How a 16-Year-Old Made Rubik’s Cube History in 1982
A teenager from Vietnam made history with a little puzzle with 6 colours on 5 June 1982. Minh Thai (16, USA) is the first Rubik’s Cube world champion, having solved the famous cube in 22.95 seconds at the competition held in Budapest, Hungary. This marked a world record as well as the first global winner of a growing puzzle craze. The BBC’s Witness History report relives Thai’s trip to that day.
A Puzzle That Became A Competition
The cube was invented by Hungarian architect and teacher Ernő Rubik in 1974 as a teaching aid for students to learn about the movement in three dimensions. He originally named it the “Magic Cube”. The Rubik’s Cube was renamed the Rubik’s cube when it went onto the international market in 1980, Smithsonian Magazine says.
The challenge is straightforward: rotate the cube so that each of its 6 faces is a single colour. However, several pieces move with each move, and therefore it is not easy to solve by trial and error. The cube was an international craze by the early 1980s and the ability to solve it quickly had become a game of competition.
From A history Class To Budapest
A year prior to the championship, Thai saw a Rubik’s Cube during a class on history. Thai wanted to know how to solve it and her friend was trying to figure it out. The BBC called him a “Vietnamese refugee, living in the United States and travelling from Los Angeles to Hungary. He had a search change in a world contest.
The first World Rubik’s Cube Championship was held on June 5th, 1982. According to the World Cube Association’s record, there were 19 competitors. Thai was playing for the USA, against 18 other nations.
The Winning Time: 22.95 Seconds
The competitors were given 3 attempts and the fastest single solve was the result. Thai’s times were 27.16 seconds, 22.95 seconds and 27.97 seconds. With his second try, he took first place and set a world record. According to the official results, Guus Razoux Schultz (Netherlands) is in second place at 24.32s, followed by Zoltán Lábas (Hungary) with 24.49s.
The difference between the two sides was minimal but the feat was historic. Under the watch of the timer, Thai had to make the correct turns in the shortest possible time. He was able to solve a puzzle that has been baffling many people in less than 23 seconds.
A Milestone For Speedcubing
The first official championship of this nature was in 1982. The next world-class competition was not until 2003, when other puzzles were added to the format. That’s the event that is recorded in the World Cube Association records in Toronto, Canada.
There’s been very little change to the cube’s exterior, but competitive solving is now a hobby around the world, based on practice, memory and quick decision-making. This victory was an early watershed when a toy designed to teach three-dimensional movement had become a contest of speed and concentration. His name is still at the beginning of that story.
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