Twisty & Rotating Puzzles

We call this category Twisty & Rotation Puzzles but many people just refer to it as Rubik’s puzzles. 

Rubik’s is one of those brands that is so recognisable and so much a part of our culture that it’s now become a regular generic term to describe these type of twisty or rotation type puzzles.

According to Jerry Slocum’s Classification these Rotating piece puzzles are but a subset of a much wider group of puzzles called Sequential Movement Puzzles-Moving parts of the object to a goal is the puzzle. But they are so popular and there are so many to choose from, even on this website there’s nearly 40 to choose from, that we’ve added them to a category of their own called Twisty & Rotation Puzzles.

If you’ve never solved a Rubik’s Cube before, and you want to get fast at it, then where to start? There are so many possibilities out there these days. Lots of manufacturers other than Rubik’s themselves. Different shapes, sizes, qualities, right up to the most finely tuned speed cubes that puzzlers who set world records use.

But a good place to start to perfect the skill is still the classic standard 3x3x3 cube. Until you fully understand how the solution works and you can solve it from any scrambled position you really can’t work on speed.

There are tutorials for beginners and methods for more advanced users all over the internet. I even saw a tutorial to teach you to solve it blindfolded! Take the time to learn the common language of solving the cube too.  It’s called the Rubik’s Notation and you’ll see this common language used in most solving tutorials or solution.

So what then is the next step after mastering the cube?

Well, there’s always speedcubing. Time yourself and see how fast you can do it. We even sell a cube with an inbuilt timer.  Maybe you’ll find yourself at the World Championships!

The first World Championship to speed solve the Rubik’s Cube was held in Budapest, Hungary, on 5 June 1982.  The trophy for winning was a gold-plated Rubik’s Cube.  Ernő Rubik himself selected the cubes for the competition himself although compared to the cubes these days that are specially made and lubricated for speed solving they were pretty much the off the shelf product of the day.

There were solvers from 19 different countries and Minh Thai from the USA was the winner with the best time of 22.95 seconds.

It would be another 20 years before speedcubing became so popular that there would be another championship. And there is now a World Cube Association that organises them annually. Solving the standard 3x3x3 cube is still included in the championships but these days there are many other categories as well including solving blindfolded!

The winner of the 2017 3x3x3 Cube solve was Max Park (USA) with a best time of 5.87 seconds.  A full 17.08 seconds faster than Minh Thai’s time in 1982. How much faster can they get?

International Puzzle Day is celebrated on July 13th to honour the birth of Dr. Erno Rubik, the inventor of Rubik’s Cube. He was born on July 13, 1944 in Budapest, Hungary during World War II.