbers.
• 5:06 PM: 30 minutes left.
• 5:12 PM: k.nikhil – counting…
• 5:12 PM: Yeah me too…
• 5:13 PM: Anonymous – Hi, News on worldmemorychampionships.com:”At present the arbiting team is working hard to complete the scoring and expect to be able to release the results of these three event, the team positions and the championship leader board, around 5.30 pm this afternoon.”
• 5:13 PM: Thanks for the update, anonymous poster
• 5:14 PM: Anonymous – Anonymous, that’s me. Don’t know, why it does not show my name? Steffen
• 5:15 PM: Do we know each other? Your picture below doesn’t look like Steffen Buetow so I figure you are someone else.
• 5:19 PM: Anonymous – yes, this picture definitely is anonymous… Steffen, grins
• 5:19 PM: k.nikhil – I am also logged-in it doesn’t show me also
• 5:19 PM: k.nikhil – 10 minutes left..
• 5:22 PM: When you comment in this live blog it will not check your status on Memory-Sports.com. This is because I use the free service of Scribblelive.com to have this great live blogging software on my website. You have to put in your name above the comment section of this plugin. Maybe this is not the best solution but it works for now.
• 5:22 PM: Jennifer just said 15 minutes left…
• 5:23 PM: Did you miscalculate, k.nikhil?
• 5:24 PM: Yeah she is right, it started at 3:37 pm London time.
• 5:25 PM: k.nikhil – ok
• 5:32 PM: 5 Minutes left.
• 5:32 PM: k.nikhil – 5:30:00 PM
• 5:35 PM: 1 Minute left.
• 5:35 PM: Anonymous – 5:35:00
• 5:36 PM: And the time is up.
• 5:36 PM: There are about twelve people left in the room.
• 5:37 PM: The Japanese film crew is interviewing Gunther Karsten right now who sat at his table until the very end.
• 5:37 PM: Marco – There are so many good competitors this year…it’s amazing! Good job Florian, through your website I feel as if I was there.
• 5:38 PM: People are coming back into the room now.
• 5:40 PM: I just heard Ben saying that he just has been able to memorize 23 decks. He was destracted by people moving in front of him like the tv crew and – probably – me. Sorry for that Ben.
• 5:40 PM: k.nikhil – I can see through your camera.
• 5:40 PM: dorobabba – Hello Flauwy, do you know how Doro feels?
• 5:42 PM: I asked Dorothea how she feels and she is fine. She memorized seven and a half decks of cards which is better than what she did last year.
• 5:42 PM: k.nikhil – oh! it happened
• 5:43 PM: Anonymous – Thank you, please say her that we’re happy !!!
• 5:48 PM: I feel very guilty right now that I was taking this video during the memorization period. It seems that I might have distracted Ben.
• 5:53 PM: I talked to Ben right now and he seemed to be fine with it. He said that my appearance wasn’t too bad. He was more distracted by the Japanese film crew standing right in front of him. Anyhow we should be more careful with this in the future. Footage is important but not for any price.
• 5:54 PM: k.nikhil – Ben is always cool..
• 5:54 PM: The room is now crowded again and everyone is (un)patiently waiting for the results…
• 5:55 PM: Phil is entering the room with several sheets of paper!
• 5:56 PM: Here they come:
• 5:57 PM: Top ten Names & Faces:
• 5:57 PM: 10 – Christian Schäfer
• 5:57 PM: Joint 9 – Christopher Beeg & Simone Nicklas with 99 each
• 5:57 PM: 7 – Cornelia Beddies with 102
• 5:58 PM: 6 – Corinna Draschl – 106
• 5:58 PM: 5 – Go Chuanwei – 125
• 5:58 PM: 4 – James Patterson
• 5:58 PM: 3 – Doroteha Seitz – 150
• 5:59 PM: 2 – Boris Konrad
• 5:59 PM: 1 – Simon Reinhard
• 5:59 PM: Sorry I didn’t hear the exact scores
• 5:59 PM: Speed Numbers Second attempt
• 5:59 PM: 10 – Dorothea Seitz
• 6:00 PM: 9 – Huang something – 244
• 6:00 PM: 8 – Christian Schäfer
• 6:00 PM: Steffen – Hi, check this (all 3 events are online !!!!) www.worldmemorychampionship.com – Greetings Steffen
• 6:00 PM: 7 – Boris Konrad
• 6:00 PM: 6 – Simon Reinhard
• 6:01 PM: Joint 4 – 280 digits – Wang Feng & Dr. Gunther Karsten
• 6:01 PM: 3 – 294 digits – Cornelia Beddies
• 6:01 PM: 2 – 360 -| Ben Pridmore
• 6:01 PM: 1 – 377 digits – Johannes Mallow
• 6:02 PM: Obviously this is already the overall score in Speed Numbers.
• 6:02 PM: Hoistorical Dates:
• 6:02 PM: Joint 9 – Dorothea Seitz & Cornelia Beddies
• 6:02 PM: k.nikhil – Great..Johannes Mallow
• 6:03 PM: 7 – Christian Schäfer & Xio Chuawen
• 6:03 PM: 6 – Dr. Gunther Karsten
• 6:03 PM: 5 – 64 dates – Simon Reinhard
• 6:03 PM: 4 – 67 dates – some Chinese guy (sorry)
• 6:03 PM: 3 – Boris Konrad
• 6:04 PM: 2 – Ben Pridmore
• 6:04 PM: 1 – NEW WORLD RECORD
• 6:04 PM: 118 DATES
• 6:04 PM: JOHANNES MALLOW
• 6:04 PM: k.nikhil – yes..
• 6:04 PM: k.nikhil – Johannes Mallow..Again
• 6:05 PM: Overall Position so far:
• 6:05 PM: 10 – Dorothea Seitz
• 6:05 PM: 9 – 3634 – Su something (sorry)
• 6:05 PM: 8 – Cornelia Beddies
• 6:05 PM: Anonymous – GREAT, Johannes !!
• 6:05 PM: 7 – Boris Konrad
• 6:06 PM: 6 – Wang Feng
• 6:06 PM: 5 – 4007 points – Guo Chuanwei
• 6:06 PM: 4 – 4232 – Simon Reinhard
• 6:06 PM: 3 – 4559 – Dr. Gunther Karsten
• 6:06 PM: 2 – 4782 – Ben Pridmore
• 6:07 PM: 1 – 5171 – Johannes Mallow
• 6:08 PM: Sorry dear Chinese competitors, I have to learn all your names as soon as possible.
• 6:08 PM: Kudos Johannes!
• 6:10 PM: k.nikhil – Kudos Johannes!
• 6:24 PM: k.nikhil – How Johannes feeling..
• 6:24 PM: Anonymous – Congratulations Doro! You’re on the 10th place!
• 6:24 PM: k.nikhil – Johannes created a history in Historical Dates with 118 DATES- Which is a NEW WORLD RECORD. What you think Flauwy..
• 6:24 PM: I just made an interview with Johannes. He feels great.
• 6:24 PM: Sorry but we have to leave this room right now. I will come back to you as soon as possible.
• 6:57 PM: Stolze Mutter – I am glad thus for Johannes and keep the fingers crossed for tomorrow quite steady.
• 6:59 PM: Yes I am glad for Johannes, too. But it still will be very tough for him to hold his position. It will be a very exiting third day tomorrow!
• 7:00 PM: I just got the complete results in digital. I will upload them now.
• 7:33 PM: The results of day 2 are up: memory-sports.com
• 7:38 PM: My interview with Johannes is uploading but it is terribly slow. I think I will stop it and upload it over night. I thank you all for watching. Good night, good fight. Or the way other way round?

Tags: WMCS 2009, World Memory Championship