Eight-time World Memory Champion
Dominic O'Brien in the form of a mind map

Mystery surrounds the Memory Skills Olympiad Championship, one of the star attractions this weekend at the Mind Sports Olympiad. We are in negotiation with eight-time World Memory Champion Dominic O'Brien to appear. Whether he does or not, we know we'll have our strongest field for some years; Swe Chooi Yip, the Malaysian Memory Champion who has won the past two year's Olympiad Championships, will definitely be facing the world #3, six-time German Memory Champion Dr. Gunther Karsten. In addition to that, the timing and location of this year's World Memory Championship (Malaysia in October) have swelled our line-up to an impressive extent.

The schedule of challenges to be faced this weekend, and the World Records that are set to be opposed, follow:

Saturday	Binary Number	30 minutes	2,970 digits
	Random Words	15 minutes	182 words
	One Hour Cards	60 minutes	1197 cards (23 packs, 1 card)
Sunday	One Hour Number	60 minutes	1,840 digits
	Names and Faces	15 minutes	173.5 points
	Speed Cards	up to 5 minutes	34.03 seconds

Press and spectators are invited to the final and most spectacular event, scheduled to take place at 4pm on Sunday. Volunteers will be enlisted to check that our memory stars have correctly memorised their pack of playing cards. Come and get the best view in the house!

It takes a lot of packs of cards to run a memory competition!

The results from the first half of the Mind Sports Olympiad are in; five days down, five days to go. We hope to bring you frequent updates as to the current Pentamind scores in our contest of contests with a £1,000 prize.

We'll remind you of the eligibility criteria. Competitors must enter tournaments for five or more different games or mental skills, as defined by the first two letters of the event code. The total number of played qualifying sessions must be at least ten; at least two events must be three or more sessions long. We expect many competitors to submit sets of contests in which sessions are distributed 4-3-1-1-1 or 3-3-2-1-1.

Many competitors will be taking advantage of the World Amateur Poker championships as a four-session event. Its sixth and final constituent tournament results are expected to be available tomorrow. We will have a much better idea of scores then, but a little analysis is already possible.

Demis Hassabis has three gold medals already, so a 3-event, 4-session total of 300. Add a 3-session result of 52.3 in chess and a 4-session result of 69.0 in backgammon and we're looking at a score of 421.3 on the board already. Winning scores have varied between 454 and 479 in the past, though, so 421.3 can definitely be beaten. Demis will be looking for better scores in longer events to improve his score further, though.

David Pearce is another very strong contender, though, with two gold medals, a silver and two bronze - the first contestant to five medals this year. However, two medals come from single poker sessions; it's not yet clear whether he'll use a single-session 100 or a four-session score from poker to count.

Other names to look out for include Dario de Toffoli, Jan Haugland, Tim Hebbes, Josef Kollar, Jan Stastna and Demis' own younger brother George. However, there are many other competitors in the chase; just two or three more strong performances, particularly in longer tournaments, is all that is required to really send a score into strong contention. We salute all our Pentamind participants!

10. Kilomentathlon. (Like the decamentathlon, only more so.)
9. Pint-a-point Scrabble. (Better still, introduce a doubling cube!)
8. Quidditch. (All our broomsticks are in the garage for repairs.)
7. 19x19 Go at Bullet time control. (One minute per player, no overtime.)
6. The Glass Bead Game. (Gold medal awarded to first player to achieve nirvana.)
5. Pin The Tail On The Donkey. (Or the draughts piece.)
4. Pheasants, partridges, peacocks and doves. (Wrong sort of Game Academy.)
3. Noughts and crosses. (Each match to be played until someone wins six games.)
2. Mornington Crescent. (Only because Mrs. Trellis has left the rulebook at home.)
And the number one game you won't find played as a tournament at the MSO:
1. Strip Poker. (Jokers and one-eyed Jacks wild.)

The final table at yesterday's London Lowball Poker tournament had a particularly young look to it; four out of the final nine were juniors. Joey Ho ended up taking the overall bronze medal as well as junior gold, with brother Kenneth one place behind and Josiah Lutton finishing fifth. Ben Haytack's seventh place would've been good enough for a junior medal at almost any other tournament, but at least he had the joy of being the player to eliminate his father Michael. You may recall that we ran a story three days ago about how Ben managed to win his father a Lost Cities gold medal with a well-placed final-round victory; this proves that there's no team play and Ben's a solo player at heart.

After four days and 12 rounds of the Chess Olympiad Championships, International Master Daniel Gormally is currently in the lead with 12 points out of 12. Will he achieve the magic 15 out of 15? He has played most of his main rivals, so there is great expectation that he will achieve this. The gold is not secure yet; IM Nick Pert, currently second, can still catch Daniel from his 10/12. FM Csaba Bognar is third with 8½/12.

Is it possible to reach a legal position in Lines of Action from which neither player may move? We believe not, but would welcome either proof of this or construction of a counterexample game which demonstrates it is a technical possibility.

Correction: issue 3 had George Hassabis listed as Othello 8x8 Blitz World Championship bronze medal winner instead of Jeremy Dyer of England. We apologise for the mistake.

Daytime forecast for Friday 22nd:
overcast, max temperature 19°C

Daytime forecast for Saturday 23rd:
sunny intervals, max temperature 22°C

Daytime forecast for Sunday 24th:
overcast and gloomy, max temperature 21°C

Chess Olympiad Champ	0930-1300
Backgammon Olympiad	0930-1630
Draughts: Italian Draughts	0930-1800
Brain Power Academy	1000-1700
Games Academy	1000-1700
Boku	1000-1800
Othello 8x8 Quickplay	1400-1800
Abalone	1400-1800
Bridge: Senior Pairs	1400-1800
Seven Card Stud Poker	1730-2200
Chess Novice Open	1830-2230
Bridge: Open Pairs (Friday)	1900-2300

Chess Olympiad Champ	1300
Backgammon Olympiad	1630
Brain Power Academy	1700
Games Academy	1700
Draughts: Italian Draughts	1800
Boku	1800
Othello 8x8 Quickplay	1800
Abalone	1800
Bridge: Senior Pairs	1800
Bridge: Open Pairs (Friday)	2300

On Monday 25th August, the final medal presentation and closing ceremony will take place at 6:30pm in the main playing hall on floor C. There will be a party afterwards which will have free food and one free drink for everyone who signs up at the registration desk by 1pm on Saturday.

Yesterday we asked what was remarkable about the top five places in the International 10x10 Dama Olympiad Championship at MSO 6. The answer was that all five places were occupied by members of the Durdyev family from Turkmenistan. The final placement of the five: Mustafa, Amangul, Bashim, Parahat and Bagtiyar. There were ten competitors in total.

Today's question concerns the Seven Card Stud Pot-Limit Poker Championship held over two days at MSO 5. The player who held all the chips at the end of the contest did not win a medal. Your trivia question for today asks who the winner was (no, the winner wasn't arbiter Dan Glimne!) and why the medal was declined.