Rubik's cube record time. Speedcubers and world records. The best in their field

Something incredible happened today: Chinese speedcube Yusheng Du has broken the world record for solving Rubik's cube in the 2018 WuHu Open competition!

This event is solely for three reasons:

1) The previous world record was 4.22, meaning Yusheng Du broke it by as much as 0.75, which is incredible at this level! It's scary to think how you have to try to jump even higher than this result.

2) This assembly- the first official sub-4 in history. But what is there, it is more correct to call sub-3.5, because with such results the score goes for a split second!

3) Everyone was expecting the next world record from Felix Zemdegs, Max Park or someone comparable to them in popularity and level, but Yusheng Du is not so famous at all.
Many were also confused by the average speedcube time in this round - 9.00 , which clearly does not correspond to such a crazy single attempt.

If you look into his WCA profile, then it becomes clear what he has already done Avg5 = 7.43 in competitions, that is, this August was not very successful for him. His previous official record is 6.03 , although MoYu writes on their Instagram that Doo's home personal record is 3.41

These are already quite serious results, but the new WR still raised a lot of doubts: Was there a mistake in the scramble? Will the result be counted?
A video could have cleared things up quickly, but the angle and quality were far from the best.

Nevertheless, everything went to the fact that the record will still be counted. Many well-known brands (MoYu, MoFangGe, YuXin) almost immediately posted the champion's result on social networks.

By the way, the record is set on good old ... As you know, MoYu has a scholarship program, according to which Du will receive $ 13,000 for his record on this cube.

The doubts were finally dispelled a little later.
“Getting lucky is not a crime” - The World Speedcubing Association congratulated the champion, reminding everyone how back in 2008 there was a big jump from an old record to a new one - from 8.72 to 7.08.

And here is the reconstruction of the assembly. The scramble turned out to be really very successful: Yusheng Du calculated a double xscross, after which two light pairs awaited him, and then an ALL-fish, having solved which with the standard algorithm, but on the other side, the speedcube entered the PLL-skip with a twist.

Scramble: F U2 L2 B2 F "U L2 U R2 D2 L" B L2 B "R2 U2
Reconstruction:
Inspection: z y
XXC: U R2 U "F" L F "U" L "
3rd F2L: U "R U R2 U R
4th F2L: U2 R "U R
OLL: U R "U" R U "R" U2 R
AUF: U
7.78 TPS

"3746 USD per second XD" - MoYu's comic note - 3746 dollars per second :)

Many rushed to make a video analysis of the solution of this scramble, one of the first to do this was Julia Avizorra.

So, this record can be called a truly significant event! Today it has become clear once again that new achievements in speedcubing are a completely unpredictable phenomenon.

What do you think is the next record? Who will install it? When will this happen?

Speedcubers, who are they? A speedcube is a person who collects the Rubik's cube for speed. And in fact, anyone who timed a Rubik's cube is a speedcube. And let his result be 40 minutes, all the same this person is a speedcube.

However, any beginner speedcube can put together this puzzle in less time. But what are the real pros capable of in this business? Do you know anything about them?

The first world record was set by 16-year-old Vietnamese-American student Minh Thai, who was able to solve the puzzle in 22.95 seconds. This happened at the world's first speedcubing championship - the World Rubik's Cube Championship 1982. This is especially impressive when you consider that the record was set not on a modern speed cube with magnets, but on one of the first versions of the Rubik's cube, which had a very mediocre torsion.

After that, there was a lull. Not because there were no tournaments, but because there was no organization that could organize the results of all participants.

In 2004, this place was taken by the WCA - World Cube Association. From that moment, the results of all participants are saved in the database.

Since those distant times, records have been updated more than once. The rules and dice have changed, new disciplines have been added, and, of course, new champions have appeared.

The best in their field

One of the best speedcubers of this decade, the record holder among the record holders is Felix Zemdegs. This young Australian has already set 117 world records and holds the current 3x3x3 cube world record - 4.22 seconds single try and 5.8 seconds average over five dice, 4x4 and 5x5 dice, one-handed Rubik's Cube.

His results are impressive, although he started out like all speedcubers. In 2008, when he was 12 years old, he became interested in speedcubing and began training. By January 2010, he was the first in the world to solve the Rubik's Cube in less than 10 seconds. Since then, he won everything and won the competition. And at the age of 17 at the World Championships, Felix proved that he is the best speedcube in the world.

It may seem that Felix Zemdegs does not meet competition in tournaments, but this is by no means the case. He has many competitors from different countries.

One of his main competitors is Max Park. The American athlete has already recorded 12 world records. Of course, after Felix's results, this is not so impressive, but if you go deeper, each of them is amazing.

What is his record for the average time of five Rubik's cube assemblies with one hand. He was the first in the world to do this in less than 10 seconds. He also holds the records in the 6x6 and 7x7 dice assembly, both in a single assembly and in the average time of five assemblies, as well as in the average time on a 4x4 dice.

And the next record holder is known not only for his records - Mats Falk (this is how his surname is read from Dutch). His last name began to be mentioned at times more often after he signed a contract with QiYi MoFangGe, one of the world's main brands. Their flagship model was named after him, you all know about this cube - it is now one of the best.

Mats was able to set 5 world records. But the most offensive situation happened to him at the Jawa Timur Open 2016. It was there that he set a world record of 4.74 seconds, but not for long. A little later, at the same competition, Felix Zemdegs made an assembly of 4.73 and broke Mats' record.

And Max Park took all the records from Kevin Hayes, not only world records, but also national ones, because they are both from the USA. Still, Kevin was the first person in the world who was able to solve a 7x7 cube in less than 2 minutes, and he was already able to set 20 world records.

Moreover, the Yuxin company cooperates with the American. They want to name a 7x7 cube in honor of him, and maybe even a whole series of large cubes. And since Yuxin knows how to make fast and high-quality puzzles, the series will undoubtedly turn out gorgeous.

You might get the impression that all the best speedcubers are located abroad, but this is not the case. There are many decent speedcubers in our country.

For example, Dmitry Dobryakov. It is he who holds the Russian record for solving the Rubik's cube both in a single attempt and in average time. And he will represent Russia at the Red Bull Rubik's Cube World Championship in Boston.

And in due time the whole world recognized the name of Vladislav Shavelsky, who set two world records in such discipline as the 7x7x7 cube assembly. He also set 13 records in Europe and 27 records in Russia in disciplines from 4x4x4 to 7x7x7. He still holds the Russian records in 5x5x5 and 7x7x7 building.

Or Roman Strakhov, who has repeatedly set world and European records for solving the Rubik's cube 5x5x5 blindly. He is now ranked third in the world in this discipline.

Also, Russian speedcubing knows the name of Dmitry Kryuzban, who set 60 records in Russia and even a European record.

Every year we discover new names and faces that bring Russian speedcubing to the world level. Some of them are close to national records or have already reached them: Alexey Zharikov, Artem Ganzha, Andrey Che and many others.

How to get professional in speedcubing?

But how to achieve such results? Is it even possible to catch up with such speedcubing mastodons? How do you do it?

Of course, such results are achieved after years workouts. But everyone has different training abilities and approaches, so there is no one-size-fits-all method.

There are many different assembly methods: Jessica Friedrich's method, Roux's method, ZZ and many others. Try different formulas, training methods and you will find the one that is right for you.

And no matter how much you know the formulas, don't stop. Each new formula improves your skill.

But whichever method you use, you definitely need to learn the Look Ahead technique, literally “look ahead”. The point is to think through all your movements in advance.

To train her, you need to use such a type of training as slow turn, that is, deliberately collect the cube slowly and see all the movements of the elements.

For the first time about the popular mechanical puzzle called Rubik's Cube (very often it is also mistakenly called the Rubik's cube) became known in 1974, when the Hungarian sculptor Erne Rubik presented his creation to the world. In the original (classic) version, the puzzle consisted of three rows of multi-colored cubes, consisting of 24 elements in 54 color faces. For this, the puzzle was named 3x3x3. All parts are made of plastic and can rotate around their axis.

Each visible side of such a cube consists of 9 faces of the same color, which in their original state are chaotic. In the future, he needs to twist the cube around the axes until all the colors of one side come together. The game is considered over when all 6 sides of the cube consist of elements of the same color.

It should be noted that today the Rubik's Cube is considered one of the most popular toys. Over the entire period since its inception, over 350 million of these products have been sold in the world.

It is important to note that in the future, the Rubik's Cube received some improvements and variations. Today, modifications are known from 2x2x2 (when you only need to fold 2 edges on each side), to 17x17x17 (this is more of a computer puzzle). Also, toys are produced in the form of trapeziums, pyramids, gigaminxes and other varieties. But the most popular is the classic 3x3x3 version.

Rubik's Cube World Records 3x3x3

Not surprisingly, the appearance of this puzzle and huge amount such toys on the hands of adolescents provoked an unprecedented excitement, and gave impetus to the competition between them. Initially (at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries), such competitions were relatively formal. But with the advent of the global network, when it became possible to actually record their results on the air and share them with other cubers, the work with this puzzle has significantly accelerated. Even informally, a time line was set for a real super champion - namely, he must collect the classic version of the Rubik's Cube in a time interval not exceeding 10 seconds.

For the first time this milestone was crossed in May 2007 by the Frenchman Thibaut Jacqueline. During the assembly, he managed to meet the record for that time - it took only 9.86 seconds for all the edges of the puzzle to be painted in the same colors. It is important to note that this record did not hold for a long time. He was twice "beaten" in 2007 and in 2008, and later in cubing almost sensational moments began to appear. So already in July 2008, Erik Akkersdijk sets the phenomenal at that time speed of the magic cube assembly in the classic version - it took Kuber only 7.08 seconds to complete the full assembly cycle. How at that time an unprecedented result. True, this record did not last long either. They managed to surpass him already in 2010 with a new result of 6.77 seconds. And this is not the limit either.

Of course, 3x3x3 is the most frequently used version of the puzzle in competitions, but other versions are also starting to develop gradually today. Already today, records are officially recorded in the nominations of speed puzzle assembly with parameters 2x2x2, 4x4x4, 5x5x5 and 6x6x6 puzzles are gaining momentum, and with them 7x7x7. At the same time, computer developments do not stand aside, when the assembly of puzzles is entrusted to "artificial" intelligence.

In order to understand at what stage the competitive process is today, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with several officially recorded records to date.

Rubik's Cube records 2x2x2

• In January 2014, the unsurpassed Australian Kuber Felix Zembegs was able to please his fans with another unprecedented Rubik's Cube result - he managed to correctly set the colors on all its sides in just 0.88 seconds.
• Another quite impressive record for the speed of solving the Rubik's Cube with parameters 2x2x2 at the world championship in September 2015 was set by Lucas Etter, which took place in Nashville. To do this, it took him only 1.51 seconds.
• In 2016, Pole Maciej Czapiewski reached a new world record for the 2x2x2 Rubik's Cube, who took only 0.49 seconds to set all faces!

4х4х4 Rubik's Cube Records

• In 2014, the fastest time to collect the Rubik's Cube 4x4x4 was recorded by the German Kuber Sebastian Weier, who took only 21.97 seconds in a record at that time.
• Later, already in 2015, 19-year-old Australian Felix Zembegs at the competitions that took place in China, managed to collect a 4x4x4 Rubik's Cube in just 4.9 seconds.