A six-year-old Chinese girl has set a new record for solving a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube in just over four seconds, as reported by state media. Lian Yunzhi, a young speedcuber, broke the women’s 3×3 average world record twice within three days at competitions approved by the World Cube Association in Wuhan and Guangzhou, announced state broadcaster CCTV.
Lian posted impressive averages of 4.52 and 4.27 seconds after solving the Rubik’s Cube five times. She is the first female speedcuber to achieve an average under 4.5 seconds. CCTV shared a video of the young girl, wearing a red gingham bow, skillfully manipulating a Rubik’s Cube. After completing the puzzle, she placed the cube on the table, applauded herself, and celebrated.
Lian, affectionately known as “Zhizhi,” hails from Chengdu in Sichuan province. Her journey into the world of Rubik’s Cube began when she joined a class for various extracurricular activities alongside dance and music, explained her mother, Lin Yangxi, to local media as reported by AFP.
Lin shared that she gradually understood the benefits of cubing for developing a child’s abilities, which led to focusing her daughter’s efforts on it. Lian has mastered more than 1,300 solving algorithms and practices daily for two to three hours, according to her mother.
Photos from Red Star News showcase Lian’s collection of trophies at home. Lin emphasized that solving a Rubik’s Cube enhances focus, memory, logical thinking, and spatial awareness, and contributes to a healthy approach to winning and losing. She noted that it involves not just memorizing solutions but also employing logical reasoning to find optimal outcomes.