The World of Speedcubing

     The Rubik’s Cube started out as a simple, colorful toy in 1974. Erno Rubik, the creator of the strange gadget, actually made this puzzle to help his students at Moholy-Nagy University in their understanding of how things move in a 3D space. Over the years, its popularity grew from its very first competition in 1982, all the way to its 50th anniversary just last year. But why did the Rubik’s Cube become so popular, and how can you solve one yourself?

     The Rubik’s Cube was first officially released in Hungary in 1977, under the name “Magic cube”. It immediately fascinated people because how could such an easy concept create such a hard challenge? Three years later in 1980 it was sold internationally and the world was changed forever. That same year it was renamed the “Rubik’s Cube”, and everyone loved it! Well, they loved it until they started to realize how difficult it was. Without the internet, it was hard to get information on the correct techniques and algorithms required to finish this six colored cube. But this frustration didn’t last for long. Companies began releasing books on the Rubik’s Cube that let people everywhere finally solve it for the first time. With this new information, it’s no surprise that only 2 years after its official release, the first competition was held in Budapest, Hungary. Ever since then, “cubing” has blown up and more and more people join the community every year.

     But how do these people learn to solve it so fast? Well, the first thing to understand is that there isn’t just an algorithm that will solve the cube every time. There are actually many different algorithms based on what you see after each phase. For example, in the beginners method, there are five main steps. The first step which solves a white cross can be solved intuitively with a little practice. The next step to solve the corners is mostly the same difficulty level, except it does require a 4 move algorithm. Next, you have to learn a different sequence of moves to solve each middle layer edge.  This might be a little hard to visualize by just reading this article so if you would like to learn, I suggest a youtube video by creators like J Perm or Cubehead. After the first 2 layers are done, you must solve the yellow side (the top). This is where it starts getting a little tricky with two new algorithms to learn. They are not too bad though, and I believe that anyone can learn them in as little as one hour or less. Now, there is only one step left. This one is arguably the hardest as it requires you to learn two more move patterns that are a bit more complicated compared to the previous algorithms. After all that you might think that there is no way that people can achieve such amazing times using this method. And you would be right. The method that most pros use is called Advanced F2L and it is essentially just a more complicated beginners method. It requires only around 60 algorithms which isn’t too bad and I myself use this way of solving.  But if you want to get very good you could learn ZBLL. This is an absurd method with only a few users because it requires learning 800 different algorithms! This might seem crazy, and it is, but actually it isn’t as bad as you might think. Our brains are very good at pattern recognition and the Rubik’s Cube is all about this. Once you learn a few patterns you start to get better and better very quickly. This is the main reason why I and so many others choose speedcubing as a hobby. Improvement comes very fast and when it stops there is always something new to learn. That is why the Rubik’s Cube is valued by so many as more than a pastime but as a challenge waiting to be not just completed but fully tapped of all its potential.