Felix Zemdegs: child prodigy or schemer?

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:45

Among young people who are fond of puzzles or simply closely follow various world records, one name is well known - Felix Zemdegs. It turns out that a simple guy who does not have stellar parents or a model appearance can also get his minute of fame, and in his case, a few seconds. How he became famous, read on.

Biography of young talent

Felix Zemdegs is an outstanding collector of various puzzles, including the Rubik's Cube. At the moment, he has declared himself as a multiple world champion in average assembly time, and also set an amazing record - he solved a 3 x 3 cube in 4.73 seconds.

Felix was born in Australia, in the city of Melbourne. On December 20, he turned 21 years old. By the standards of the magnitude of his achievements, this is a very young age. He came to his success in the cube-building championships through relentless training. In one of his interviews, Felix said that over the past 10 years of his life he spent an enormous amount of time training. He spent over 3,000 hours solving Rubik's Cubes and spent twice as many hoursspeedcubing professionally (this includes participation in championships, community meetings, etc.).

This hard-working guy practiced regularly, devoting 1 hour a day to his hobby every day, making about 50 puzzle assemblies. Only thanks to his perseverance and diligence in achieving goals, Felix Zemdegs has grown so rapidly, from time to time demonstrating more and more fantastic speed at the championships. And when someone's business is easier and faster, you should not give up and complain about bad luck. On the example of Zemdegs, we can safely say that everything is possible in our world, the main thing is not to lose faith in your strength!

Felix Zemdegs: records

"I propose to create new categories of world records, one for Felix with his unreal things and one for normal people. If this does not happen … I will leave," wrote his predecessor, Erik Akkersdijk, after his defeat in the championship world in 2011.

Zemdegs' most amazing achievement on the world stage came in December 2016 at the HPOPS Open 2016 in his hometown of Melbourne. At the age of 20, he finally completed the cube faster than anyone else. Felix Zemdegs became the new world speedcubing record holder. He completed the 3 x 3 x 3 puzzle in 4.73 seconds and became the undisputed world champion.

Participation in championships

Our amazing record holder has won many competitions and continues to this day to show the highest speed and intelligence. Here is a list of the most significant competitions for him:

1. He completed the 3 x 3 Cube in 6.54 seconds at the Cube day championship in Melbourne in 2013. Calculated from the average of 5 assemblies.
2. A single attempt to complete a 4 x 4 puzzle was successful, a result that later became a world record - 25.34 seconds. Installed in Shepparton in 2013.
3. At the 2013 Australian Nationals, he also completed a 5 x 5 x 5 die in just 50.5 seconds.
4. At the same championship, the average value of the cube assemblies was a record value - 56.87 s.
5. Another minor attempt in Melbourne to solve a 3 x 3 x 3 puzzle completed in 9.05 seconds.
6. The huge size of the 7 x 7 x 7 cube did not surprise the prodigy: on average, he coped with it in 2:52:09 min.
7. He missed his most significant record due to a small oversight - in a hurry, he scrolled one of the faces of the puzzle too much, and this final step decided his fate. The best value in the assembly of the cube 5, 33 s was achieved by him in June 2014, on the 29th, but then it was not Felix Zemdegs who won. 4.79 seconds is one of his best results, but he was shown outside of official WCA competitions.
8. Despite this, at the next world championship in the United States of America, in Las Vegas, Felix was given the title of "The world's best Rubik's cube solver".

He continues to take part in the championships to this day and breaks his own records. After all, there is no limit to perfection!

PuzzleRubik's Cube

This amazing cube owes its name to the Hungarian professor of architecture and design, Erno Rubik. It was created in 1974, and since then the fascination with the difficult toy has spread all over the world. Probably, everyone in childhood had such a puzzle, because it was at the beginning of the 21st century that the world was swept by a new wave of development of this hobby. For many, a simple hobby has grown into a sport and even got its name - speed cubing (that is, speed cube assembly).

The cube has several varieties: the classic puzzle has 3 sides (3 x 3 x 3), there are options 2 x 2 x 2 and 4 x 4 x 4. There are enthusiasts who tried to create a giant cube - from 12 x 12 x 12 to 17 x 17 x 17. There are many author's algorithms dedicated to the assembly of the Rubik's cube (Morozov's method, for example). Theoretically, you can assemble it in 52 steps from any state, but in practice, you need long training to implement your plan. But in any case, this is a great training of the intellect.

Speedcubing as a way of life

People who are fond of solving Rubik's cube are called speedcubers. All over the world it is an active movement of teenagers and progressive youth. There is also a community of cube lovers in Russia. These guys participate in many festivals and even talent shows. Here, the sports excitement goes off scale, and speed cubing can even be considered a sport. Although a person does not actively work muscles, but the brain.

Judging by the achievements of Zemdegs in this activity, everyonethe professional assembler has much to strive for. All records are beyond human capabilities, but young and talented guys continue to prove from time to time that nothing is impossible. Speedcubing is not just a hobby for them, but a lifestyle.