Middle schooler Andrew Ricci can solve a standard 3-by-3 Rubik's Cube in 8.25 seconds. Ricci — along with 31 other competitors — displayed his talent at the Brown Cubing Club's second annual Rubik's Cube competition Feb. 5. Competitors ranging from middle school students to Brown students gathered in Petteruti Lounge for an all-day competition, which featured events such as solving a cube blindfolded or one-handed.
The cubing club is "a pretty small and loose-knit group of about five or six who are interested in solving Rubik's Cube and other twisty puzzles," said Arthur Adams '12, the club's founder and event organizer.
Thirty-two competitors, only two of which were Brown students, showed up Saturday to twist cubes, Adams said. "The age demographic is fairly young, so much so that I feel old compared to most people entering competitions today," Adams said.
A group of eighth grade boys from Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School in Franklin, Mass., were among the competitors. Ricci, who competed in the 3-by-3 event, got his classmates Devin Burns and Avi Gumbimeda hooked on solving the puzzles when he created a club at his school.
"I had a Rubik's Cube in my room for a while. One day I decided to look up a tutorial on how to solve it," Ricci said."I don't have a trick. It's a method where you build layers on the cube."
Ricci then proceeded to pull out his Rubik's Cube and swiftly solved it.
"First you make a cross, then build the first two layers, and you make the last layer in two steps," he said.
The Brown Cubing Club does not compete at other venues, though Adams said he is working on competing more with the club. Enthusiasts across the nation can go to the World Cube Association website to find a list of competitions, he said.
"I found out about the Brown competition when I logged onto the WCA website and looked up a list of all competitions in the area," Ricci said, adding that he has already competed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology twice.
Rowe Hessler — a St. Joseph's College student who has set four world records and 20 North American records — won the competition last year.
"I think one of the most interesting things is that since this kind of competition is relatively so young, records are still being broken pretty frequently," Adams said. "We sort of know how fast people could potentially get at solving things," he said, comparing it to Olympic sports. But unlike the Olympic games, he said, "We haven't quite reached the plateau yet."
Normally, winners are awarded certificates with their names and events on them. "This year I made some magnetic dice 2-by-2-by-2 cubes for the winners of each event, which I hoped would be a nice added touch," Adams said.
