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Concentration

Pairs of cards lie face down. Flip two at a time, remember what you saw, and clear the board within what a perfect memory would need.

  • Memory
  • Untimed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

Each card face down shows only its place, like B3. Flip one, then another: if they match they are taken away; if not, both stay face up until your next flip and then turn back over.

Par is 4p − 2 flips for p pairs: a player who forgets nothing never needs more. Every level adds a pair, without end.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises holding places and symbols in mind across a game. It is practice at Concentration, not a measured gain in memory elsewhere.

Learn

How to get better at concentration: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. If you already know where both cards of a pair are, take it now: flip one, then the other. A known pair costs two flips and never gets cheaper by waiting.
  2. Otherwise flip a card you have never seen. If you have seen its twin, flip the twin and take the pair.
  3. If you have not seen its twin, flip another card you have never seen — never one you have already seen, which tells you nothing new.
  4. After a miss, both cards stay face up until your next flip. Say what and where for each — “star B3, moon A1” — before you flip again.

Techniques and tricks

  • Turn new cards in reading order

    Take unseen cards in order — A1, B1, C1, then the next row. Then you never have to remember which cards you have seen: everything after the last one you turned is new.

  • Say symbol and place together

    Every card you see, name it with its place, as the game does: “star at B3”. The spoken pair is what you will look up when its twin appears.

  • Give each row a place

    On bigger boards, use the method of loci: row 1 is your front door, row 2 the kitchen, row 3 the garden. Put each card you see into its room — a star on the front door — and walk the rooms when you need a twin.

  • Catch the chance match

    Sometimes your second new card is the twin of a card you saw earlier, not of the first one. That is a known pair: take it at the start of your next attempt.

    e.g. You saw a moon at A1. Now you flip a star at C2, then a moon at D2 — no match. Next attempt: A1, D2, and the moons are gone.

  • Know what par allows

    Par is 4p − 2 flips for p pairs: p attempts that take a pair, and at most p − 1 misses that each show two new cards. Every flip of a seen card that takes nothing is a flip par did not budget for.

    e.g. 6 pairs: par is 4 × 6 − 2 = 22 flips.

As the levels climb

  • Every level adds one pair and nothing else, without end: 3 pairs (6 cards) at first, then 4, 5, 6. Par rises by 4 flips each level.
  • The board stays near square — 3 across and 2 down for 6 cards, 4 by 3 for 12, 5 by 4 for 20 — so each row holds more cards as you climb. Past about a dozen cards, give rows their own places.
  • In the late game most cards left are ones you have seen, and one slip of memory costs a whole attempt. Keep a running count of pairs left; with two cards left they are each other’s twin.
  • Past 24 pairs the shapes run out and a card shows two shapes together, like ★★ or ★●. Read both, in order; a card with one shape in common is not a twin.

Traps to avoid

  • Flipping a seen card second “to check”: if it was not the twin, you spent a flip and learnt nothing. Flip a new card instead; it at least shows you something.
  • Losing the cards of a miss: they turn back over at your next flip. Fix both, symbol and place, before you move — that is where the next pairs come from.
  • Missing the chance match: your second new card matches one you saw three turns ago, and you go on flipping new cards. Before each new card, ask whether you already know a pair.
  • Going over par is marked wrong but still scores par ÷ flips: clearing 6 pairs in 26 flips scores 22 ÷ 26, about 85%. Every wasted attempt adds two flips to the bottom of that fraction.

How to practise

  • There is no clock in this game. After every miss, pause and say both cards’ places before you flip again; the pause is free.
  • Try both settings of “Cards show”: “Numbers” are quick to say, “Shapes” easy to picture. Play the one you find harder more often.
  • After each board, read the working: it gives par and how many flips the perfect-memory line took on this very board, in reading order, which is often fewer than par. Aim for that number.

Levels

It is untimed unless you turn the clock on. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

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