The handsome lobby of the Chicago Cultural Center, with its fine art on display and ornate ceiling lending an air of authority, was playing host to dozens of skinny teenagers in black T-shirts mumbling to one another while fiddling with little colored cubes.
Underlying the chatter and an occasional cheer was the distinctive clack of hands manipulating Rubik’s Cubes, those peculiar puzzles that, after enjoying worldwide fad status in the early 1980s, have mostly disappeared from culture save for a few devoted souls.
The most devoted of those souls convened in Chicago last weekend to compete head to head, hands to hands (geek to geek, some might surmise).
“Nerdy doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” said Tyson Mao, president of the Caltech Rubik’s Cube team, trainer to Will Smith for his role in “The Pursuit of Happyness” (which featured the puzzle), veteran of “Beauty and the Geek” (Mao represented the latter category), and producer of this 2007 U.S. Open Rubik’s Cube Championship. “It can mean that you’re passionate about something.”
Passion was squared on this day, as some 80 players from around the nation and as far away as Switzerland and Germany raced the clock while solving Rubik’s Cubes. The average time it took the eventual winner to complete the bedeviling devices — 14.92 seconds — is likely less than it took you to finish this paragraph. Slowpoke.
“Rubik’s Cube is different than most other sports because we’re all very open with sharing secrets to solving,” explained Mao, 23, of Los Angeles. “You won’t see any Tonya Harding incidents here.”
Back up a second, buddy. Sports? Most gathered at this event hardly resembled jocks. Or even the cool kids in their respective schools. Some competitors did attend a party the previous night. Of course, it was held at a puzzle shop in a mall.
“This is completely different [from watching sports],” said Michael Stern, who brought his family from Washington, D.C., to support 14-year-old Mitchell during the competition. “This is a bunch of eggheads.”
The Sterns were seated amid friends and families of solvers just a few feet from the dais on which judges witnessed competitors work their magic with the cubes. Spectators wore expressions normally seen among the bleachers at high school sporting contests. “Very tense. Very tense,” stammered Belinda Stern while her son competed.
Amid the skinny male frames stood a few girls. Sixteen-year-old Brittany Dzoan of Fremont, Calif., solved cubes alongside brother Dan. “Girls notice small things more, so maybe the cube is easier for them,” she said, her cube-piece earrings dangling below her lobes. “But there are much less women here, so I don’t know.”
And standing apart from the acne-aged was Maine’s Chris Pelley, who at 39 can remember the Rubik’s Cube’s initial craze. “I started solving in ’81. I was fascinated by the way it twisted,” said the computer programmer, who was wearing a “Team Rubik’s” T-shirt.
Pelley placed fifth in a Chicago competition back in 1982 and has completed cubes underwater. But his best-ever solving time (19.62) was crushed by the young guys. Ryan Patricio, 18, of Temecula, Calif., took home the national championship. His best time was 11.98 seconds.
“I knew I didn’t stand a chance here,” chuckled Pelley, clearly enjoying the community rather than the competition.
Enjoying both were three young adults who had come to witness the weirdness. “This is awesome. It’s ridiculous the things people will congregate for,” laughed Lizzie Starr, 19, of Logan Square.
It’s ridiculous the things people will watch. And, in an angular way, it’s awesome too.
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Tip: Don’t think too much
The aces at this tournament lube up their Rubik’s Cubes with silicon spray and replace the flimsy stickers with hardier ones. They keep their cubes and their hands warm before solving. And they solve a lot, which keeps both mind and puzzle in top shape.
But there has to be some secret, right? We asked Dan Dzoan, a 22-year-old mechanical-engineering major at the University of California at Berkeley who in January set the world record for one-handed solving (17.9 seconds).
“There is not really any secret. I use the Fridrich Method, which was invented by Jessica Fridrich. That’s the most popular method for speed-cubers. [This, and thousands more solves, can be found on Google.] After that basic method you can learn more advanced methods.
“And I find that I do better when I don’t really care, just solving naturally without thinking I must do really well.”
— C.M.
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IN THE WEB EDITION
Can’t believe that someone could solve a Rubik’s Cube in less than an hour, much less a minute? See for yourself at chicago tribune.com/rubik.
q@tribune.com
