2 Pinoys vie for glory in San Diego memory tiff

MANILA, Philippines – Two Filipino bets have made it to the San Diego International Memory Championship, considered the strongest memory tournament to date, slated from April 26 to 27 in San Diego, California.

Mark Anthony Castaneda and Erwin Balines, who both achieved Grand Master of Memory status, have made it to the two-day event using the tennis-style knockout format thanks to their high world rankings and recent strong play.

Castaneda, who became the first Filipino GMM after memorizing 1,140 random numbers in an hour, a deck of cards in a minute and 10 seconds and 13 shuffled decks of cards in an hour, is currently ranked 17th in the world while Balines is 27th.

“This is not only a prestigious tournament but also the strongest in the world because only those in the top 30 in the world are invited,” Phl Memory Games founder Roberto Racasa, who will head the three-man delegation leaving for April 21 yesterday told The STAR.

“What makes this tournament even stronger is the participation of five current and former world champions,” he added.

The team is supported by Avesco Marketing Corp. and sanctioned by the Philippine Mind Sports Association, Inc., the legitimate local governing body of memory games.

Racasa, who steered Polytechnic University of the Philippines to an NCRAA chess title as its top board player during his college days, was referring to World No. 1 Johannes Mallow of Germany, No. 2 Jonas Van Essen of Sweden, World No. 5 Ben Pridmore of Great Britain, No. 9 Gunther Karsten of Germany and No. 14 Andi Bell of Great Britain, who have all won the World Championship at least once.

Also making it to the event are No. 3 Simon Reinhard, No. 6 Boris Konrad and No. 7 Christian Scaffer of Germany, No. 8 Ola Kare Risa of Norway, No. 16 Marwin Walonius of Sweden, No. 28 Bat-Erdene Tsogoo of Mongolia and No. 29 James Paterson of Wales.

Germany’s Annalina Fischer, who is ranked 26th in the world, is the only female participant who qualified in the event.