Leading the Rubik’s Cube challenge in Africa

TALI FEINBERG

“I hold the African record of 39.60 seconds, which is my average of five attempts on a Rubik’s Cube with four layers. I also hold the South African record for my average of solving a three-layered cube with one hand in 18.05 seconds. Then, I hold the South African record for a single solve of a three-layered cube in 6.96 seconds,” he says.

The Rubik’s Cube can be rearranged in 43 quintillion different ways, writes Harry Wallop in the Daily Telegraph. It was invented in 1974 by Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian architect who wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. After designing the “magic cube” as he called it (twice the weight of the current toy), he realised he couldn’t actually solve the puzzle. After a month, and using a method of rearranging the corners of each side first, he finally solved it.

It seems like young people have always had a knack for solving the Rubik’s Cube – or perhaps they just refuse to give up. In 1981, when it was a worldwide craze, a 12-year-old boy, Patrick Bossert, wrote a book titled You Can Do the Cube, which sold more than 1.5 million copies. The Rubik’s Cube has become a feature of popular culture, and even featured on The Simpsons six times.

Blumenow, who attends King David Linksfield, says that he “started cubing in 2015, and I didn’t ever realise I had a talent for it. I just kept practising and improving”.

How did he get so good at it? “There are lots of good tutorials online on how to solve the cube and get faster at it. I learned a lot from them, practised, and over time, I got quicker. It doesn’t require any real dedication, I just practise often because I enjoy it.”

Blumenow’s records were officially recognised by an organisation called the World Cube Association, which holds competitions all over the world.

“There are official delegates at these competitions that make sure everything is done correctly, and it posts official results for anyone who has ever competed. There are official world records, continental records, and national records,” he says. “Just like any other competitive ‘speed-cuber’, my goal is to hold a world record.”

While he doesn’t think “cubing” has any significant impact on brain development, “it does help one to look at particular situations from a different angle”. Blumenow doesn’t think his skills are valuable training for a future career, and he isn’t sure what he wants to study.

But in a world filled with technology, he says there is still something captivating about a classic toy like the Rubik’s Cube. “It’s very simple yet very complex, and very eye-catching. Everyone knows what a Rubik’s Cube is, and when they actually learn how to solve it, they realise just how fun it can be. There are also hundreds of different variants that you can solve.”

For those who want to follow in his footsteps and get into “cubing”, he advises looking at the hundreds of excellent tutorials online. “The Rubik’s Cube is much easier to solve than people think,” he says. “It is seen to be an ‘impossible’ challenge, but only a little skill is needed to learn how to solve it. You definitely don’t need to be good at maths to solve one, and if you just put a little bit of effort in, you could learn how to solve it in just a couple of days.”