Introduction to SpeedCubing
Speedcubing is a hobby which involves solving twisty puzzles, most commonly knowned is the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube with a set of fixed algorithms. Other than the classic
3x3x3 Rubik's Cube
, there are also the 2x2x2, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, and many other more.
Different puzzles have different solving difficulties, and therefore the time it takes to solve each one is different too. The 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by Hungarian professor of architecture, Ernő Rubik. Soon, the puzzle was gaining popularity in the 1980s,
as more and more people became fascinated with it and came up with various solutions to solve it. The first ever Rubik's Cube competition was held in Budapest, Hungary, on June 5, 1982, where 19 people competed, with American Minh Thai emergin as the champion with a single solve time of 22.95 secon new generation of speedcubers as they learnt about the puzzle.
Various speedcubing methods was developed trying to lower the solve time as much as possible. The most common one is the beginner method, which is the easiest to learn if you're just looking to solve the puzzle and not so much about speedcubing. More advanced ones such as CFOP,also known as Fridich, drastically reduced solve times. CFOP stands for the four stages of solving the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube (Cross – F2L – OLL – PLL),
and there our even more variations of each stage to further lower solve times. Typically, using CFOP can result in timings between 10-30s. Currently, the world record is held by Yusheng Du, with a stunning record of 3.47 seds.
However, the puzzle was shortlived and people started to lose interest in it after 3-4 years.
With the expansion of the internet, Rubik's Cube enthusiasts started to create speedcubing sites, which resulted in a new generation of speedcubers. Thus, more and more cubing competitions surfaced
after the yeara 2000. Now, more than 118,000 people from around the world have participated in WCA competitions.