The Card Sorting World Record

Sorting playing cards is an excellent exercise for improving the speed of information processing. This category has been "invented" for the First Open Championships held by the German Association for Mind Training.

The Rules

1. A deck of 52 playing cards (as used for playing bridge) has to be sorted as fast as possible. At the end of the attempt, the sorted deck of cards should be on the table with the backside up.
2. The order within a colour is Ace - King - Queen - Knave- 10 -9 - 8 - 7- 6- 5- 4- 3- 2. The very first card in the sorted deck is the Ace of Clubs, the next ones are the King of Clubs, the Queen of Clubs, the Jack of Clubs, the 10 of Clubs ... down to the 2 of Clubs. The next card is Ace of Spades, followed by the King of Spades etc. The hearts and diamonds cards follow in the same order.
3. The deck of cards must be well-shuffled immediately prior to the challenge.
4. The timing begins when the deck is touched by the competitor.
5. It is up to the challenger how to sort: using one hand, both hands etc. A large table should be used.
6. After the sorting process, the deck of cards has to be turned with the backside up. The time stops when this is done, and no changes are permitted later.
7. Every card must be in the correct position. If there is one error, the attempt is nullified.

The Records

55 sec: Stephan Gruber (Germany) at the First Open German Association for Mind Training Championships 1998
53.2 sec: Ralf Laue (Germany) 1999 in Uelzen
50.7 sec: Stephan Gruber (Germany) in Erlangen
47.0 sec: Stephan Gruber (Germany) at the Record Festival Flensburg 2000
46.2 sec: Stephan Gruber (Germany) 2000 in Schwerin
45.4 sec: Stephan Gruber (Germany) 2002 in Munich
40.3 sec: Kunihiko Terada (Japan) 2004 in Tokyo
39.3 sec: Zheng Taishun (China) 2006 in Fuzhou
39,3 sec: Zheng Taishun (China) 2006 in Fuzhou
36.1 sec: Zdeněk Bradáč (Czech Republic) 2008 in Sheffield