This Chennai boy hopes to speedcube his way into the record books!

Everyone’s come across a Rubik’s cube at least once in their lifetime. Some of you may even have it tucked away in a corner in your shelf or lying about on your table. This thing of beauty is capable of luring amateurs and subtly challenging them to try it at least once.

14-year-old Lucas Etter from Kentucky in US holds the world record for solving a 3×3 cube in just 4.904 seconds.

But let’s meet the eleventh grader Shreevatsh Rajkumar from Abacus Montessori school in Chennai. One will usually find the cube in his hand. But what’s more boggling is what he does with it and how.

Shreevatsh is a speedcuber. That’s a term not many people are aware of. This young speedcuber sets right a scrambled cube at a baffling speed inconceivable to laymen. And just one year into speedcubing, the Chennai kiddo is ready to set a new world record in speedcubing by attempting to solve a tougher cube job!

This year, following his examinations, he would attempt a Guinness record in Chennai to solve the maximum scrambled cubes while cycling! 

Last year, a final year physics student from the Madras Christian College in Chennai Winfred Michael entered the Indian Book of Records and subsequently the Guinness World Records by solving a staggering 111 3×3 Rubik’s cubes (more than what was required from him) in 2 hours 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

Shreevatsh, who is training hard for the feat, is confident that he will break the record. The task does require a high rate of physical endurance.  “I can break the current record (66 cubes in an hour) with 111 cubes in 65 to 70 mins. My highest ever was 200 cubes while cycling for 1 hour 45 mins,” he says.

“Firstly I started training my body so that I won’t feel any pain during the record. Every morning I wake up at 5 a. m. and cycle around my area park 30 times which is around 20 kilometres.

Then I do exercises like planking, pull ups, sit ups, etc. to train my legs. Then in the evening I started practising both cycling and cubing at the same time for 30, 60 or even 105 minutes depending on the availability of my helpers,” he adds.

He began to learn to solve the cube during his 10th grade final examinations while watching the beginners tutorial TheSergsB on YouTube. In just one and half months’ time he graduated to advanced practices CFOP or Jessica Fedrich method as taught on Paradox Cubing’s channel on YouTube.

“I chose to solve the Rubik’s cube because it was fun. I never get bored of solving it every time. I saw it lying around my desk and instead of just leaving it there I thought of at least learning how to solve it. Later after learning I tried to solve faster. From there I found out there were cube competitions and I participated in it. Though I did badly I liked the experience. So from there my journey of speedcubing started,” Shreevatsh says.

Shreevatsh can now solve a cube at an average of just 21 seconds. Still, he does not shy away from admitting that this is his first attempt at setting a new record. 

When asked about his future plans, he says, “I don’t aspire to become anything. Destiny tells me where will I be and what will I do.” 

Also read:

India’s Prodigies: These kids have redefined intelligence for the world

Air India sets new world record for longest all-women flight