Summer 1999.44.95 Volume 10. Number 2 InAPIIA THINKING BRAIN POWER THE MIND LEAP FOR THE BRAIN I SECOND MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD I BRAIN OF THE YEAR r TED HUGHES -AN APPRECIATION { l MIND SPORTS SECTION THE 3rd MIND SPORTS OLYMPIAD BIGGER AND BETTER! OLYMPIA CONFERENCE CENTRE LONDON, 21-29 AUGUST 1999 f lOO,OOO PRIZE FUND For MSO I and II over 4,000 participants from 64 separate countries compcted for MSO gold, silver and bronze medals Abalone Co (l9xl9) Owari Backgammon Go (l3xl3) Pentamind Bridge Go (9x9) Poker Chess Hexdame Pub Quiz Chcss Problcm Solving IQ Competition Puzzle Solving Chincsc Chcss (XiangQi) Japanese Chess Rummikub Continuo (Shosi) Scrabble Creative Thinking Jigsaw Puzzles Settlers ofCatan Cribbage Lincs ofAction (LOA) Skat (German rules) Crossword Puzzles Magic The Gathering Speed Reading Dccamcntathlon Mastennind Stratego Draughts (8x8) Memory Skills (l'Attaque) Draughts ( I0x l0) Mental Calculations Twixt Bntropy Othello (Reversi) Zate OPEN TO EVERYONE!! For the first time, titles and ratings are to be gained in all tournaments. Early indications are that the number ofparticipants at the 3rd Mind Sports Olympiad will show a significant increase on last year and we arc pleased to announce that we have decided to move the event to a larger venue. To enter contact: David Le\y Tel: +44 (0)171 435 9496: Fax:. +44 (O)17 | 435 2870 website: http://www.mindsports.co.uk/ S YNA PS _ SUMMER 1999 'A SY'YAPS'A EDITORIAL A Feast of @od ttings Among the many exciting anicles in this and eveq/one of us has, and how w€ learn issue we cowr the Brain Trust Brain of to learn. Learning, as most ofus know, the Year Event, held at Mosimann's on the continues for the duration ofour lives and ls January 1999. The ioint winners, John it is the purpose of Syndpsio to facilirate Glenn and l4ichael Gelb. have each dem- that process to the best of the editorial o.strated in their achievements that qual- team's ability. ity ofchildlike curiosiq/which has been the hallmark of great minds throuSh the I would be very glad to ages.lohn Glenn in his childhood dreamt r€ceive your comments on this issue - ofexploring space, dreams which haw your f€€dback is vital! ln our next lssue I persisted throuah the years as witness would like to expand the letters page, his magnificent return to space last year at so please write, ring, fax or \ the a8e of77!The young MichaelGelb became passionately interested in his- tory's Srear achieveru - an anterest that Lady Mary Tovey, has culminated in the writinaofhis latest, Cresswell Associates Ltd., and perhaps greatest, book: How to think I 25 Gloucester Road, like Leondtdo do Vin i. London SW7 4TE We all feel a great sense of sadness and Tet 017 I 373 4457 lcs at the untimelydeath of Ted Hughes, Fax 0l71 373 8673 a past winner of the Brain of the Year Ernail: [email protected] award. we are indeed fonunate in beirle able to print one ofhis hitherto unpub- lished poems, written for the occasion of a Memodad. The poem was used for a test whereby the contstants had to re- THE BRAIN CLUB CIIARTEi member the exact way in which the The Bmi. Clllb wa incorponted on I 5 punctuation Poem was written, with May I 989. lts oflicial chaner states the marks, spellings, capitalisation marks, etc. Club's fomal plrposes: We believe however that our readers will appreciate it a5 a po€m in its own right, rd To p.onote resedch into the study refle€ting as it does HuShes's continuing of tioL€ht process€s, and into the search for the truth ofthings... another iM3tit.tion of the mechei6 of way of sayinS 'intellectual curiosity'! thhklng as manifest€d ln leaming, undeFtandi.t, @mmuniGtion, And to further entice and stimulate problem-solving,.reativiiy md d*i- your own childlike curiosit/, we have our regular columns and contributors - the B. To dlss€minate the results ofsuch Mind Spons section, and the Mind Map reseeh and sndy. Gallery, which includes the three brilliant C. To pronote teneralt education and winning entries in the Mind Sports Olym- tralning in cognitive processes and piad World Mind Map Championshipfor Gold, Silver and Bronze - won respec- D. To develop and exploit new tech- tively by Elaine Colliar, Lana lsraeland niques in <ognitive Processes. Philip Chambers - consraiulations to all three!The 1998 Mind Spons Olympiad is reponed on an full, with photosraphs, resulrs and a rePon. As always, we would love to have your feedback on the magaine allmycoor- dinates are shown at the end ofthis edito- raal - so please feel free to set in touch, synoPsio is concerned with how we use our brains, about the potential that each SYNAPSIA Vol I 0 No 2 Summer 1999 Editor-in-Chiel Tony Buzan CONTENTS Executive Editor Lady Mar/ Tovey Editorial Board FEATURES Ray Keene OBE Sir Brian Tovey KCMG BRAIN OF THE YEAR 1999 Lady Mar), Tovey The annual Brain of the Year award prowd to b€ as difficult a decision as ever. Chess Grandmaster Jonathan Tisdall reports on Cartoonist I ND SPORTS OI-YMP|AD 1994 Published by The second annual Mind Sports Olympiad took place in London The Braan Foundation, 20 ar the NovotelHotel, Hammersmith on AuSust 24-30last year. Raymond Keene and Chris Dickson report. Dorset BH l5 2PX Tel: (01202) 674676 (inside UK) +44 (120?) 674676 (outside UK) REGULARS The ediror reseres the right to shonen, 3 Editorial dend or chdge any contribution 4cepted for publi@tion. Ple& submit 5 Synaptic Flashes conributions on disk (ASCIlorword 6.0 are the prefered forma6) ifpo$ible. lf l4 lind ilap Gallery you Mdd like atti<les returned, ple6e anclude d app.opriate sAE. l6 Your Lelters The term and concepr l''1ind llap@ 17 Poetry refered to in this publication isa ta A Million lor ilind Sports r€gistered trademdk. P6cub. the world's fatest brain cnoonist, is happy to provide canoons baed on Iour idea and requests. All <a.toons de by Pecub unle$ othetuise indi@ted. Design, anwork and rypesettint by Byron MIND SPORTS leobs dAndrew Kinsman. a Chess 29 Bridge 6AE E6t Su$ex TN37 30 Chinese Chess 3t Crossword John Glenn: PAi Aill Gates: Rex Features. SYNAPSIA - SUMMER 1999 SYNAPTIC FLASHES Lalesl Erain ,Yervs A Bridge too tar? Pinker's How the /Vrnd work lvhich is de- Bridge players will be relieved to know scribed by Roben Matthews as like that, although computers can perform to 'spendinS an evening listeningto a brilliant the very highest standards at chess, they friend recount astream offascinating sto- are yet to achieve quite the same level at ries.' Pinker's earlier work The LarEuoge bridge. \rr'hereas chess lends itself per- irstind narrowly missed out on winning fe€tly to the kind of analytical tehniqus the 1995 prize. at which computers e)rcel, they are as yet Other titles on the shonlast include unableto master the inferen€e and judg- Morying the Mind b'/ Nl:ca.ter showing mentalskills necessary at the highest level you just what goes on inside your head, in bridge. One Reregode Cel, by Robert Weinberg Recently the top bridge-playing com- which delves in to the origins of cancer, puter, Goren-in-a-Bo{ competed in the Consilien.e - The Unity ofKnowledse by World Championships in Lille and Edward O. Wilson which aftempts to achieved a creditable l2th place overall. bridge the Saps between different scien- Although the computer performed ex- tific disciplines to form acoherentwhole, cellently in the latter stages ofthe set The Mon fio loved only Numbe6 by Paul plays, where its analyticalskills come to Hoffman the biography of Paul Erdos, one the fore, in the early stages its lack of ex- of the ereatest - and most eccentric - p€rience and intuition meant that itws mathematicians of the 20th centuD/ and unable to'second guess'the best way to Iinally Sylvia Nasar's A Beouriftr, /vlind play. Bridge has two main elements that which tells the story oflohn Nash who make it very difficult for a computer to recovered from schizophreniato win the 1994 Nobel Prize for Econom.c!. First, whereas chess always starts f.om the same position with allthe pieces on Cracking the Code display, in bridge the hand always starts Regular readers will be well aware that from a difierent staning position with the Ih€ Times crossword competitjon js now playeronly having knowledge of his or her a regular feature of the l,lind Sports own and the'dummy'. Top bridge plaFls Olympiad. But dad you knowthat over 50 have a highly developed insight into the yeaE ago there wd a crossword compe- game that enables them to make in- tition with a difference? The challenSe was formed decisions about what cards each to complete The Doily t€legrdph cross- of the other players are holding and how word puzzle in less than 12 minutes. ea€h play will run. At the moment com- Twenty-five entria were taken and the puters do not have similar skills. competitorc w€re asked to report to The Second, bridge relis panly on com- Doit lelesroph ofiices one Saturday in munication between tlvo panners; com- )anuary 1947. puters have problems understanding what Unfortunately, the first player com- their partners are trying to tellthem, and plete the puzle, Vere Chance, who took run into problems of interpretation iftheir onlysix minutes, was disqualified for panner makes a less than 'perfet' bid, spellinS a word wrong. However, four of which is inevitable when playing humans.