Movers and cubers

They’re young, smart and driven by their one common passion — the Rubik’s Cube. So much so that not too long after they took to it, Nikhil Soares, Aniket Das, Deepshikha Narasimhan and Soundhariya Hariharan have been making and breaking records in the world of cubing.

Nikhil Soares developed an interest in the Rubik’s Cube at the age of nine when his uncle who was visiting from Australia mentioned that there were special techniques to solve it. “I searched YouTube for tips. Since I couldn’t understand the algorithms initially, my father figured it out and then taught me,” says 12-year-old Soares, who began competing in tournaments in 2015.

Since then, there’s been no stopping him. In the past one year, Soares has broken six records: two national at Praxis Open (recognised by the World Cube Associaton–WCA), where he solved the megaminx in 47.46 seconds (single) and 53.95 seconds (average); two unofficial (not WCA recognised) international records, where he solved the megaminx with one hand in 1 minute 54.57 seconds (single) and 2 minutes 3.57 seconds (average); and two Limca Records, where he was one of four participants to solve 131 megaminxes in 60 minutes, and one of five participants to solve 524 pyraminxes in 15 minutes. He posts his solves and teaches cubing online via his YouTube channel ‘Cuber Nikhil’, and had cubing lessons for around 50 children from Hiranandani Foundation School Powai, where he studies, during the summer vacations last year.

Soares has a room dedicated to his certificates, medals and collection of 100 Cubes, which includes a ‘ghost’ Cube and a tuttminx (32 sides) that was specially ordered from Hong Kong. While Cubes like tuttminx, teraminx, master teraminx and master kilominx are not recognised by WCA yet, “solving these difficult cubes helps him improve his speed,” says Priya Soares, Nikhil’s mother adding that her son “Cubes most of the time. It’s almost like he spends his free time (time not spent in cubing), going to school and doing his homework,” she jokes. Soares’ schoolwork, however, remains unaffected; he scores above 80 per cent, even though he attends cubing competitions in other cities two days before his exams.

When it comes to balancing between cubing and studying, Aniket Das has a similar story. “The Rubik’s Cube Mumbai Open (RCMO) was scheduled for the same day as one of my Class 10 preliminary exams. So, I attended the competition in the morning, and after finishing my events I went for my exam,” says 16-year-old Das, who is inspired by Feliks Zemdegs, an expert Rubik’s Cube speedsolver from Australia.

Having competed in 19 tournaments, Das holds the national and continental records for solving the pyraminx in 2.93 seconds (average), and 1.42 seconds (single) respectively. He stood first in the pyraminx event at the Indian Nationals in Delhi last year and third at the Asian Championships held in China. He plans to participate in the World Championships, which will be held in Paris later this year.  “I practice for approximately an hour on weekends and half an hour on weekdays,” says the Andheri resident, and a student of Gopal Sharma International School, Powai, which supports Das in his cubing endeavours.

While WCA does not distinguish between gender or age in its competitions, a few girls have been making a name in the cubing community. 11-year-old Soundhariya Hariharan has made it to the Limca Book of Records and the India Book of Records for being the youngest 3x3 blindfold solver in India, having solved the 3x3 blindfolded in 2 minutes 44 seconds (average). She can now solve it blindfolded in 1 minute 40 seconds (average). It started with a trip to the mall, where she was intrigued by a Rubik’s Cube she saw in a shop. Repeated attempts at solving it finally led to classes first to learn the basics and then to solve it blindfolded. “I practice for half an hour everyday, less during exams though,” says Hariharan, who is inspired by Kabyanil Talukdar, one of the world’s fastest blindfolded Rubik’s Cube solver.

It took 20-year-old Deepshika Narasimhan a day or two to get the hang of solving the Rubik’s Cube, but once she perfected it, she could solve it in 2 minutes 10 seconds. A final-year BSc Computer Science student, Narasimhan participates in around 10 events at tournaments, but focusses on the Rubik’s clock, in which she’s among the top five, in the country.

Cracking the cube: An overview

First, form a cross with the colour you’re starting with, say white. After the white cross is done, solve the corners. The first layer is complete with these two steps.
Then start with the second layer; this consists of the edges that need to be inserted (as the centres are always aligned, the position of centre never changes whatsoever). We use a simple insertion trick (algorithms).
The last layer is solved by using certain algorithms that pertain to a specific case. It is divided into 3 parts:

• Building the top colour cross (yellow in this case, as the starting colour was white).
• OLL(orienting last layer): Use an algorithm, which orients the layer such that the top is solved with a colour. The yellow layer is solved.
• PPL(permutate last layer): Solve the disoriented edges and corners. This solves the cube.