Rubik's Cube Competition Held in Patchogue

Cubers from around the world competed recently in a Rubik's Cube tournament at St. Joseph's College in Patchogue. 

Competitors tried their hands at eight different cubing categories in hopes of solving the puzzles the fastest. The main event was to solve the standard Rubik's Cube, called the 3x3 cube because it has three top, middle and bottom squares.

Sixteen-year-old John Tamanas from Hillsborough, N.J. won the main event with an average solving time of 8.94 seconds.

Rowe Hessler, a mathematics student at St. Joseph's, organized the event and topped two of the categories in the competition. Though his first cube took him three days to solve, Hessler is now a celebrity in the cubing world, holding the world record for fastest solving of the 2x2 cube, which has two squares on the top, middle and bottom. Hessler competed in Rubik's competitions throughout the United States and in Canada, Germany and Hungary.

"It might take some longer than others, but everyone can do it," Hessler said, referring to solving the Rubik's Cube. 

Cubers came from as far as England and Italy to Patchogue to compete in the local contest.

Filippo Brancaleoni, one of two World Cube Association delegates from Italy at the competition, said his favorite cube to solve is the Rubik's Cube Magic Puzzle, which has eight connected square panels with floating rings that must be put together. Brancaleoni can solve the puzzle in 0.83 seconds and is ranked 16th in the world in the category.

In addition to the main event's 3x3 cube, other categories at the competition were the 2x2 cube, 3x3 cube one-handed, 3x3 cube blindfolded, 4x4 cube, 5x5 cube, the Rubik's Cube Magic Puzzle and the pyraminx.

Joey Gouly from England won the 5x5 cube competition in 1 minute, 39 seconds.  He said he practices every day, though often while watching TV. 

"I like it because there are so many areas to branch out into. There are so many things to solve," said Thomas Stimola, who was solving a 7x7 cube for fun outside of the competition room. 

Some attendees said they were surprised by the variety of cubes in existence.

"When you think of a Rubik's Cube, you think of the normal 3x3 cube. But in reality they compete with one hand and blindfolded and there are 5x5 cubes and 7x7 cubes," said Paul Scala, a St. Joseph's Computer Science student from Centereach. "It's a culture I didn't know about."