The Rubik’s Cube is an invention of the 70s. Erno Rubik, a Hungarian obsessed with 3D geometry started visualizing his 3D cube in late 1974. Initially it seemed that constructing a working model would be nearly impossible. It took 1 month of extensive practice for Erno Rubik to resolve the puzzle for the first time. Before, he wasn’t even sure that there was a method to succeed. By 1977 the cube became popular in Hungary.
Variations of Rubik's Cubes, clockwise from upper left: V-Cube 7, Professor's Cube, V-Cube 6, Pocket Cube, original Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Revenge.
The first World Championship took place on June 5, 1982 in Budapest (Hungary). 19 cubists of different nationalities participated in the event. Minh Thai (USA) was the winner who solved the cube in just 22.95s.
The current world record for single time on a 3×3×3 Rubik’s Cube was set by Erik Akkersdijk in 2008, who had a best time of 7.08 seconds at the Czech Open 2008. The world record average, to solve the cube is currently held by Feliks Zemdegs; which is 8.52 seconds at the New Zealand Championship 2010.
The event for Rubik’s cube was first organized on Indian soil in 2008, under the guidance of World Cube Association. The event was known as Indian Open Rubik’s Cube (IORC) which was held in the technical festival (Techkriti) at IIT Kanpur. Since then the event has become very popular and attracts participants all round the globe. It is an annual event occurring in Mid- Feb.
Bernett Orlando with his Magical Cube
Bernett Orlando, 13, is the Indian Champion in solving rubik’s cube. He is the youngest in the world to have solved the cube blindfolded. He is the only kid to win a world championship at the age of 11. He holds 26 Indian National records and 6 Asian records. He is a Master in magic puzzle – INDIAN CHAMPION. He memorized a pack of card in 3 minutes, 160 random numbers in 5 minutes, 300 binary digits in 5 minutes. He can recall the day for any date between years 1600 & 2100. He can find out the perfect square root of a 4 digit number in 3 seconds mentally. He can find out the cube root of a 6 digit number mentally in 2 seconds.
Indian Open Rubik’s Cube, the first Rubik Cube event held in India
The tiny tot made the portrait of Marilyn Monroe using 1521 Rubik’s cube in 15 hours, which is again a WORLD RECORD. He has competed in 4 world Rubik’s cube championship-2007, Budapest, Hungary, Dutch open Rubik’s cube championship -2006, Delft, The Netherlands, Japan open Rubik’s cube championship -2007, Tokyo, Japan, Singapore open Rubik’s cube championship -2009, Singapore.
With the ever increasing interest in speed-cubing, Rubik’s Cube has become the world’s most popular puzzle and will continue to be, as it is no more the game of a genius, but a puzzle to be solved “Logically”.
