On June 5, 1982, the first world championship in speed solving the Rubik's cube took place. This event took place in Budapest, in the hometown of the inventor of this puzzle that has become so popular.

Poster of the first World Speedcubing Championship .

Nineteen of the fastest participants from 16 to 26 years old from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, USA, Germany gathered in the Vigado Concert Hall , Yugoslavia. To qualify for this championship they had to win their national championships.

Rubik's cubes were provided for the championship, which were of low quality and were not intended for use. And if a situation occurred that the Rubik’s cube broke, fell apart, or crashed during assembly, then such a participant was given another chance. In addition, some participants were accustomed to a different color arrangement. Not white versus yellow, red versus orange, and green versus blue, but something else: white versus blue, red versus orange, and green versus yellow. Because of these important moments, not all participants were able to show their best.

Before the start of the competition, each puzzle was randomly shuffled using a computer program and all Rubik's cubes were delivered to the stage in a closed suitcase. Before starting the assembly, each participant was given a fifteen-second opportunity to examine the cube, after which the 3x3x3 puzzle was returned to the starting area. This platform had a light-sensitive diode - when the participant picked up the puzzle, the countdown began and the countdown stopped when the Rubik's cube was placed back on this platform.

Winners of the first World Speedcubing Championship.

The winners were determined from those who showed best time out of three attempts. They were: Mihn Thai from the USA took first place - 22.95 seconds, second place was won by Razoux Shultz from the Netherlands with 24.32 seconds and Zoltan Labas from Hungary with a score of 24.49 was in third place. Of course, this is significantly different from the records of modern speedcubers, but at that time and taking into account the technical capabilities of those Rubik's cubes, these were the best results.

Sharing is caring!

For the first time in the history of our school, we held the first unofficial competition in speed solving a Rubik's cube! The participants were not only from our school, but also from schools in the city of Sarapul and the city of Izhevsk.

I also saw these competitions for the first time. I was interested in everything. I interviewed some of the participants. Many of them started collecting cubes very recently: just a month or two, and some have been collecting them for about two years. We learned to play from our acquaintances, friends, classmates. Not only boys, but also girls collect cubes.


All students in the competition were divided into two categories: junior and senior. There are special timers for participants, which they press with their palms when they solve their cube. There are guys sitting behind the screen who deliberately confuse all the colors on the cubes. The entire competition is divided into three parts. First, we started solving a 3x3 Rubik's cube. Yakov Korotkov from class 6B took first place. Then there was a 2x2 cube competition. Yakov Korotkov also took first place. After that, they competed in assembling the pyramid. Yakov Korotkov took first place. Yakov Korotkov took second place in solving the 4x4 cube.
In general, almost all the first places were taken by Yakov Korotkov, and the rest also left satisfied. Solving Rubik's cubes is a sport. The athletes are called speedcubers. I advise you to start solving a Rubik's cube, it's very interesting!

Maxim Popugaev, 5th grade,

Sigaevskaya school, Sarapul district

Logic, agility and lightning speed! The All-Russian championship in speedcubing, the art of solving puzzles, took place in Moscow. Every year there are more and more participants, and they need less and less time to complete the task. The most popular toy in the world, the Rubik's cube, can be solved even by preschoolers in less than a minute.

Plays without looking. Roman Strakhov is a six-time world record holder, the king of the 5x5 blindfold Rubik's cube. Classic 3x3 assembled with eyes closed in 20 seconds. And this is not magic at all - sleight of hand and memory.

“There are special memorization techniques that are based on associations. Each sticker corresponds to a letter of the Russian alphabet. I remember a set of letters, translate them into words, and make up some kind of story from these words. And then, when I remember, I translate these words back into algorithms,” says Roman.

Algorithms and formulas - all this is a little-known, but very spectacular sport - speedcubing. When you need to solve a Rubik's puzzle or other puzzle at speed. The number of participants is growing from year to year, and the decision time is decreasing. The cube is solved blindfolded, with one hand, or without any hands at all.

A classic and the basis of other puzzles is the 3x3 Rubik's cube. It has 43 quintillion, that is, 43 billion billion possible states from which it must escape. And the current world record is less than five seconds.

The youngest participant, Nadya Kidakova, is only 6 years old. I've been doing it for six months, and the results are already incredible.

“For 3x3 I have a record of 42 seconds,” says the girl

Here everyone has their own achievements and favorite equipment: a large cube, a Moldavian pyramid, a megaminx and other exotic types and shapes.

“This puzzle is called the mill.” It takes me about one to three minutes to assemble it. It is assembled like a regular 3x3 cube. The cube is solved,” says the competitor.

Maxim Chechnev teaches children Rubik's skills. I am convinced that no phenomenal abilities are required, only the ability to distinguish colors and a little patience.

“Within three days you can easily master this puzzle. And assemble it in about 1.5 minutes,” he says.

The puzzle is not only the most famous, but also, according to speedcubers, very useful! A trainer that is convenient to take with you.

“In addition to the banal qualities that are called motor skills, spatial thinking... This also developed discipline and systematic thinking for me. And I began to read more and even began to write poetry,” says Viktor Stepanovich.

The main advantage of this lesson is accessibility. And the main thing is not to despair if you don’t succeed on the first try.

From the very beginning of working with the brand, Games Laboratory has been developing and supporting the community of puzzle lovers and, of course, the Rubik's cube! We consider one of our merits to be establishing the tradition of holding Rubik’s Cube competitions in Russia at the regional and national levels. We completely organized the first official WCA competitions in Russia in 2009-2011. The Games Laboratory still supports regional and all-Russian speedcubing competitions, the main of which is MPEI Open, held annually in Moscow at the MPEI University!

After Professor Erno Rubik invented the Rubik's cube in 1974, the puzzle quickly spread throughout the world and already in 1982 the first World Championship was held in Budapest. The American Ming Tai won then with a very long (by modern standards!) time of 22.95 seconds. The participants then used only standard Rubik's cubes, slightly modified. Lars Petrus (Sweden) and Jessica Friedrich (Czech Republic), who later became famous cubers, attended the first competitions. The next World Rubik's Cube Championship took place only 20 years later, in 2003 in Toronto. By this time, the secrets and techniques of high-speed assembly, such as the Friedrich method and the Petrus system, had become well known, so that the average assembly time dropped below 17 seconds, but the cubes themselves remained quite angular (not " cut corners"). Dan Knights became the World Champion in 2003 with a result of 16.71 seconds - a record time at that time! Since 2003, the World Championship has been held every 2 years, alternating with the European Championship and other regional competitions. Now competitions are held on a wide range of puzzles and different options assemblies (blindly, with one hand, with your feet, etc.), but it is the classic Rubik’s cube that remains the most popular. Speed ​​cubes and assembly algorithms have advanced so much that competitors are now breaking the 5 second bar!! is the result of 30 years of research and improvement. This is the most technologically advanced and fastest Rubik's cube for today.

What you need if you want to solve a Rubik's cube really quickly!

Speedcubing is a sport or hobby where people compete to solve Rubik's cubes and other puzzles in the fastest time.
is an international organization that conducts these competitions around the world. National and international competitions are held under special WCA rules. In particular, to determine the best time, each participant must solve the Rubik's cube 5 times, the outer ones (the best and the worst) are removed, and from the remaining 3 times a simple arithmetic average is calculated - this is the very assembly time that is used to determine the best of the best, i.e. Champion! Time is measured accurate to hundredths of a second using special Stack Mat timers. In case of victory at the national championship (i.e., country championship), the champion receives Rubik's main prize: an all-expenses-paid trip to the World Championship.

The current world record for the fastest time to solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube is less than 5 seconds! The fight takes place over tenths and hundredths of seconds.

The main nominations at major world championships - the World or European Championships:

• Rubik's Cube 3x3x3
• Rubik's Cube 4x4x4
• Rubik's Cube 5x5x5
• Rubik's Cube 2x2x2
• Rubik's cube 3x3x3 blind
• Rubik's Cube 3x3x3 with one hand
• Rubik's Cube 3x3x3 feet

To win the next World Championship, our country needs the best of the best - this is the only way we can defeat experienced “fighters” from other countries.

Useful Resources by SpeedCubing

• World Cube Association website - we can say that this organization is an analogue of the International Olympic Committee, only for one discipline - SpeedCubing. Information about competitions, rules for holding them, records broken down by region, names of participants and winners.
• The "Cube Explorer" program is a free software used by cubers to create scrambles (entanglement algorithms)

How many people had a Rubik's cube as a child? Yes, it’s probably still on the shelf. What can we say if the Rubik's Cube is still considered the leader in sales among toys around the world. It is estimated that approximately 350 million Rubik's cubes have been sold since its creation. Now they collect it by flying with a parachute, dive deep into the water with it, and do other incredible things. And so the first ever Red Bull Rubic's Cube World Championship in high-speed solving of the Rubik's Cube took place in Boston over the weekend. Anticipating your sarcastic smile, we explain why this is cool and unique.

Why Boston? Very simple. This city has the coolest one in North America technical university– Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You may have watched the movie “21” about card geniuses who went to take over Las Vegas, led by their professor, whose role was played by Kevin Spacey. So, he filmed it in Boston at this very institute. There is the world famous Harvard University here. What the participants of the World Championship in speed solving the Rubik's Cube can do is incredible. Quite consistent with what is required of Harvard graduates. No exaggeration.

Have you ever tried to solve a Rubik's Cup? And with one hand? And in five seconds? Using different assembly combinations? The Red Bull's Rubik Cube World Championship opened up new possibilities for the world's most popular toy for a wide audience. When the “Championship” correspondent saw how a 16-year-old Briton solved a Rubik’s cube with one hand at supersonic speed, he realized that he was doing something wrong in this life. How is this even possible?

But for these guys, assembling the Rubik's Cup is sometimes just a warm-up for their hands. How to Kurbana Berdyeva rosary beads during Rubin Kazan matches. And the Russians are in the forefront here. Our 16 year old boy Andrey Che took a prize in the “one-handed cube solving” discipline. Russia has always been famous a large number smart people with a mathematical mind. Remember when we talked about the coolest tech institute in North America? So, a good quarter of the professors there have Russian roots.

In the final round, the competition took place in a playoff format. The judge gives a signal, and two participants must collect the cube as quickly as possible. Everything seems to be simple. Only the level of “speedcubers” is so high that sometimes everything was decided by tenths of a second. Like at the finish of a ski race, when you have to determine the winner by photo finish. Or like in qualifying in Formula 1, when two drivers can be separated by thousandths.
It is important to be psychologically prepared for such a tournament, because your hands sweat from excitement, and this directly affects the speed of solving the Rubik's cube. As you understand, not for the better.

The world record belongs to Australian Felix Zemdex, who solved the cube in 4.22 seconds. This is crazy! He also won the world championship in the most prestigious discipline “speedcubing”. He did not update the world record, but was clearly pleased with the final result. By the way, if you think that “speedcubers” are very often similar to typical “nerds” from your school, this is far from the case. These are ordinary guys. Just like you and me. Just a little smarter. They love to have fun, and some are more like stand-up comedians than people who can put together dozens of complex combinations in their heads in a unit of time.

The competition was also attended by the creator of the Rubik's Cube - Hungarian architect and professor Erne Rubik, who created his famous brainchild in 1974. And he told interesting story. It turns out that a robot was created that, using a programmed combination, was able to assemble a cube in less than a second. However, if artificial intelligence is not loaded similar program, he will solve the cube for 42 hours. So the world is not yet ready for robots to replace people. Rubik's cube - robots - 1:0.

To help you fully understand the significance of this sporting competition, we will give you interesting fact. For winning the World Rubik's Cube Championship, one of the largest jewelry companies in the world created four rings made of yellow gold and sterling silver, decorated with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. The same company made rings for the winner of the Super Bowl, and this is a level higher than the Champions League football. With such patrons you can achieve anything you want.