Meet the puzzle cube master who's so good at solving he can do it blindfolded

Have you ever tried to solve a rotating puzzle cube? You might spend hours trying to spin it around so that the coloured tiles all match up. After years of practice, solving puzzle cubes comes naturally to Tommy Cherry (USA), and he is even an expert in completing them whilst blindfolded!

On 28 June, Tommy once again claimed the Guinness World Records title for fastest time to solve a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube while blindfolded, which he managed to achieve in an incredibly speedy 11.56 seconds.

Tommy has attempted this particular record many times, with his first being on 5 August 2021 in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, where he set a time of 15.27 seconds. Since then, he has continued to break his own Guinness World Records title almost every year.

The record has changed hands occasionally between Tommy and another keen cube solver, Charlie Eggins (Australia). Tommy and Charlie actually share the Guinness World Records title for fastest average time to solve a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube while blindfolded, which was completed by them respectively in 14.05 seconds. Tommy’s attempt took place at the Rubik’s WCA European Championship 2024 event in Pamplona, Navarra, Spain, on 28 July 2024. Then, this 10 January, Charlie equalled the record at Cubing at The Cube 2026 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The record-breaking history of solving puzzle cubes blindfolded goes back even further than that! The first time this title was broken was on 11 March 2001 by Ralf Laue (Germany) on the set of Guinness World Records: Primetime, which took place in Los Angeles, USA. Ralf’s attempt to set the record was successful with a time of 5 minutes and 42 seconds.

Tommy, a 21-year-old student, is not just completing his undergraduate degree, but also spends time on the side coaching others in the skill of cubing through his business, Tommy Cherry Coaching Company. He said: “It's for beginners and pros alike - anyone can learn cubing!”

The very first time Tommy solved a puzzle cube was on 30 July 2015 when he was only around 11 years old. It wasn’t long before Tommy began his competing career and attended his first competition on 12 September that same year.

Tommy competes often, and when we caught up with him, he told us: “The World Cube Association has competitions all around the world year-round. I am fortunate to be able to travel to a lot of different places for competitions with the help of my cubing sponsors, TheCubicle and MoYu.”

Although he taught himself how to solve cubes blindfolded by watching a YouTube tutorial, Tommy can, of course, solve a cube without a blindfold, in an average time of just 7 sec, and a personal best competitive time of 4.53 sec. Pretty impressive, right?!

Tommy explained: “I gradually got faster over time and eventually made major breakthroughs in my improvement. Throughout a large portion of my competitive cubing career, I focused on getting as fast as possible in as many events as possible, but I ultimately ended up excelling most in blindfolded.

“I eventually started winning local competitions, and then regional, and soon enough, I saw the possibility of competing at the national level within reach. One step happened after another - making national finals, reaching top 10 in the world, and eventually breaking my first world record in the event back in 2021.

“I've pushed myself to get better and better ever since. This most recent record of mine is my first one since 2024, so I am ecstatic to finally improve again and hope to keep it going for as long as I can!”

Read about more amazing puzzle cube records in our Hobbies and Skills section.

On his latest competition win, Tommy explained: “It was a feeling hard to describe in words. It’s much more than just the money, though - it was a feeling that all the hard work I had put into practising ever since my previous world record came to fruition at once, which was equally exhilarating and relieving.” 

Tommy has also experimented with different ways of solving puzzle cubes, and he can even do it with his feet! “I've also solved the cube with one foot (assisted by an object I was pushing the cube up against), blindfolded with one hand, and even blindfolded with my feet,” he told us.

“I also love to do cool random challenges with some other blindfolded speed cubing friends, such as ‘team blindfolded’ where one person is blindfolded and solving the cube (without a chance to ever look at it), and the other person has to instruct them on how to solve it.

“We took that to another level by disallowing verbal cues and requiring communication only through physical touch such as shoulder taps, so we had to devise an additional system to encode that. As a disclaimer, we didn’t invent these, but we do have some unique ways of doing them using our blindfolded expertise!”

Tommy’s determination and love for solving puzzle cubes does not stop there! He told us: “I most certainly plan to keep pushing for records in blindfolded cubing! I would also love to chase after other cubing world records, such as team ones.”

Tommy regularly updates his YouTube channel with videos about learning how to speed cube and about his personal progression. You can even watch him beating records!

If you want to try your hand at beating Tommy’s Guinness World Records title by solving a puzzle cube, you’ll definitely have to practice hard!