如果将一副扑克牌的顺序随意打乱，你能用1分多钟的时间准确记住所有纸牌的顺序吗？显然，一般人无法做到。

　　然而，一位温州瑞安的“90后”姑娘就做到了。瑞安中学教师王若聪参加了第27届世界脑力锦标赛，通过城市赛、中国总决赛的选拔，进入全球总决赛，并取得“世界记忆大师”称号。

　　在中国香港举行的全球总决赛一共有三天，设有10个竞技项目，分别为人名头像、1小时马拉松数字、抽象图形、快速数字、历史事件、1小时马拉松扑克、快速扑克、随机词汇、二进制以及听记数字。

　　取得“世界记忆大师”称号必须同时达到4个最低标准：1小时成功记忆1040个以上的无规则数字、1小时正确记忆11副以上打乱顺序的扑克牌、90秒正确记忆一副打乱顺序的扑克牌、10大项目总成绩3000分以上。

　　考虑到比赛规则太过残酷，在马拉松扑克项目比赛现场，平时私下训练时测试十八九副全对的王若聪，这次选择了保守发挥。最后，她顶住压力，马拉松扑克项目对了17副。

　　也就是说，她在一个小时内，完成对17副随机打乱的扑克牌的记忆，然后马上按照顺序，还原每一副扑克牌。这样的成绩，远远超出了比赛规定的正确记忆11副扑克牌的标准。

　　世界脑力锦标赛是由“世界记忆之父”“思维导图发明者”托尼·博赞于1991年发起的，由世界记忆力运动委员会（WMSC）组织的世界最高级别的记忆力赛事。“世界记忆大师”证书由该项大赛颁发、国际认可并可在全世界通用。

　　每届的“世界记忆大师”的标准和难度系数逐年增加，目前全球认证的持有“世界记忆大师”证书的有600余人。大赛的世界纪录直接记入世界吉尼斯纪录而无须审核。

　　王若聪也是在机缘巧合下，参加这个高手云集的比赛的。

　　王若聪是瑞中的语文老师，平时非常喜欢做一些挑战性尝试，曾获得2017年温州市首届阅读马拉松冠军和2018年第二届阅读马拉松一等奖。

　　2018年暑假，在一次偶然的机缘下，她接触到竞技记忆。刚开始，她只是凭借兴趣想多去了解，没想到学习后就喜欢上了。

　　没多久，王若聪就做了一个决定，计划通过参与比赛，来深入了解大脑记忆的方法和规律。她觉得，只有参与比赛，才能在最短的时间内最大限度地激发自己的潜能，领会到记忆的奥妙。

　　脑力锦标赛每个项目的难度系数，都是根据最新的世界纪录逐年增加的。按照现行的各项目难度标准，成为世界记忆大师，通常至少需要1年以上的系统训练。

　　有一次，在培训的时候，王若聪问了教练这样一个问题：“现在开始练，今年能成为世界记忆大师吗？”有着多年经验的教练当时回答：“这么短的时间从零基础到大师，就算全身心投入训练也没有可能！更何况你还有自己的工作不能耽搁。”

　　这却激起了王若聪内心的好奇与兴奋。“我是属于那种想要去做一件事情，就马上去做，并且要做到极致的人。”她说，每一个微笑背后都有一个咬紧牙关的灵魂。知道自己没有多余时间，她就挤出一切可以利用的时间。

　　在王若聪的训练本上，有很多皱了的、墨水化开的地方，那是她在夜深人静训练时，因为突破不了自我极限而趴在本子上留下的眼泪，“那种探索和挑战自我大脑极限的过程极其痛苦”。

　　王若聪举了一个例子：比如，比赛中数字试卷上1行是40个数字，如果记错一个，就少了一半的分数，记错两个，就意味着这行40个数字全错；扑克牌的记忆也是如此，记错一张就等于错半副，错两张就一副全错。这给选手造成了极大的心理压力，选手既要追求速度又要保证准确。

　　王若聪告诉笔者，从训练到比赛，这个过程中曾想过放弃，尤其在2018年11月份中国总决赛前，日常的教学工作、科室的行政事务处理，加上自己身体等各种因素，压得她喘不过气来。

　　“但我的内心总有一个笃定的声音，让我不抛弃、不放弃，只要咬牙坚持，一切都熬过去。其实，我的记忆力只能算中上，不算特别聪明，但我觉得我是一个足够努力足够幸运的人。有天赋的人刚开始会上手很快，但是要走得远，就需要‘笨功夫’去坚持。”

　　王若聪说，她也很感谢学校领导和同事们的大力支持，“当你真的很想做一件事情的时候，坚定的信念会让全世界都来帮忙。刚开始，家人知道我要参加此项比赛，第一反应是不可思议，看我一路如此坚持之后就非常支持了。”

　　Wenzhou Woman’s Journey towards Grandmaster of Memory

Imagine remembering the exact order of the cards of a well-shuffled 52-card deck within one minute. It obviously takes someone with some kind of super power to work out, but it is not something that would baffle Wang Ruocong, a high school teacher based in Rui’an, Wenzhou in southeastern Zhejiang.

The young woman’s journey throughout all the qualification competitions and all the way into the finals of the 27th World Memory Championships, held in Hong Kong from December 20 to 22, 2018, was plain sailing. 

The Mind Sport of Memory was jointly founded by Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene OBE in 1991 when they staged the very first World Memory Championships. They created a competition format based on ten memory disciplines which are still used today in competitions around the world. Ten different disciplines are conducted over 1-3 days and consist of the following events: Names and Faces, Binary Numbers, Random Numbers, Abstract Images, Speed Numbers, Historic/Future Dates, Playing Cards, Random Words, Spoken Numbers, Speed Cards.

From WMC 2013, GMM (Grandmasters of Memory) titles have been awarded to the top 5 placed competitors (who are not already GMMs) who have achieved a total of 5000 or more cumulative points in that competition. Wang Ruocong was one of the winners of the title from the 2018 game, meaning that she remembered more than 1,040 random numbers and retrieved the order of the cards of more than 11 well-shuffled decks in one hour, and remembered the order of a 52-card shuffled deck within 90 seconds. In fact, she wowed the audience and beat her rivals by restoring the order of as many as 17 well-shuffled decks, proving herself a shining star in what is dubbed “the world’s greatest test of memory” – a stage full of masters.

Teaching Chinese at the Rui’an High School, Wang Ruocong chanced upon memory sport in the summer vacation of 2018 and immediately fell in love with the challenging game. Before that, she had tested her memory in two city-level reading competitions. After honing her competitive skills for a while, she decided to focus on serious memory training in order to qualify for participation in a world-class competition. “Only through the ultimate tension of such a demanding game can I see my potentials brought into full play and truly taste the magic of memory,” said the girl.

The difficulty level of each discipline in the sport has been escalating over the years, based on the world records of the competition year. Taking into consideration the current average difficulty level of the game, normally it takes at least a whole year’s professional training for anyone to make it into the finals.

“Even if you start right away, it is a mission impossible to become a Grandmaster of Memory in the 2018 game in Hong Kong,” warned the coach, who has many years of experiences of training GMMs.

“When I decide to do something, I’d take action right away with full devotion. That’s me,” says Wang. The formidable task led to months of sleepless nights that reduced the young woman into tears many times. “The joy of breaking one’s limits always has a big price to pay. The sufferings in the process were hard to describe,” Wang Ruocong recalls, as if talking about the story of someone else.

“I thought about quitting several times when I was preparing for the game. I had to squeeze in as much free time as possible for the training, and at some point in the process I felt too overwhelmed to make it to the finish line, because I have my teaching duties from a full-time job to fulfill at the same time. The time before the qualification finals in China was the darkest, physically and mentally, but I made it.”

“I have a pretty good memory, but I don’t think it does not fall into the extraordinary category, frankly speaking. Hard work is the key, plus a bit of luck. It takes a lot more than a smart brain to win the title. Going through the ordeal of intensive, scientific training is a prerequisite for anyone aspiring to beat the others in such a game.”

“I cannot say enough thank you to my school and all my colleagues for their unfailing support, from which I also learned that it takes nothing but determination and faith in what you want to achieve to get the backing from the whole world. My decision of taking part in the 2018 game left everyone in my family slack-jawed at first, but my determination convinced them.”