Rubik – The Hungarian way of the mind After the Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook sketch filmed in 1970, Monthy Python's John Cleese once said in a report that he only knew 11 Hungarian words when they made that scene, and those where: „Lantos, Puskás, Grosics, Lóránt, Buzánszky, Hidegkuti, Kocsis, Zakariás, Czibor, Bozsik, Budai.” Nowadays, without a Golden soccer team, there are only 3 things that comes to anyone's mind when hearing about Hungary: Goulash, the Balaton and of course the Rubik's Cube! Legend and history This 3D combination puzzle was invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture, Ernő Rubik. If the urban legend is true, when he finished the first prototype, he immediately ran to show it to his colleague, professor of theoretical physics, who was just right in the middle of giving a lecture. Rubik rushed in and gave it to his friend. He took a look at it, scrambled it, and after a long moment of humming, he said to the students: „Dear attendance, what I am holding in my hand, does not exist!” He was amazed by the cube as at that time, based on researches of theoretical physics, the parts of the cube couldn't have moved in so many directions and in so many ways. After a really successful TV advertisement campaign in 1980, the Magic Cube won the German Game of the Year award for the Best Puzzle Game, and that was only the beginning: later it earned the same award in the UK, France, and even in the USA, and the Magic Cube fever shook the whole world! The popularity of the Rubik's cube was rapidly rising for years: even a 12 episode long American cartoon series was made featuring an anthropomorphic Magic Cube with legs, a head, and of course with magical problemsolving powers. However, the cherry on top which made the cube one of the best selling puzzle toy of all time was a movie in 2006, „The pursuit of happyness” with Will Smith, where he, as a math teacher solved a cube during a short taxi ride. That was the trigger which started the Cube's fast solving craze! The masters of logic - Rubik world records There are several championships where the best of the best can compete to be the quickest one to solve the cube. And it's not only about who can do it first - there are competitions where you can only observe the cube, but have to solve it blinded, and many other ways only to make it even more difficult and challenging. In the moment there are two official word records: The Australian Feliks Zemdegs solved the cube in 4.22 seconds(!!!). Even if I think about it hard, I can't really mention anything I could do in this little time... Anyway, watch him do it here: And in May, this year, and the craziest record of 0.38 seconds – yeah, you pretty much read it right – was made by a cubesolver robot designed and built by Ben Katz and Jared Di Carlo. FUN FACT When Ernő Rubik scrambled his cube for the first time, it took a whole month for him to solve it, and his personal record is still around a minute, so he's not a frantic speed cuber… Don't know how to play? No worries! You can find many tutorials online, all using different methods and lists of algorithms for the problems you can run into, during your circa 43,000,000,000,000,000,000 (43 quintillion) possible ways of color mixture, but most of these know-hows share the same first step: try to solve one side by yourself! You have to familiarize with the cube and you should make the rookie mistakes to understand the ideas behind the algorithms. Take a piece of Hungary back home! If you want to hop on the „rubik train”, and would like to tease your brain with the world's most popular puzzle game, or you just want to gift yourself or your loved ones with something traditionally Hungarian, you should check one of our two stores, both are less than 30 minutes away from the Sziget, where you can find Rubik's Cube and many more other puzzles, board- or dexterity games for all ages! 1067 Budapest, Eötvös Street 39. (Eötvös-Szondi corner) Tel: +36 1 269 0941 General opening hours: Monday - Friday: 10.00 - 20.00, Saturday 10.00 - 14.00 Show me how to get there! 1027 Budapest, Horvát Street 1 - 3. Tel: +36 1 783 9570 General opening hours: Monday - Saturday: 10.00 - 20.00 Show me how to get there! Programs on Saturdays: Yo-Yo School - Education and Club Saturdays from 12.00 to 14.00 @ Reflexshop Buda 1027 Budapest, Horvát Street 1-3. Come together with the yo-yo society of Hungary to share your tricks, get to know the Hungarian players, or learn from the Hungarian and European Champion of 2017, Viktor Kollár! Boardgame Club Saturdays from 14.00 to 20.00 @ Reflexshop Buda 1027 Budapest, Horvát Street 1-3. Want to relax, but still have fun? Come and play with any of our games! With a large variety of strategy, logical, family, party and many other games, there is no possible way for you to not find a game that you will fall in love with! Language cannot stand in your way: plenty of English and language independent games are waiting for you!
