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Speeding in the westcoast

If you thought Rubik's cube was child's play, head to the speed cubing tournament for a reality check.

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You see a boy playing with a Rubik’s cube; you will instantly think, “Wow, people still own these things?” But what if you find the same boy blindfolded and trying to solve the puzzle with his feet? That will catch your attention, right? If this piqued your curiosity even a tad bit, head to Infinity Mall 2 in Malad this weekend to witness ninjas of speed cubing competing against each other.

Speed Cubing Mumbai Unlimited (SCMU) 2014 is recognised as an official World Cube Association competition. SCMU was created by a bunch of crazy, passion driven ‘cubers’ in 2011 in an attempt to eek out a little limelight for an entirely unexplored sport. Over time it has evolved into a venture to bring together more such passionate puzzle-solvers and keep them updated about the Indian and Mumbai cubing scenes.

Akshay Rao, founder and organiser of this event and a westcoast resident, says, “My friend, Shantanu Walke, and I saw a guy solving a Rubik’s cube in the Mithibai College canteen when we were in FYBSc. After watching him solve it a number of times, we decided that we just had to learn how to solve the cube. We bought  cubes from the station and put our brains to work. In about 3 weeks after buying the cube, sometime in August 2009, I managed to solve it using a method that I had made up (which I found highly inefficient later on). After solving the cube once, we decided to learn more methods from YouTube and that is when the fun started. We would race in the train while coming back from college every day.”

The speed cubing competition is open to all, regardless of experience and skill. Certain events, however, have time limits. There are over 18 events spread across different categories. With over 3,500 cubers registered with the World Cube Association, they already have the third largest group of cubers in the world, after USA and China.  

Nikhil Mande, one of the organisers, who also is a national record holder for ‘3x3 Blindfolded’, ‘4x4 Blindfolded’, ‘5x5 Blindfolded & 3x3 Fewest Moves’ challenges, talks about the future of speed cubing, “I would like to share some interesting data here. At the end of 2009, I was ranked second in India for speed solving the 3x3 cube in 12.81 seconds. At that time, there were only five people in India who had solved the cube in less than 20 seconds.  Now, there are around 198 people in India, who have solved it in less than 20 seconds, and 38 who have done it in less than 12.81 seconds. Even world records have been bettered over the years at an alarming pace. I feel that speed cubing is still in its infancy in India, as well as in the rest of the world. I feel speed cubing will very soon become extremely popular and new records will be set at an even crazier pace.”

Event details
Date: January 10-12
Venue: Infinity 2, Malad (W)
Visit: http://scmu.in.

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