Three Hyderabadis storm into national finals of Rubik’s Cube WC

Since its invention in 1977, the Rubik’s cube has stumped millions of puzzle enthusiasts across the world. But recently, three Hyderabadi teenagers — Chahat Gupta, Harsh Shelwarkar and Rehann Rasheed — proved that it’s not rocket science to crack the colour coding of the world’s highest selling puzzle by winning the Hyderabad qualifier of the second edition of Rubik’s Cube World Cup.The three youngsters now will compete in the nationals of the tournament to be held in Velachery, Chennai on September 22.

The day-long event saw 18 ‘speed-cubers’ locking horns in four different game categories — 1 on 1 Knockout, Speed Cubing (fastest male and fastest female), Fastest Hand (one handed solve) and Re-scramble. “I’ve been cubing for the past six years and this is the competition that I always wanted to take part in. It feels absolutely great to be here and win it,” said 18-year-old Chahat, who won the Speed Cubing (Female) category.
While 18-year-old Harsh Shelwarkar won in the Fastest Hand (mixed) and Speed Cubing (mixed) competition, with timings of 16.428 and 9.257 seconds respectively, 19-year-old Rehann Rasheed was declared the winner in the Re-scramble category with a timing of 29.757 seconds. “It’s an ecstatic feeling to win here. I am glad that my hard work has finally paid off. Now, next stop is the national finals,” said Rehann.
The grand finale of the Rubik’s Cube World Cup will be held in Moscow in November and fast-cubers from six countries — Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Spain and Russia — will compete for a prize money of $30,000 (`22 lakh).