Hundreds facing off in Rubik’s Cube world championships

BUDAPEST, Hungary — After 25 years, the cube has come home.

Hundreds of competitors met for the fourth Rubik’s Cube world championship Friday in Budapest, a three-day event offering prizes for solving the puzzle with two hands, one hand, and even their feet.

The mechanical puzzle, invented in 1974 by engineer Erno Rubik, sparked a global craze in the early 1980s. An estimated 9 million cubes were sold last year, taking the all-time total to more than 300 million units.

Organizers said 263 competitors from 33 countries were expected to take part in the three-day event. The first took place in the Hungarian capital in 1982.

Prizes will be awarded in 17 categories, as experts try to solve the classic 3-by-3 cube and its variations while blindfolded, with one hand, or with their feet.

The current world record for solving the cube — which has six sides of different colors with nine tiles on each side — is 9.86 seconds, set by Thibaut Jacquinot of France in May at the Spanish Open.

British champion Dan Harris, 22, from Norwich, England, said he practiced for up to four hours a day before the Budapest event. He said the Internet had been key to reviving the cube’s popularity.

“In the ’80s, you were on your own, while now you can check what everyone else is doing,” said Harris, a meteorologist, whose personal best in competition is 13.06 seconds.

“There’s a lot of cube literature on the Internet, with people sharing moves and techniques.”

Legal methods to customize the cubes for competition include spraying them with silicon lubricant so they rotate more easily and using a nail file to smooth the rough plastic edges.

“You have to achieve the right balance between speed and stability to make sure the cube doesn’t fall apart,” said Harris, who took up the cube while recovering from a bicycle accident five years ago.

Matyas Kuti, 14, is one of the host country’s biggest hopes for a top finish. Kuti is considered a master of the blindfolded event in which he has set 11 world records and has 24 first-place competition finishes.

Blindfold players try to solve the game by memorizing the position of key cubes before covering their eyes.

“The 5-by-5 cube and doing it blindfold are my favorite events,” Kuti, from Budapest, said. “These are the most complicated versions and it’s a great feeling to solve them.”

Among the youngest competitors is Yoshiki Yumoto, a 7-year-old from Tokyo. He can solve the 3-by-3 cube in around 15 seconds, which would have given him first place — with some eight seconds to spare — at the 1982 world competition.

Electronic timers are used and players must solve the cubes set to a certain position — which varies by category and is determined with the help of computers.

The United States is expected to have the biggest delegation, with nearly 40 competitors. The participants’ average age is 24 and organizers said there was an overwhelming majority of men at the event.

Prize money totals $28,000 in U.S. dollars, with the top prize of $7,000 going to the fastest 3-by-3-cube solver.

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