When Winfred Michael, a final- year Physics student from Madras Christian College, got his first Rubik’s cube, he was stumped. After many tries, he could barely get one side done. A few days ago, he solved 66 Rubik’s cubes. That’s not all! He solved them in one hour. There’s more! He also did them while cycling non-stop.
It all began when he was in Class 11, when he decided to take on the Rubik’s puzzle. After a lot of time on Google, and many hours on YouTube, he finally began to understand the algorithm of the cubes. In the first month, he concentrated on figuring out the process of solving one. For the second month, he learnt about different ways to approach the puzzle. The third month was dedicated to diving deeply into the concepts of cube solving.
So far, his personal record is under 20 seconds to complete a cube. That is impressive, but not quite fast enough to make it into the Rubik’s big league. (Record holders at the speed-cubing challenges complete it in about six seconds). Determined to make a mark with his newly-discovered talent, Winfred decided to think out of the box. He could solve a Rubik’s cube. And he could cycle. Hence, he decided to solve the most number of cubes while riding a bicycle.
Eager to execute his idea, he looked up the Guinness Book of Records’ website. Intimidated by the contenders, he decided to begin by trying to get into the Indian Book of Records. First, he found a sponsor, an online car dealers FirstRide.in. Then, he began training. He trained for 11 hours a day, every day, cycling and cubing incessantly.
His main focus was the number of cubes he could solve, and in how many ways. “I wanted develop accuracy, so I used different models of cubes like Scruble, Conjoined, Mega mix and Mirror block while practicing, and also followed various techniques when solving them.”
On the big day, in Bangalore (where his sponsor is based, and where he relocated for three months to train and attempt the record), a judge from the India Book of Records set the stakes at 25 fully-solved cubes in one hour whilst cycling simultaneously.
Riding about 200 metres to and fro with feet never touching the ground for an hour, Winfred ended up surprising everyone — including himself. He solved 66 Rubik's cubes, which is not just far more than required for the India Book of Records, but even more than what the Guinness Book had required. (They had sent Winfred a mail stating that he needed to solve a minimum of 30 cubes to make the record.)
For the curious, Winfred offers some tips. First, patience and practice are essential he says. Second, he advices beginners to experiment with different techniques like the Jessica Fridrich method, the Lauri Peters method, the Roux method etc. and then utilise whichever one they find comfortable. (He used Jessica’s method through his training.) He ends with his favourite motivational quote, “Life is not about just following someone and being their fan, its about setting a benchmark.
