The first Rubik’s Cube World Championship was held in 1982 in Budapest, Hungary. The winner was Minh Thai (USA) with a relatively slow (compared to modern times) solve of 22.95 seconds. Cubes used in the early days of speed cubing where standard Rubik’s Cubes with simple modifications. This first competition was also attended by other cubers; some who would eventually become giants in the cubing world such as Lars Petrus (Sweden) and Jessica Fridrich (Czech Republic).
Speed cubing World Championships then lay dormant until they were once again reawakened in Toronto, 2003. By this time solving techniques such as the Friedrich method and the Petrus system where already well advanced, allowing solve times to have decreased to sub 17 seconds, however the cubes where still crude. Dan Knights won the 2003 World Championship with a time of 16.71 seconds, which was at that time a world record. Since 2003 a World Championship has been held every two years, with Nationals and Regionals held in between.
Although competitions now include far more puzzles and events, the 3x3 is still the most popular. Speed Cubes and algorithms have advanced so that times below 6 seconds are now achievable. The Rubik’s Speed Cube is the result of over 30 years of innovation within speed cubing and is the most advanced and fastest Rubik’s Cube to date.
