Have you ever tried to solve a Rubik's cube?
It's super hard. 😬
And yet, there is a 14-year-old speedcuber out there, who just broke a world record with his talent... when he couldn't even see the cube!
Charlie Eggins (Australia) has achieved the fastest time to solve a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube blindfolded, with a time of 12.10 seconds at the Australian Nationals 2023.
🔎 In case you didn't know, speedcubers are people of any age who solve combination puzzles at competitions.
Charlie's time was 0.68 seconds faster than the previous record of 12.78, set by Tommy Cherry in January 2023.
Tommy had held the record since 2021 - he initially achieved it with a time of 15.27 seconds and then broke his own record 5 more times! 🤯
Charlie was “completely surprised” when his solve turned out to be the world’s fastest ever.
“I wasn't expecting it going into the solve, and was just overjoyed to have gotten the world record,” he told us. “I still can't believe it!”
Charlie went on to win the final with an average-solve time of 17.47 seconds! What a champion. 💪
So, when did Charlie's speedcubing journey start?
He started just over 4 years ago, and he’s been doing it blindfolded “on and off” since 2020.
However, he told us: “I only really started taking it seriously at the start of 2022."
It took him weeks to learn how to do it, and then 19 tries to successfully perform his first blindfolded cube solve, in a time of 5 minutes 13 seconds.
But he kept getting better and better at it, and he finally entered his first competition in 2021, where he registered a time of 45 seconds in the first round before ultimately failing to solve the cube in the finals.
And two years later, he is now the single-solve world record holder!
So, if you want to do something that you find really hard, take Charlie's example of patience and determination and give it all you've got! 👊
In fact, Charlie says he’s spent “hundreds of hours” practising the skill, having done “approximately 25,000 practise solves”.
But what does the future hold for Charlie?
He will now try to break another of Tommy Cherry’s records: the fastest average time to solve a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube blindfolded!
Good luck, Charlie. 🤞🏽
