Fed up with sudoku? Why not have a go at decoding (p-n) x 100/(p-1), a formula, which features at the Mind Sports Olympiad in Manchester, 11 days of brain-busting fun.
Not that the formula is part of any competition; it is simply a way of calculating the number of points scored in the pentamind contest, where p is the number of players and n is a participant’s position in any given tournament.
Pentamind is one of the olympiad’s most testing events, in which players must compete in at least five games or skill areas.
Those who regard that as a pushover can have a go at the decamentathlon, which, in one four-hour session, tests skills in bridge, chess, creative thinking, draughts, Go, intelligence, Mastermind, memory skills, mental calculations and Reversi.
Kenneth Wilshire, pentamind world champion in 1997, is back to regain his title and took on Lorraine Low (who has a PhD in mathematical statistics) in Mastermind, that infuriating game in which you have to find out the colours and sequence of your opponent’s plastic pegs.
The makers call it ‘the two-player battle of wits and logic”; many of the rest of us call it much ruder names and kick it across the room in frustration. Low, using negative results rather than positive, discovered Wilshire’s colours in six moves; he unveiled hers in four. ‘Four is good. I tried harder because you were there,” he told the Guardian. ‘I work better under pressure.”
‘If World War II was still on, these guys would be working on the enigma code,” suggested Low’s husband, Stephen, in an admiring whisper.
Wilshire, a professional problem solver, moved on to play George Lane, who works for a bank and decides whether customers should get advances.
At eight, he could do maths problems intended for 14-year-olds. He has been the mental calculations world champion three times and has been honoured as an international master of intelligence by the Mind Sports Organisation.
He is the reigning Mastermind champion and retained his title, beating Wilshire , who smiled ruefully, shook the victor by the hand and moved on to the next bout.
Olympiad entries are likely to top 2 000 this year, with poker, in particular, booming, though no money changes hands. Chess and bridge are also popular, although organisers are not sure whether 25 draughts players from Jamaica will turn up to take part in a game that has become increasingly complex.
Asked, after attempting to work out the square root of his cellphone number, whether his brain ever hurt, Lane replied: ‘Only after six pints.” —