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Journalism of Courage
The Rubik’s Cube is an unusual thing. Almost everyone knows what it is but rarely anyone can solve it. Solving it quickly is even rarer; less than 1000 people in India can do it in around 10 seconds.
When you tell someone that you can solve the Rubik’s cube that fast, the first emotion they express is always denial. Then when you whip out a cube and solve it in front of them, you see shock and astonishment. What does it take to rise to this ‘twisty’ occasion?
Every cuber has a different story of being introduced to the cube. 18-year-old Avani Sood, the second fastest female solver in the country, got her first cube when she was on a trip with her family. 24-year-old Kunal Oak, who holds multiple national records, learnt about solving from a senior at his school bus stop. My sister and I were enrolled in a cubing workshop by our parents where we were taught to solve it over three days.
When you begin to learn the cube you are told that it is solved not one side after the other, but layer by layer. It is like telling a toddler that the Earth is not flat but round; the fact might seem obvious once you understand it but before that it sounds utterly non-intuitive.
After getting a cube you inevitably end up on YouTube in search of tutorials, where you discover that the famous 3×3 is only one of the many forms of the puzzle to exist. From 2x2s to 7x7s and the pyramid-shaped pyraminx to the 12-sided megaminx, you are thrown into a world of varied possibilities.
You also learn about speedcubing, a competitive sport organised under the aegis of the World Cubing Association (WCA). A non-profit formed in 2004 and run almost entirely by volunteers, the WCA provides rules and support for competitions around the world. In these competitions all cubes are scrambled according to computer-generated algorithms and solve times are recorded on touch-sensitive timers.
The current world record for a 3×3 solve is held by Max Park of the United States and stands at an astonishing 3.13 seconds. For the smaller 2×2 cube the world record is an eye-blinking 0.43 seconds. Speedcubers achieve such speeds by grinding hundreds of solves for hours everyday. Sood learnt to solve the cube when she was just 7-years-old and broke the 3×3 female national record when she was 13. Currently she holds the 4×4 and Megaminx female national records. “Doing a hundred solve 3×3 session is very easy for me. Even though I don’t actively practise now, if I’m stressed out I take out a cube and do a hundred solves,” she says.
Oak, a ‘big cube’ specialist from Gurugram with national records in 5×5, 6×6, and 7×7 categories, says he has regularly practised for around four-five hours every day in the past. His practice sessions also include studying solves by the fastest cubers in the world, slowing their videos down, and trying to reconstruct the solution.
If you are not already impressed, the world record for solving the cube blindfolded is 12.00 seconds. Blindfold solving is done by memorising every piece on the scrambled cube, putting on a blindfold, and then solving it. Agra-based 25-year-old Shivam Bansal holds the national record in multi-blind solving. This cubing event is more audacious than a layman would ever imagine. Here competitors are given 1 hour to memorise as many cubes as they like, put a blindfold on, and then solve all of them. In 2018, Bansal solved 48 cubes in this manner, a world record that stood for 11 months.
To memorise every piece on such a huge number of cubes, solvers like Bansal use a technique called the Memory Palace, of Sherlock fame. This involves assigning letter pairs to cube pieces, using the letter pairs to make images, and then imagining them happening in physical locations that you are familiar with like your kitchen or your living room.
“I imagine walking mentally through my memory palace. And then I see the memorization happening in each location. This method works surprisingly well for quickly putting stuff in your long term memory,” says Bansal. For practice, Bansal records every 1-hour attempt that he does at home. He analyses the video for mistakes and checks stats like time-per-cube.
Does one need extraordinary memory to become a good multi-blind solver? No, says Bansal. “I had a decent memory when I started multi-blind, but it wasn’t anything special. When people see me going for 50 cubes, they think I have a photographic memory but it’s not true,” he reveals. Any cuber who can do 1 cube blindfolded can do 40 too, according to Bansal. He elaborates that multi-blind solving can affect your memory: “When I first started blindfold solving, it took me around 10 minutes to do one cube. But just after a few months of practice I was only down to five minutes.”
Although I don’t have clinical trials to generalise this, I feel spending so much time on the Rubik’s cube also has had some obvious benefits for me in skills like fine motor movements, hand-eye coordination, and left-right brain coordination.
Speedcubing is also different from most sports; it is more of a hobby than a career. Very little money is involved in competitions in the way of prize funds. “Cubing is much more of a light-hearted and easygoing sport. And it’s no pressure. So even if you fail it’s fine, most people are just there to have fun,” says Bansal.
“I was used to going and asking faster cubers for help. Or just randomly, if there’s someone sitting on my table, I’ll go say hi. Which is not something I did before cubing,” says Sood talking about the friendly atmosphere at cubing competitions. Oak has similar views and says, “I’ve been a part of a few communities over the years and the cubing community has been the nicest. That’s what really encourages a lot of youngsters to join the community because cubers are typically very social and they’re extremely polite towards each other.”
But like so many other activities, speedcubing is a male dominated sport. It is also a largely urban phenomenon with most competitions taking place in big cities. “There is still a basic lack of awareness about the sport. Many people think that geeky or nerdy puzzles are more suited for a particular faction of the society. However that is surely changing and the ratio of women has significantly increased at competitions since a few years back,” says Somya Srivastava, a Mumbai-based speedcuber and a WCA delegate.
Speedcubing has helped many like me to make great friends and be a part of something larger. We look fondly at old volunteer t-shirts from cubing competitions and reminisce about the great times. A cube is something you can carry with you anywhere and impress people. Speedcubing is also a fantastic exhibition of the limits of the human mind and body. Making it more accessible and inclusive will only add to its wonder.
