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Speed cubing is the art of solving a Rubik's Cube as fast as possible. Solving here means to make the cube have each face be one single color. Regular cubes come in variations of 2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4, and 5x5x5. Puzzle builders try to invent new forms of permutation puzzles. Maybe the best way to learn what speedcubing actually is all about is to watch a video. In the video on this page, Shotaro "Macky" Makisumi set the (former) world record of 12.11 seconds. Current world record stands at 11.75 seconds, set by Jean Pons from France. (16 October 2005)
History
The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by the Hungarian professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. The international interest in the cube began in 1980 to last until about 1983. On June 5 1982 the first world championship was held in Budapest. After 1983 the interest faded away. With the advent of the internet, sites relating to speedcubing raised the profile of the art. Starting in 2003, regular national and international championships are being organized.
Cube variations
The different sized cubes are usually referred to as:
- 2x2x2 - Rubik's MiniCube, or Pocket Cube
- 3x3x3 - Rubik's Cube
- 4x4x4 - Rubik's Revenge
- 5x5x5 - Rubik's Professor's Cube
The cube can be solved using several methods, of which not all are suited for speedcubing. One of the most used speedcubing methods is the Fridrich method, named after Jessica Fridrich, who invented it, and also finished 2nd in the 2003 Rubiks Cube World Championships.
Competitions
Official competitions are currently being held in several categories:
- speedsolving (Minicube, Cube, Revenge, Professor Cube)
- 3x3 one handed solving
- 3x3 blindfolded solving
- 3x3 solving in fewest moves
- Rubik's Clock
- Rubik's Magic
- Megaminx
- Square-1
Terminology
Here are some definitions generally used by the speed cubing community. This community was started by Chris Hardwick, the reigning one-handed-solving champion. The speedcubers communicate mostly via a Yahoo group and the speedcubing website.
- Move
- A turn or double turn of one of the six colored sides
- Algorithm
- Predefined sequence of moves
- F2L
- First Two Layers
- F2L Method
- a method which does First and Second layer in 1 step
- LL
- Last Layer
- X Look
- number of algorithms needed for the last layer, e.g. 4 Look
- Prime
- A counter clock wise move, e.g. R Prime (or R-, R', R-1)
- Method
- Combination of algorithms that can be used to solve a cube
- Piece
- One of the 20 detachable little cubes
- Edge piece
- One of the 12 edges
- Corner piece
- One of the 8 corners
- Center
- One of the six centers of the faces of the cube. The centers never move relative to each other.
- Orient
- Flip or twist pieces so they turn 'in-place'
- Permute
- Swap or carousel 2 or more pieces
- OLL
- Orient last layer
- PLL
- Permute last layer
- PB
- Personal best (time to solve a cube)
- WR
- World Record (currently 11.75 seconds)
- UWR
- Unofficial World Record (currently 9.54 seconds)
External links
- Jessica Fridrich
- speedcubing informational and world records site
- website of Jess Bonde with popular rubiktimer program
- speedcubing community.
- page of community founder Chris Hardwick.
- Fewest Moves Challenge - weekly contest.
- Fridrich System
- Petrus System