[instrumental music playing]
[narrator] Human beings are born
with the most capable bodies on the planet...
and the most sophisticated brains
of all living creatures.
[man] Bend the knee at 90.
[narrator] We have all heard the saying
a healthy body equals a healthy mind.
Alright, alright, we're halfway there, halfway there.
[narrator] The saying was first penned by Roman writer Juvenal,
around the end of the 1st Century AD.
That's all. [chuckles]
[narrator] But how important is the health link between mind and body
for us today?
In our often sedentary,
desk-based lives,...
it's easy to lose mind-body balance,
usually at the expense of physical activity.
[instrumental music playing]
[man] The idea of doing an exercise routine,
it's certainly not occurred to me for the last however many decades.
[narrator] So, how beneficial can an increase in exercise be?
This experiment sets out to test that ancient idea
and ask directly
whether exercise can sharpen the mind?
But not just any old minds.
Over the next 16 weeks,
four people, who've chosen to fully focus on their mind competitions
and ignore physical exercise
will be put through a personal training programme and monitored.
Throw. Yes.
[instrumental music playing]
[Pam] Nice. And done.
Nice work!
[narrator] Our four contenders are well established in their fields of excellence.
Based all over the world...
...they're competing at the highest level
on the global stage.
Whilst fully dedicated to mind sports,
they've all ignored exercise
to different degrees.
[Kassa] ...this isn't really a gambit.
The queen's gambit is not a gambit.
[narrator] Can an increase in physical activity
help the sharpest minds get even sharper?
[cheering]
So, if you wanna step up on the treadmill.
[narrator] The science behind this experiment
has been masterminded
by internationally recognised and award-winning scholar,
Dr Brendon Stubbs...
an academic at one of the world's leading universities,
King's College, London.
[Brendon] This is really ground-breaking research.
The power of exercise
to improve your cognitive and emotional health
and help growth of nerve cells
improving not only the body
but also the mind.
[instrumental music playing]
[narrator] To begin the experiment, Dr Brendon Stubbs and his team
are testing the competitors'
aerobic fitness and strength.
Fromthis starting point,
they'll be able to measure their improvement.
Ben Pridmore lives in England
and is a memory man.
He excels in mind athletics.
- Nice to meet you. - Good to see you. I'm Jeff.
Hi.
[narrator] His approach to exercise?
[Ben] I didn't know people were out of bed at this time.
[Jeff] Best time of the day to run.
[narrator] Well, there is none.
Yeah, that's the thing. Running is not really something I can do.
[Jeff] Let's see how we go.
[Ben] Okay.
[instrumental music playing]
- [Ben] Okay, we can build on that. - [Jeff] Right then.
Push-up test.
Floor, and then push back up.
- Go on, you've got it. - I haven't.
[Ben] Oh, good god, that was terrible.
[instrumental music playing]
[Rich] Okay, ready? And go.
[narrator] New York-born Kassa Korley
is an international chess master.
He gave up exercise during the two-year pandemic.
Nice work, man. How do you feel?
- Really tired. - We'll do our push-up test, alright?
- Alright. - Sound good?
Twenty-five.
Yes, almost there. 25 seconds left.
Down. Alright. Alright, man. Good job.
- Thank you. - Alright.
[instrumental music playing]
[Pam] Nice, Sherry.
[narrator] More familiar to physical activity than the others,
- is Sherry Nhan, from Los Angeles. - That's good.
[narrator] But whilst she is more active,
there is a huge amount of room for improvement,
so a new regime could have a big effect.
I used to do a lot. I need to practice.
[Pam] We'll get push-ups back into your life.
Alright, Sherry?
We are gonna move on to run. I'll go your pace. You set it.
Okay.
[Sherry] So, probably a very incredibly light jog for me.
[instrumental music playing]
[narrator] Tokyo-born Ryoei Hirano
is a Riichi Mahjong master.
[narrator] Ryoei hasn't dedicated any time
to exercise in over
fifteen years.
[narrator] These mind gamers
have four months to build on their physical base levels,
and to see if this improves their performance
in major competitions.
Nice one. Can you take me up town, please?
[narrator] This experiment doesn't just involve these four.
A much larger group of mind gamers from around the world
is also taking part in the study.
This bigger group will be overseen
by Dr Brendon Stubbs and his team.
- Welcome. - Great to be here.
Can you hear me?
Good morning or afternoon to you guys.
Kassa, it's so nice to meet you.
I'm excited for it.
We're going to go through cognitive assessments today,
it's really just to understand how your mind and brain
works in terms of memory, ability to problem solve.
[narrator] The first task is to establish the cognitive performance
of each participant as a starting point.
This means that any changes can be monitored
over the course of the four-month study.
Okay, I'm looking forward to it.
[narrator] Unlike an IQ test,
these tests are not to establish how intelligent they are,
but how fit their brains are,
and how well their minds function.
So, we're going to start off with the Tower of Hanoi task.
- And there's a certain set of rules. - Yup.
Cannot place a disc on a smaller disc.
[Brendon] The data is really interesting.
Ben, 22 moves.
Ryoei scored 15 moves.
But Kassa took 52 moves.
It's really quite surprising
when you consider that he plays chess.
And also, Sherry
completed it within eight moves.
She's really fast-paced,
which could be due to the type of game which she plays.
[Sherry] I feel like people that aren't competitors,
they are never really put
in a state of panic, which bring when you're competing.
In Street Fighter, you only have, like, a couple of seconds to react, or you lose.
[narrator] For all those taking part in the test,
the principal objective is to monitor the effect of exercise
on brain function,
and therefore, see if it helps them to perform better
in their chosen tournaments.
The study will also chart changes
in confidence, concentration and anxiety levels,
as well as overall mental well-being
31-year-old Sherry Nhan
is an up and coming female gamer
on the global esports scene.
My gamer tag is Sherryjenix.
[narrator] Her chosen field is the combat game,
Street Fighter.
[Sherry] It takes a lot of memorising,
a lot of analysing, a lot of quick thinking on your feet.
It's a huge mental toll on your mind.
[narrator] Her goal is to make it onto the big stage
at one of the largest gaming tournaments in the world, Evo...
[Sherry] I wanna become really great at this.
And I want to be up there.
[narrator] ...which is taking place in Las Vegas,
in four months' time.
[Sherry] It'd be making history.
So, it'd be great if it was me.
[narrator] Sherry is curious to find out
whether the increase in physical activity
will give her an edge against her opponents.
[Sherry] Competing is very stressful.
I lack a lot of discipline and confidence.
Hoping that personal training will help me a lot.
So, pretty excited for it, to be honest.
[instrumental music playing]
[narrator] 29-year-old Kassa from New York
is one of the most exciting chess players on the tournament scene.
He has reached the level of international master.
But his ambition
is to become one of the world's few
African American Grand Masters.
[Kassa] When I was playing tournaments as a kid,
I was the only person that looks like me that's there.
And so, being an African American Grand Master is important.
It's a big deal just to get that type of visibility.
[narrator] He wants to achieve this by his 30th birthday,
but Kassa will need to beat a Grand Master
and accumulate maximum points over the next four months
in order to become a Grand Master himself.
[Kassa] Like, I wanna win now.
[narrator] He's decided to dedicate himself
entirely to competitions,
until he achieves his goal
of beating a Grand Master.
[Kassa] And once July hits, I'm gonna be playing
a game almost every day of the month.
And that'll be the most aggressive
month of chess of my life.
[narrator] With the intensity of competition looming,
Kassa will need to be at his peak.
[Kassa] Improving on physical stamina
definitely has a pay-off with the mental stamina.
I think doing the exercise programme will make a difference.
The question that I have is
how much of a difference it'll make.
[instrumental music playing]
[man, over radio] We all have hidden talents.
For Ben Pridmore,
it's an extraordinary memory.
Ben uses a technique that allows him
to memorise thousands of random numbers.
- [man 2] 553? - A chimney.
- [man 2] 554? - [Ben] A man lurking in the shadows.
[man, over radio] Ben then turns those images into a story he can remember.
[Ben] Where there's a camel being eaten by flubber.
I'm Ben Pridmore. I'm a memory man.
Cards, numbers, long words, that kind of thing.
I've been three times world memory champion,
in the distant past.
Yeah.
I just memorised a pack of cards in 26.28 seconds,
which is a new world record.
Memory sports made me into a name that people
indeed still talk about now.
I have a certain legendary status.
If I go to a memory competition around the world,
people crowd around me, they want my autograph.
It's really quite exciting.
[narrator] Forty-five-year-old Ben,
from the West Midlands in England,
is planning to return to competing in memory sports
after an 18 year absence.
[Ben] Most playing cards memorised in 30 minutes.
[narrator] Ben is hoping for a comeback,
aiming to get on the podium
at this year's Mind Sport Olympiad,
held in London.
"Ben Pridmore, UK, memorised 884 cards,
17 packs, at the Derby Memory Championship."
[narrator] Could exercise be the secret sauce
Ben needs to get on the podium
in four months' time?
Well, I've always been very sceptical about the idea
of exercise being related
to the whole mental processes.
[narrator] A stranger to any form of physical exertion,
the next four months are going to be a huge challenge for Ben.
[Ben] My hopes aren't very high, but I'm willing to give it a try
and see what happens.
[instrumental music playing]
[narrator] Forty-four-year-old Ryoei Hirano
is a Riichi Mahjong player.
He has been living in New York
for two and a half years,
and is heading home to Tokyo
to be reunited with his family.
[instrumental music playing]
[narrator] Former Mahjong pro,
Ryoei hasn't competed for three years.
He plans to take part in the World Championship in Vienna,
in four months' time,
and his return to Japan marks the start of his preparation.
This tile-based game is built on skill,
strategy, and luck,
drawing and discarding pieces
to complete sets or pairs.
To win in Mahjong,
a player must achieve the best combination
of tiles.
No!
[narrator] Ryoei has agreed to take part in this study
to see if exercise
can sharpen his mind
for the World Championship.
[instrumental music playing]
[narrator] It's May, and Sherry, along with almost 3,000 other
fighting game competitors,
are in Chicago
for Combo Breaker.
For Sherry to make it to the mainstage,
she must win every match.
[intense music playing]
It's her first game.
Her character, Necalli,
is on the left of screen.
She's fighting well, and she soon secures
her first victory.
Yes, I won.
[narrator] Match two,
and Sherry's character is on the left of screen.
[Sherry] The second game, I could feel that I was playing worse,
so I started holding my breath.
Like, I just feel more stressed, like,
playing-- my heart's pumping even more, I'm even more nervous.
[narrator] Despite her nerves,
she narrowly scrapes through with a win.
[Sherry] When you're playing Street Fighter,
those decisions are happening in a split second,
so when you're making decisions based on,
"I don't want to lose," versus, "I'm going to win,"
you start playing scared,
you miss a lot of opportunities.
[narrator] Sherry's stress is starting to take over.
Her third match, within five minutes of gameplay,
she's defeated.
Her tournament comes to an end.
[narrator] After limited success in Chicago,
something has to change
if Sherry is to make it onto the stage at Evo.
[Sherry] These tournament days, they're about twelve-hour days,
and, you know, having endurance is really important.
So, doing the physical training
I hope helps give me some discipline.
[narrator] Almost 800 miles away,
Kassa is competing in the New York Norms
Grand Master and International Master Summer Invitational.
A tournament that attracts elite players from around the world.
[man 3] Welcome everyone to the 2022 New York Summer Invitational.
Just a reminder, if you have a cell phone, just leave it up here.
[narrator] Competitors in these tournaments
accrue points by winning or drawing.
The stronger the opponent,
the more points are available.
Kassa aims to beat a Grand Master,
to win maximum points.
This achievement is known as a Norm.
[Kassa] Grand Master is the highest title in chess,
and in order to achieve Grand Master
you have to have a rating of 2,500,
and three Grand Master norms.
You have to achieve those
at some point in your life...
[man 3] Are there any questions?
[Kassa] ...to become a Grand Master.
[narrator] Unfortunately, Kassa's first opponent, Justus,
is only at international master level.
[Kassa] Justus is someone
from New York that I have a history with,
and I'm the better player.
I've lost to him in a high-stakes game once before.
I surprised him pretty early on.
I, sort of, turned the positional screws.
He's looking at me, I'm looking at the board.
He's defending reasonably.
I know I'm still winning,
but he's slippery. [chuckles]
He makes a blunder that makes it clearly a winning position.
He doesn't resign.
My clock is ticking.
I haven't had a time advantage the whole game.
The game is continuing,
he's finding new resources, I'm not finishing.
And I don't see a path forward,
uh, that doesn't result in me losing.
We agree to the draw. It was, kind of like,
"Man, is this the way I'm gonna be the next two months?"
[Justus] Kassa knows when he's winning.
Like, he knows when he has the better position.
And then that's when he takes the, you know,
the foot off the gas.
And then that gives me the chance to come back in.
I have tactical weaknesses.
I need to work on those.
No offence, it's Kassa,
and he does blow a lot of winning positions against me,
so that was just--
that was a nasty game, to be honest.
And yeah, thank you for letting me survive that one, for sure.
[laughs]
[narrator] Kassa has only managed a draw against Justus,
he needs to start beating opponents
at Grand Master level soon,
if he wants to stay on track to achieving his goal.
Will the exercise be the key to unlock
the cognitive performance Kassa needs?
[Rich] I figured we'll do some exercises that
are a little bit more fun than just running.
[narrator] His personal trainer, Rich,
is planning to really push him
in today's session.
[Rich] So, he's gonna be doing some agility ladder
and some jump rope.
It's one of the quickest and easiest ways to get your heartrate up.
I hope Kassa's ready. It's gonna be a good one.
[narrator] Due to pandemic restrictions, and also catching Covid...
[Rich] Hey!
[narrator] ... Kassa has had to side-line exercise
- for almost two years. - [Rich] There we go.
[Kassa] Over the next several weeks, I'm gonna be very sedentary.
I'm gonna be sitting down playing chess,
four-hour, five-hour games.
[Rich] Alright, let's do it.
Yeah, perfect. Perfect.
[narrator] Since starting the study a few weeks ago,
Kassa is now exercising regularly with Rich.
The value of doing something active
and in-person sessions with Rich is really important.
Three, two, one. Relax.
And I can, kind of, ease into it, instead of cramming for the test.
- I'm out of breath. - Yeah. Well, it's also good.
- I'm compromised, I can tell. - Yeah.
'Cause I shouldn't be tired.
- Yeah. - It's gonna be a lot of that
- the next few weeks. - Exactly.
It's not a game.
[mellow music playing]
[narrator] It's 5:30 in the morning,
and Ben Pridmore finds himself in unfamiliar surroundings,
back at the track with Jeff.
[Jeff] We'll do just a bit of mobility.
Imagine you've got a big hula hoop.
[narrator] He will be combining training sessions
and his own exercise
from this point onwards.
It's all very new for a man
who's never exerted himself.
I don't really think there is a link
between how fit your body is physically and how fit your mind is.
Dropping the back knee down to the floor.
[Ben laughing]
[Ben] I have no idea how I'd do that.
It's an interesting challenge,
exercising my body, 'cause it's something I haven't done before.
[Jeff] Bring the other arm in.
[Ben] I saw something someone wrote about me on the Internet.
It was when I lost a memory competition to a monkey,
which is a whole different story,
but-- and he says,
"I went to school with this guy called Ben Pridmore.
He wasn't a great hit with the girls,
mainly because he had brains oozing out of every orifice".
I really like that description of me as a teenager.
[Jeff] That's it, that's it. You've got it.
[narrator] Ben will need to get
the right gear at the very least, if he's hoping to improve.
[salesman] So, basically, what we're doing is we're gonna do a gait analysis,
just so we can see if there is any movement
your knees, your ankles
- react when you're walking, - Yeah.
jogging, running.
- So, if I give you these... - [narrator] In just three months,
Ben will be competing against the world's best
at the Mind Sport Olympiad, in London.
[Ben] I don't even know how to tie shoelaces anymore.
Look, I wear slippers all the time.
[narrator] Hoping for a spot on the podium.
[salesman] So, have you ever been on a treadmill?
Feel comfortable on a treadmill?
[Ben] I've never been on a treadmill.
[salesman] So, do you wanna just clip that to the bottom of your t-shirt?
Then if it does go wrong,
it's just a dead switch, so it'll cut off straight away.
- Don't worry. - I'm sorry, we're talking about exercise
and you're throwing in the word "dead".
[salesman] So, just hold on while you get going,
'cause it does catch you off guard a little bit.
- Sorry. - No, you're alright.
[Ben] I don't feel terribly natural here.
[salesman] Yeah, no, if you've never been on one, they are extremely weird.
You just stay there, it'll only be a quick recording.
It'd better be. I'm liable to drop dead if I exercise too much.
I'm almost certain.
It was in 1997
that I first heard there was such a thing as memory competitions,
and it was all part of the Mind Sports Olympiad,
and I went along to the first one of those.
I went there mainly for what they call the World Intelligence Championships,
which was a, sort of, epic five-day competition
of doing lots of different IQ tests.
I have an IQ of 159,
and incidentally that's a really high number.
I usually have to spell that out to some people, obviously.
There was a big feature about
this new cool thing, the Mind Sports Olympiad.
It was thrilling to discover a new skill.
From that point on, to be perfectly honest,
I was hooked by memory competitions.
[salesman] Do you get any pains or anything, when you walk for long periods of time?
[Ben] No, I don't.
If you've not got any problems
or any pains or any niggles,
then I'd be happy to keep you in a neutral shoe.
- Cool. - ...how you walk in them.
Well, you're the expert. I'll go with that.
[narrator] Memory man Ben
is so well respected in the field of mind athletics
that there's even a system for memorising cards
named after him.
[Ben] So, the basic idea of what came to be known as the Ben System,
I have a picture in my head for each pair of cards.
So, I have 26 images
of people and objects that are created
by the order that this pack happens to be shuffled in,
and I make a story out of them.
So, for example, the first two cards here,
it's the king of spades and the seven of hearts.
The combination of suits give you a first syllable for the word.
Spades, hearts makes a "shh" sound.
The king, for the first card,
is an R sound, the second for the second is a "cuh",
so king of spades and seven of hearts is a shark.
And it goes on like that, with a fur coat,
a howler monkey, a rat, a key fob.
This system I thought up, I didn't give it a name,
but everybody started calling it the "Ben System".
And I said, "That's a stupid thing to call it.
It makes me sound horribly big-headed.
Please don't call it that."
And then they stopped calling it that.
So, I found that I missed it,
so I said, "Yeah, well, alright,
you can go ahead and call it the Ben System if you really want to."
So, it's been the Ben System ever since,
and though I pretend I don't like it, I do think it's really quite cool.
Great Heap from Fraggle Rock being prodded by a Maori,
watched by Graham Gooch, and given a coin to
King Hiss from He Man.
Talking to one interesting person about his images,
he said, "Yeah, there's got to be lots of blood,
lots of gore, so I can remember it properly."
Other people talk about having a lot of sex in there.
For me, it's cartoons more than anything else.
Cartoon violence at the worst,
but whatever turns you on, I suppose. Whatever you like.
I have to say, there's nothing too 18 certificate
goes on in my mind, funnily enough.
If I put these together, it's lager, obviously,
'cause it makes a "larg" sound, and the first thing I think of is
a pint of lager.
Thanks very much.
Yeah, I'm having good old-fashioned fish,
chips, and mushy peas in a pub.
Nice traditional British food.
Now, the Ben Pridmore theory of dietary rightness,
eat junk food as much as possible.
This is perhaps a bit more refined,
a bit more good for you
than the kind of stuff I normally like to eat.
I've always said to people,
"Live at McDonald's, Burger King, KFC
during memory competitions."
You eat food that makes you feel happy,
it gets your mind working right.
My dad was all about big foods.
He had massive helpings of everything.
Old-fashioned stodgy meals
on a daily basis.
And he died of a heart attack when he was 59, so, you know,
we're not gonna, sort of, go there, I don't think, but...
I've got a lot of respect for my dad.
He was a primary school teacher for most of his life.
I mean, he was the popular figure.
Everywhere we went, everybody knew him.
I mean, we're basically a single family.
My mum was a sort of around,
but they split up when I was nine years old
or so would've from my dad for the most part,
sort of in an isolated village in the middle of nowhere.
I still hear nowadays from people he taught at school saying,
"Yeah, your dad was the best teacher ever."
I absolutely loved him.
I mean, he took care of me and my brother
and we were pretty awful teenagers.
So that's a pretty tough job
single-handedly dealing with it.
And I think he did it admirably.
When I won my trophy at
World Memory Championship,
I came third in 2003, wanted me to get
a professional photo of me done with it.
I took photographers in Boston. I've still got it now.
So he could put some at his mantle place.
I can't think what he would say if he knew I was exercising,
'cause he wasn't the athletic type.
He couldn't run, or do anything physical and he never wanted to,
just sort of laugh and... his eyes or something
and say, "You're always doing something strange." But...
[narrator] Ryoei is finally returning home,
having been apart from his family
for two and a half years.
[popping sounds]
[giggles]
[laughing]
[narrator] Ryoei is referring to the World Riichi Mahjong Championship,
taking place in Vienna in three months' time.
[indistinct conversations]
[narrator] He now has to juggle exercise
alongside his family and work commitments.
This is Ryoei's first personal training session
since arriving back in Tokyo.
- [laughs] - [groans]
[panting]
[narrator] Since missing out on the main stage in Chicago,
Sherry has been focussing on her new exercise programme.
She's preparing for this year's most challenging tournament.
[Sherry] Evo is the biggest fighting game tournament to ever exist.
That is a tournament where if you win it,
you can literally call yourself the best in the world,
because everyone in the world comes and plays at Evo.
All of Europe, Japan to Korea,
Australia even, China.
All these incredible players come out,
just for Street Fighter.
It's a huge tournament,
and I think my best placing at Evo so far was top, like, 256.
Oh, my lord.
[Pam] You got it.
[narrator] Hoping it sharpens her mind in time for the Evo tournament,
Sherry is following a physical exercise programme
created by her trainer, Pam.
Because she was marginally fitter to begin with,
Pam is able to push Sherry further,
in the hope that it will improve her gaming.
[Pam] Good, and then squeeze the glutes. Nice.
Sherry's doing great. She's easy to coach,
she doesn't give me a hard time, she doesn't complain.
She does the work.
...vertical. Yeah, come up.
Four. You got this.
Three, four.
One more. Swing those arms.
- Done. - [chuckles]
- Nice work! - Thank you.
You brought structure into my life,
and I feel like that wasn't a thing before.
But you, kind of give me the confidence in myself.
That helps me, because
all those moments always happen when I'm competing.
In order to get through that, there has to be
the confidence to trust myself and say,
"You know you can do it. Like, this is it."
[narrator] Memory man, Ben, is embracing movement like never before,
as the Mind Sport Olympiad approaches.
[Ben] It started out with ten-minute walks.
It's gone up to 15, and now it's moving up to 20.
We'll be branching out a bit further into 25, 30.
I'm feeling actually really enthusiastic about the whole thing,
enjoying the training, the workouts.
You know, the skin-tight clothes,
it's not exactly my thing,
but they're growing to become a part of me.
Hopefully, not in a scary science fiction kind of way.
I don't think my body feels different at all.
I think I've been working out my muscles a bit.
I've been doing push-ups and things,
stretching exercises,
bending my body in ways it doesn't normally bend.
I can't say I've noticed any difference mentally speaking.
I think the whole physical thing is still very separate
from the whole brain development.
Maybe it's got me a generally more positive attitude,
and that could contribute to better performances
in mind sports, at least theoretically.
I like the app I've got, which tells me every five minutes how far I've gone,
what my time for a mile is, all that kind of thing.
It's exciting. I try to improve my time as I go along.
I'm a nerd, let's face it, and I'm an accountant,
and I like Excel spreadsheets.
I like little charts that you can generate,
I like to see a load of numbers, and this is wonderful.
It gives you a lot of different charts showing how far I've walked,
what my records were.
The data keeps me going, you know.
I'm not really so motivated by getting fit.
[chuckles]
Any benefits I might have accrued from it is incidental
to having good numbers on the charts in front of me.
[narrator] After his two-and-a-half years away,
Ryoei is reconnecting with his children.
He's teaching them how to play Mahjong.
Something he did when he was very young.
and... yeah.
[narrator] With the prospect of Vienna looming,
Ryoei will need stiffer competition to practice against than his children,
so he's also returning to play against professional players.
[narrator] Today, he's in Central Tokyo, for some serious practice.
[laughs]
[narrator] Mahjong is a mental battle of wills,
psychologically challenging,
with an intensity likened to poker.
[narrator] It's a four-player game originating from China,
and brought to Japan in the 1920s,
where it was adapted and named Riichi Mahjong.
A Mahjong game can last up to six hours.
Ryoei is hoping that the more exercise he does,
the more it will improve his focus and concentration,
giving him a better chance of winning in Vienna.
[upbeat music playing]
[Rich] There it is. Oh! Oh! Oh!
[narrator] With the tournaments fast approaching...
[Rich] You got it. One more.
[narrator] ...the gamers are all making physical progress...
[Pam] Okay, now keep your chest up.
[narrator] ...getting fitter and stronger as time passes.
[Pam] Yeah!
[narrator] The question is, how much will these improvements
help them when it comes to their competitive goals?
It's three months into Kassa's participation in the study
and it's the next tournament in his busy summer program.
Kassa has turned over a new leaf,
and he's maximizing exercise
to help him beat a Grand Master, for ultimate points.
[Kassa] I'm a city slicker, so being up here, you know,
beautiful scenery and nature is just incredible.
Running, exercising, it actually felt a little bit easier,
even though maybe theoretically it should feel harder,
'cause it's, like, very different to what I'm used to.
Everywhere you look there's, like, an element of fascination, so it's like,
"Oh, let's run toward this," or, "What am I looking at here?"
It was just so beautiful.
It's just very therapeutic, exercising up in the Swiss mountains.
That is incredible.
- What up, Rich? [laughs] - [Rich] Yo!
[Rich, over phone] How you doing?
Man, I got my sprints in, I'm working the cardio, feeling pretty good.
Definitely, like, higher altitude,
you feel it a little bit, but all in all, feeling pretty good.
Endurance is key, man.
It's definitely more hard to push it towards the end, right?
Yeah. You know, what we're working on, stamina and endurance basically,
really does contribute to whether I can outlast these games.
But I'm paired up against a Grand Master
and he's, like, a top-50 player in the world,
so it's gonna be a pretty exciting match-up.
And that's why the work is important.
And I hope you win, though. Take that Grand Master.
Well, I appreciate it, but I just gotta show you the view. It's crazy. Like...
Oh, man. That is beautiful, my man. I'm jealous. I wish I was there.
[Arturs] Welcome everybody from Biel,
the 55th International Chess Festival
has reached another day
in this beautiful, very sunny Biel Bienne city of Switzerland.
Today, I see there is one interesting game which caught my eye.
So, Kassa Korley is an international master.
We might see an upset in the making.
[narrator] Kassa is revved up and ready to take on this Grand Master.
[Arturs] He's playing against one of the strongest players in the tournament,
Armenian Grand Master Haik Martirosyan,
widely regarded for his rapid speed skills.
[Kassa] To play Haik Martirosyan doesn't happen every day.
I mean, he's 200-plus points higher rated than me,
and for me mentally, I spent five hours the night before analysing,
but I basically knew I was playing this monster and I was like,
"I'm gonna go even deeper."
Like, I think about winning before the game has actually started.
Uh-oh. He's coming forward. He starts to get aggressive.
This dude is starting to shove his pawns and trying to, like, get at me,
and I'm like, "Is he gonna over extend?"
Like, counterattacking is my thing.
Like, that's what I'm best at.
I'm like, "I'm gonna do this."
I make my move. I surprise him. It's kind of a Korley special.
[Arturs] Very original idea by Kassa Korley.
He's played pretty impressive chess so far.
So, here you already see that something is slightly wrong
with Armenian, Haik Martirosyan's position.
And slowly, Kassa Korley continues to improve his pieces.
So, I guess the only chance that what he has
is go for a successful king-side attack.
On the verge to score and upset.
Could be a good upset and big result for Kassa.
[Kassa] You know something? I start to feel very good about my position.
I'm like, "I wanna finish him off, give him no chances.
I'm just gonna calculate my way to the finish."
[Arturs] So, it looks like Kassa has the upper hand right now.
The strong players are very resilient. They don't give up easily,
and that's why they are among the best players in the world.
Martirosyan, he is gonna know at the right moment
how to create a lot of tricks, create a lot of problems, make pressure.
[Kassa] Someone sometimes will play purposely in a more questionable manner,
if they know that you can't handle it.
They're getting up after they move. That's allowed.
But what I find is every time they get back to the board
after walking around, my move is worse.
I'm giving him a chance he did not deserve,
and I sit there and I'm like, "Oh, man, not again."
[narrator] True to form, Kassa has made a late error.
But in this situation, he's managed not to lose.
[Kassa] The best analogy I could give is
I let in a goal in, like, the 87th minute,
and it was a 1-1 draw against a really strong player
who outrated me by, like, 250 points.
You get chances against players that strong,
you really wanna seal the deal. So, it hurts right now.
[narrator] Kassa is collecting points,
but without a victory against a Grand Master,
progress is too slow.
And it's like... I gotta finish. I gotta finish.
[narrator] With just a month until his final tournament in Copenhagen,
it's the last turn of the wheel to see
if the exercise can help him to beat the best.
Almost 6,000 miles away, in LA,
and Sherry's just two weeks from the Evo tournament in Las Vegas.
Exercise makes me feel weirdly,
like, rejuvenated, refreshed.
And it's funny, because you'd think it's the opposite,
because you just exercised, you'd normally be tired.
But I feel like when I do it, especially in the morning,
I'm way more awake for the rest of my day.
- Hi, Sherry. - Hello.
- How are you doing? - Good. How are you?
Good.
- Awesome. - Yeah, ready for this, yes.
Ready for some sprints?
- Yes. - Yeah.
So, all out, everything you've got.
Three, two, one, go.
[Sherry] I usually find it difficult rolling out of bed,
like, getting up at a reasonable time
and getting my day started with work
and everything that I have to do.
[Pam] Yeah, Sherry! Go, go, go!
But when I have to wake up and I'm like, "Okay, at 8:00 a.m., I need to run,"
or, "8:00 a.m., I need to meet Pam and do my strength training,"
I'm, like, on it. I wake up at 7:30, get ready, I go, finish training
in an hour, running in an hour, and then, like, I just start my day,
with or without a coffee.
Three, two, one, and rest.
[narrator] Pam is pushing Sherry's body harder and harder,
to hopefully maximize the positive effects on her mind.
Sherry, that was perfect. Take a break.
All right, so maybe not as slow as I thought I was gonna be.
[Jeff] We'll start with the Cooper test.
Twelve minutes. Again, as far as you can.
[narrator] With the prospect of competing at the Mind Sport Olympiad in two weeks...
First assessment you covered just over two laps of here,
which was about 805 meters.
[narrator] ...Ben is hoping that his dedication to exercise
is giving him the edge he needs to get on the podium.
I have no doubt you're gonna cover more than that now. Are you ready?
As ready as I'll ever be.
[automated voice on app] Activity started.
Let's go.
[upbeat music plating]
[Jeff] His commitment to the program has been absolutely spot on.
He's not missed a single workout.
Remember the points that we spoke about. Arms driving backwards.
Nice tall posture.
Shoulders nice and relaxed.
[Ben panting]
Each week, he's coming on leaps and bounds, literally,
in terms of his confidence levels
and the distances and the paces that he's managing to achieve.
Eight minutes, that's two-thirds.
Obviously you're not really gonna be able
to hit PBs on every single activity that you do.
Ben may be proving that wrong now and again,
by hitting so many. But, yeah, it's been absolutely amazing
watching his progress over the last few weeks.
Great work. Keep the pace going.
Jeff's been awesome all the way through.
He's been giving me guidance on, you know, teaching me how to walk.
Sounds strange, but it's actually helped quite a lot
to make me walk more comfortably and fitter.
[Jeff] Last two minutes coming up. Dig in for that final push.
I probably couldn't have done it without him.
It's like having someone there to cheer you on and drive you a bit faster.
And stop there. Well done.
Second part of the assessment now, the maximum push-ups.
Um, the first time round, you did five.
That's it, good effort, keep pushing 'em.
One more, one more. Go on, you can do it. One more. Push.
And another?
[groans] No.
- Well done. Great work. - [laughs]
[Ben] That was 20 by my count. [sighs]
[giggles]
[narrator] It's just weeks away
from Ryoei's big Riichi Mahjong showdown in Vienna.
In an attempt to balance all his responsibilities,
Ryoei's started combining parenting with exercising.
[techno music playing]
[narrator] It's the biggest day in the memory athletics calendar.
the International Mind Sport Olympiad.
If you're a games player, this is the Mecca of games, really.
What's cool about the Mind Sports Olympiad is everyone's welcome.
Lots of different types of people. It's also a very neuro-diverse community.
[narrator] After an 18-year absence from this tournament,
Ben is returning to compete in the speed memory competition
to see if he can get back on the podium.
[Ben] It's fantastic to be back, and this has always been a very high point
of the Ben Pridmore social calendar, yeah.
It's great to catch up with everyone.
- Nick, you looking for me? - Yes, no, it's fine.
Good.
It does get me giddy and excited. I love it.
[narrator] Ben is something of a legend in this environment.
- Hey, great to see you both. - You're the star.
[laughs] I'm the big celebrity star, I know.
Ninety percent of the people say that he's one of the best ones
at the very beginning of the sport and that he's a legend.
But, you know, for the purpose of the TV camera, I'm a fellow competitor.
And we're all very excited about it.
- I'm just happy to be here. - Cool.
People do approach me with a kind of reverence at these competitions.
Everyone knows Nick the Greek, yeah.
And we've got Claus. Not Greek, probably German.
[chatters]
People have this great respect for me, just because
of what I achieved many, many, many years ago.
I think my legacy still remains intact despite all that.
I'm, like, usually stressed out about it.
We're all very excited about it. So, cool.
[Etan] Ben is certainly a real nerd,
there's no doubt about that, a real geek.
Let me find Etan.
[Etan] You know, he's what we love about geeks.
Here's someone who has just an absolute love of learning.
Welcome back. It's been too long.
Fantastic. It has been much too long.
I love the shirt.
This is the officially designed by a fellow competitor
Him winning the World Championship, I believe three times...
...also shows that you don't have to be ruthless to be a champion.
If you were a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, which one would you be?
Donatello was the coolest, everyone knows that. He's the clever one.
- [laughs] - Donatello. I like it.
I have a very limited idea of who's competing
in this competition, unfortunately.
Have you got a list of competitors for the memory competition?
We've got--
'Cause one of them told me his name, it was just sort of, string of noises,
and I've got no idea how to say it.
I know we have Suzanna from Germany. She's really quite good.
She's going to be quite a challenge to me.
Quite possibly going to be dangerous.
Suzanna, how have you been doing? All prepared, ready?
I think you might be a favourite for today.
I'm not sure.
Suzanna is strong. Strong card, absolutely.
Shall we move on up to the competition room, people?
Here we go.
[narrator] The speed memory card competition.
Everyone looks forward to it.
It's just memorizing a single pack of cards as quickly as you can.
Pick it up, whizz through, put it down... what's your time?
[narrator] Competitors must memorize a set of playing cards
prepared by the judges, all in the fastest time possible.
[Nick] It's the clash of Titans.
Everybody's huge brains are going together
and they're clashing. And it's spectacular, you know?
[Ben] Just so we're clear, what's going to happen?
You're going to say one minute mental preparation time,
and then you're going to say, "Ready, steady, go,"
and then we will start memorizing?
[narrator] Now's the chance for Ben to return to his former glory
and focus on a place on the podium.
[Ben] Hoping to do a decent score.
I might just get the fastest time out of all the competitors here.
[narrator] Along with the chance to see if his commitment to exercise
has had any impact on his memory skills.
[man] If there is any competitor that I will fear in my life,
that will ruin my career, that's Ben!
[chuckles] The guy's genius.
Ready, steady...
Go.
[intense music playing]
[narrator] Over the course of two rounds, Ben will compete
against the others to memorize packs in as little time as possible.
They must then replicate this order
by recreating it in a second pack of cards,
all from memory.
[sighs]
The competitors will now be adjudicated,
to reveal if the two packs match.
[applause]
- Excellent. - Thank you.
[applause]
[Ben] Very super slowly and carefully.
If I still made a mistake, I'll kill myself. [chuckles]
Second round is always the charm, you know?
[narrator] After a day of memorizing...
Very nice.
[narrator] ...the cards are put away,
and the judges are ready to reveal the results.
[Etan] A very tight competition. We've got Ben Pridmore in bronze.
[narrator] He may not have competed for years,
but the comeback kid has achieved his goal,
and has claimed a place on the podium.
- Congratulations, Ben. - Thank you very much.
Good to see you back on the podium.
[Ben] After a world championship, which goes on for three days,
I always found I have to spend the whole of the next day in bed.
Maybe because I was in worse condition before I did all of this training.
I think that's what I've mainly gleaned from it,
with my stamina and with my general frame of mind.
I don't feel particularly shattered at the end of this long day's competition,
I'm buzzing to try to do better at it.
It's great to be competing again,
and I know it's something I can build on in the future.
[indistinct chattering]
[royal music playing]
[narrator] It's registration day for the World Riichi Championship,
in Vienna, and the mahjong royalty are arriving.
The mood is one of excitement.
But something is not right.
Ryoei is nowhere to be seen.
Despite training for four months for this moment,
Ryoei has been unable to participate after testing positive for Covid.
[narrator] Sherry is travelling four hours
across the Mojave Desert, to Las Vegas,
to compete in Evo,
the biggest name in fighting game tournaments worldwide,
with her goal of making it onto the stage.
[Sherry] Uh, Evo's important
because it's the biggest Street Fighter tournament of the year,
but, uh, but this is the one and only chance
I get to consolidate all my experience into one big tournament,
so this is it.
[narrator] Her four-month physical program has been leading up to this very moment.
[Sherry] I have so much riding on the line, I think there's this added pressure.
You start panicking a bit more, and the nervousness sets in a bit more.
Be like, "What are you so scared about?"
There's not much else to think about, I just have to do it.
[narrator] Evo attracts 18,000 people,
with over 5,000 competing over the three-day event.
- You good? - [Sherry] Good.
You played yet?
I'm about to play.
[narrator] For her first set of matches at this year's tournament,
Sherry must beat two opponents in her pool.
[Sherry] I have to beat two people, and that's when the real games start.
[man] All right, let's go, Sherry!
[narrator] It's her first game.
Sherry's character is on the right.
[cheering]
Oh, no. Come on, come on.
- [Sherry] I won. - Good job.
[narrator] She has the advantage...
and gets her first win under her belt.
[Sherry] I think the next person I play is pretty decent.
[narrator] Match two. Sherry is playing right of screen.
Yeah!
[cheering]
[man] Knockdown! Good one.
[intense music playing]
[man] Oh, man! That's been damaged.
That's crazy! That's called conditioning!
[narrator] She dominates.
[cheering and screaming]
It's another big victory.
After winning two games, Sherry has earned her place on the stage.
Now she has to play her strongest competitor, Nigel E.X.,
whose track record is phenomenal.
[narrator] And they've got history.
[Nigel E.X] I knew Sherry for a long time.
I'm a nice person, just, you get on the sticks, done.
[man] Let's go, Sherry.
[Sherry] He is an incredible player.
I think I do have a good chance against him though.
Oh, God. All right, let's do this.
- [intense music playing] - [console clicking]
[man] Relax!
Let's go! Relax!
You're good. Just relax!
Relax!
[narrator] Sherry is knocked out by Nigel E.X.
But she has achieved her goal of competing on the big stage.
With it, her ranking has jumped from 257th to 129th
out of 5,000.
And she's one of the highest placed women on the scoreboard.
All that's left is to hang up the controller and enjoy the attention.
[Sherry] People don't really think there's a correlation between physical training
and how you perform, but with the personal training,
I got stronger, which allows me to play way more
than I used to without fatigue.
You're still able to keep yourself calm more,
and you just make better decisions.
And, like, my heart doesn't beat as fast, I'm more concentrated,
I'm able to focus.
It's given me a lot of discipline,
and I just perform much better, so it's been great.
[narrator] Kassa has arrived in Copenhagen for the Obro International.
His first opponent is a celebrated Grand Master.
Will this be the victory he's been working towards?
[Soren] Today, Kassa is playing my big favourite to win this tournament,
a very strong Grand Master from Moldova.
[Kassa] Vladimir Hamitevici. A really talented player, um,
and a Grand Master that's higher rated than me.
But there's still rating to be gotten,
and so, it's time to show some resilience.
Um, and it's a question of whether I finish the game or not.
[Soren] So, things come to him very easily.
It's as if he can feel as he put the pieces
instead of having to calculate it.
He's a true talent, I would say.
[Kassa] He crushed the field last year,
and frankly, I actually didn't get to play him last year.
He did so well-- you know, it's funny,
when someone does really well in a tournament sometimes,
the mindset for me is like, "Well, he didn't play me."
So, you know, I mean, if he played me,
it might've been different, you know.
[Soren] Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to Obro International 2022.
[Kassa] I'm in position to play on black.
Please start the white. Clocks.
[Kassa] Um, I hit the clock.
[narrator] Having started the game,
there's an important piece missing...
his opponent, the Grand Master.
[Kassa] And there is a lot jumbling in my head.
But he's not there, there's no moves in play yet.
[Soren] Vladimir is a different chess player, a little out of the ordinary.
[Kassa] Then he hustles and bustles in about, you know, ten minutes in...
makes his first move, and the game starts.
That ten minutes I got from him showing up to the board late,
my God, that evaporated quickly.
He's just got here and he already gets back his time,
like, faster than you could say time.
[Soren] The game has progressed now
and Vladimir's played an opening that's dangerous.
But I think Kassa is defending well.
[Kassa] And he starts to play it in a way
where he's trying to aggressively attack me.
And I'm like, not only am...
you know, I haven't looked at this,
but he's also trying to go for my throat.
So, I'm not even close to analysing this thing.
Not a good situation.
I'm thinking, "All right, like, this-- just don't lose, just survive."
[man] Looks very scary, but I've had positions
much worse and still survived. You still have to put it away.
[Kassa] And at some point I realized,
his attack is not crashing through.
He's throwing the kitchen sink at my king side,
but my king is unscathed.
I find a very well-timed pawn sacrifice,
just to divert his attention for a moment.
[man] King F-1 does not look healthy.
[Soren] No, Vladimir's king is out in the open cold weather, and it has no clothes on.
Now it's clear that I'm winning.
And I'm turning up the pressure, I'm turning up the screws.
He makes a blunder, I capitalize on it.
He starts to shake his head a little bit, like,
"Yeah, you're going down, dude. Like, you're going down."
[Soren] Vladimir is very much on the ropes.
I would be seriously considering resigning,
and I'm sure Kassa is forcing a win now.
[narrator] After four and a half hours of intense chess...
[Soren] Nine, ten, out.
[narrator] ...Kassa squarely beats Vladimir.
A high ranking Grand Master.
Sweet victory,
but as ever with chess, the emotion is kept for outside.
It feels good. It feels real good.
[narrator] Kassa has finally achieved his goal of beating a Grand Master.
It feels really good to get a win,
especially against a good player, a Grand Master.
And I was able to, kind of, turn the tables and not let go,
and so, yeah, I mean, it feels really good.
I can't tell you, like, I'm out of the doghouse, baby. Let's go.
So, I feel good. Um...
So, I'm definitely back on track.
[Kassa] This project, it turned on a new light,
a new engine I hadn't really exposed before.
That definitely gave me a renewed sense of purpose going into my chess.
As far as my cognitive capabilities are concerned,
getting that extra 30% can make a difference.
[narrator] For Kassa, Sherry, and Ben,
exercise has clearly had a big impact on their performance.
But what does the data tell us?
As part of the experiment, Professor Brendon Stubbs
tested the cognitive function of all mind gamers
before and after 16 weeks of exercise.
The results are staggering.
Cognitive function significantly increased
for each one of our mind gamers,
sharpening their brain power,
as well as boosting their overall mental well-being.
Kassa's problem solving skills increased by 50%.
Ben's short-term memory improved by 40%,
and he reported an increase in concentration of 75%.
Ryoei's problem-solving abilities improved by 30%,...
while his confidence levels soared by 50%.
Sherry's test results showed an increase of 20% in her short-term memory,
and she recorded a 50% reduction in her anxiety levels.
But let's not forget that many others across the world
also took part in the experiment.
[Brendon] When 77 top mind gamers
from 21 countries around the world started exercising,
overall cognitive function was improved by 10%.
That's a 9% increase in problem solving,
a 12% increase in short-term memory,
with concentration improving by a third.
We can now definitely say that a healthy body equals a healthy mind.
[narrator] So, if exercise can sharpen even the brightest minds,
imagine what it could do for the rest of us.