14-year-old speedcuber Charlie Eggins (Australia) has broken the world record for the fastest time to solve a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube blindfolded, registering a time of 12.10 seconds at the Australian Nationals 2023.
Charlie shaved 0.68 seconds off the previous record of 12.78, set by Tommy Cherry (USA) in January 2023.
Tommy had held the record since 2021, initially achieving it with a time of 15.27 seconds before breaking it five further times.
Charlie’s record-breaking solve came during the tournament’s second round, in which he’d failed to complete the second of his three solves, meaning he could not register an average-solve time for the round.
As such, and given that he’d already earned a spot in the final, Charlie was “completely surprised” when his third solve turned out to be the world’s fastest ever.
“I wasn't expecting it going into the solve, and was just overjoyed to have gotten the world record,” Charlie said. “I still can't believe it!”
Charlie went on to win the final with an average-solve time of 17.47 seconds.
Charlie began speedcubing just over four years ago, and he’s been doing it blindfolded “on and off” since 2020. “I only really started taking it seriously at the start of 2022,” he said.
After weeks of learning the method, it took Charlie 19 tries to successfully perform his first blindfolded cube solve, clocking a time of 5 minutes 13 seconds.
Continuing to improve at a rapid pace, he entered his first competition in 2021, where he registered a time of 45 seconds in the first round before ultimately failing to solve the cube in the finals.
And just two years later, he is now the single-solve world record holder.
Charlie says he’s spent “hundreds of hours” honing his skill, having done “approximately 25,000 practise solves”.
He will now be looking to break another of Tommy Cherry’s records: the fastest average time to solve a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube blindfolded (14.15 seconds). Charlie is currently third on the all-time leaderboard, with his fastest time being 15.51 seconds.
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