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Rubik’s Cube contests on

BUDAPEST: After 25 years, the cube is coming home. Competitors were meeting for the fourth Rubik’s Cube world championship that began on Friday in the Hungary’s capital, which hosted the first such event in 1982.

The mechanical puzzle invented by Hungarian Erno Rubik sparked a craze in the early 1980s. Some seven million cubes were sold last year.

Competitors from 32 countries are taking part in the three-day event, with prizes to be awarded in 17 categories. Experts try to solve the classic 3x3 cube and its variations while blindfolded, with one hand, or with their feet.

The current world record for solving the 3x3 cube — which has six sides of a different colour with nine tiles each on each side — is 9.86 seconds by Thibaut Jacquinot of France, set in May at the Spanish Open.

Matyas Kuti, 14, is one of Hungary’s hopes for a top finish. He first picked up a cube he found at home in February 2006 and began competing a few months later.

Mr. Kuti is considered a master of the blindfolded event, in which he has set 11 world records and has 24 first-place competition finishes.

He practises about three hours a day and his favourite cube is souped up with cubes rotating more easily because of filed down rough edges and silicon lubricants applied. Such alterations are legal according to the rules.

“The 5x5 cube and doing it blindfold are my favourite events,” Mr. Kuti, from Budapest, said. “These are the most complicated versions and it’s a great feeling to solve them.”

The U.S. has the biggest delegation of 39 competitors, while 29 cube solvers are coming from Poland, 22 from Japan and 19 from France. Solvers from Mexico, New Zealand, Lithuania and Indonesia are taking part.

Prize money totals $28,000. The top prize of $7,000 will go to the fastest 3x3 cube solver.

World championships were also held in Canada in 2003 and in the U.S. in 2005. — AP

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Rubik’s Cube contests on

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