RUBIKS CUBE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP-2007

(A DREAM COME TRUE)

DATE :- 5, 6 and 7 oct 2007
VENUE :- NOVOTEL BUDAPEST CONGRESS
CITY :- Budapest, Hungary
33 countries:- Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Rep, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA.

THE ROAD TO BUDAPEST :- It was not rosy for me, being an Indian,  as I need a visa to enter Hungary. I do not think, any other countrymen except India among the listed 33 countries, need a visa to enter Hungary. I had to travel 2500 km up and 2500 km down to apply for my visa, because Hungarian embassy is in Delhi which is situated 2500 km away from my home town. Thanks to Ron uncle and Rubik's studio to send me an official invitation to get my visa.

26/sept/2007 :- We flew to Delhi to appear for visa interview in Hungary embassy in India and flew back home on 27th sept 2007.

02/oct/2007 :- I started along with my dad from my house on 2nd octber from my home town Trichy by train. It is just 300 km away from the southernmost tip of India. It took 8 hours by train to reach Chennai.

03/oct/2007 :- We flew to Delhi from Chennai to collect back our passport and Visa from Hungary Embassy which is an hour drive away by taxi from Delhi airport.

04/oct/2007 :- As there is no straight flight from India to Budapest, we have to hop in anyone of the Europe hubs. We had booked our air-ticket in Austrian airlines so that we can transit in Vienna.
As we checked in, the Austrian officer in Delhi air-port was bit reluctant to issue boarding pass. We showed him the official invite letter. But still he was not convinced and asked us for a cube and I gave him a 333 cube in my hand luggage. He told me "if you could solve it in 3 min, I will let you go". I smiled and told him I can solve 12 cubes in 3 min. He stared at me raising his eye-brow and asked me what do you mean ? I replied him that I can solve it in just 15 sec. Immediately he scrambled the cube in disbelief and returned the cube to me to solve it. I did it in 14 sec. He shook hands with me and called all his assistants on duty and asked me to do it again and again. I solved it 5 times. They all took photograph with me and wished us all the very best. Then he ordered his assistants to take us to business class and issue boarding pass although we booked in economy class!!!!

We reached Vienna 7 am local time, but our connecting flight is only at 5 pm as the other 2 flights between 7 am and 5 pm were full because all of them were very small flights. As the Hungarian visa is not a schengen visa, we could not go out of air-port as well. So we killed our time inside Vienna air-port for 10 hours. We reached Budapest airport exactly at 6 pm and our Ginkgo hostel at 6.30 pm. We had a quick shower and reached Novotel at 7.30 pm to meet fellow cubers.
So it took exactly 60 hours to reach the venue from my home.

In the Novotel lobby, I met Chris Hardwick, Andrew kang, Daniel Bayer, Frank Morris, Tyson, Leyan and all my Japanese cubing  friends whom I met in Tokyo earlier this year. I did cubing with Chris and co for some time and we had food in McDonalds where I met Ron uncle after a year and left to our hostel to have a good long sleep before the major event on 5th oct. I felt VERY HAPPY when I was lying in my bed for at last we made it and we are here to compete in a world cup. It was A DREAM COME TRUE FOR ME.

DAY-1 :05/OCT/2007

We woke up at 6.30 am and had our breakfast at 7 am and we were there in the venue as early as 8 am and registered our name. Thanks to the organizer for the gift bag with a T-Shirt. I met so many cubists in the venue and started preparing for my afternoon blindfold events. Thanks a lot to Chris Hardwick to get me a set of 555 stickers from Frank Morris. It was a lucky sticker for me.

BLINDFOLD EVENTS :- I competed in all the 3 blindfold events - 333 multiple cube blindfolded, 444 bld and 555 bld. I did three 333 cubes in 27 min 4 sec perfectly.
 It was a surprise for me to see the result of 333 multiple blindfold because I was placed 3rd even though I did only 3 cubes. It was a lucky win for me!!
 In my first 444 bld first attempt I failed to exchange the last edge pairs because I counted my number of steps in solving corners wrongly. Very silly mistake. By the time my mind was tuned to peak level. In my second attempt of 444 bld, everything went perfect. 18 min and few sec were enough for me to be placed 5th in the race.
 When I started doing 555 bld, my confidence level was very high. I memorized them, using a new and never used before journey, very clearly(I strictly followed my dads advise here). My only fear was POP. Everything went perfect and I solved it in 55 min 39 sec. Matyas Kuti and Chris Hardwick were there to greet me as soon as I took of my blindfold. I could not believe it when they told me I was the Champion. Then Ron uncle confirmed it to me outside the hall that  I was the only one succeeded  in solving 555 bld!!! I knew and everyone knew  I was a lucky winner.  

I am standing on the victory stand. A historical moment for me.


I am on the podium again for my 3rd place in 333 multiple cube bld.

I must say that the hall was noisy for blindfold events - the judges were talking among themselves and the noise of the door closing and opening were very disturbing, spectators clapping, media people moving dragging their camera etc. The whispering sound of the judges were enough to spoil the concentration of the blindfold solvers. Although, Mondo, Chris and Matyas never complained, it might have been the cause for their failure. It shows their sportsman spirit and gamesmanship. In my opinion, the blindfold events might have been conducted in a better atmosphere. 

222 combined finals :-  I know, I can do very well as I practiced regularly at home. When I did 222 event, my mind was well focused on cubing because I did this event in between my blindfold events. My best was 3.18 sec and avg was 5.58 sec and that was enough for me to finish 6th in the final ranking. I could not have done anything better than that. Anything in top-10 is a good result for me.  Here, I do not think, it was a lucky time and place. I competed with focused mind  with a will to do my best and of course I enjoyed every moment of it.

6

Bernett Orlando

7.36 4.08 7.02 5.63 3.18

We spent late evening cubing in a food-court  with Chris, Matyas, Daniel, Andrew, Stefan, Erik and others.

I am very happy, Matyas spent some time with me cubing. He is a jovial person, willing to share and move freely with everyone unlike many champions in other sports. Hats off to him.

I and Matyas racing in a food court.

PYRAMINX :- I do not won a decent Pyraminx. The scrambler Arnaud Van Galen was annoyed with it as he could not complete scrambling, as it popped out every time. He lent me his Pyraminx as he did not compete in it. Thanks a lot for him. I did 20 sec and 21 sec and was not selected for finals. I had never practiced it after my Dutch open-2006 and still 20.xy sec was my personal best. I was happy.

So, the 1st day of the competition was very good for me! 

DAY-2 : 06/0CT/2007

444 first round :- Always first round is the difficult one for everyone because it is best of 2 solves. If you see the result how many top cubists in 444 were eliminated  from the 444 finals: Frederick, Dan Dzoan,  Macky, Joel, Takayuki, Ryan Patricio, Chris Hardwick etc. It is still, for me, unbelievable that they are not in finals. However, I made to finals with the best time of 1:06.69 sec.The other time was 1:09.50 sec Kudos to the 2 kids Yoshiki Yumoto and Joshua Satterfield for their wonderful performance 1:44.59 sec  and 2:52.91 sec respectively.
333 first round :- Luckily, it was avg of 5 solves cutting off the best and the worst time instead of best of 2 solves. I can not ask for more. I focused my mind and was positive through out all 5 solves.
My best was 13.53 sec and avg was 15.59 sec. It was my personal best and placed me in 18th rank and was selected for the semi-finals.
555 first round :-  I was confident before the event started that I could make it to finals. The time
1 min 56.50 sec placed me 7th and that was enough to put me into finals. My other time was 2 min 13.69 sec. I was happy because my cube was perfect, neither loose nor tight.
333 OH first round :- This is not my favourite event. Still, it is fun. 48.31 sec and 53.08 sec was far below the best. In Japn open my avg was 42.xy sec. After that, I never practiced for world cup because I knew I had no chance in this event. My fingers are too small for this event. I have to wait for few more years.

333 feet first round :- I was happy that I was in the race and I could finish it in 3 min 42.53 sec which placed me 9th.  I did not expect any better than solving it in the given maximum time 4 min.
 
Me solving the cube with feet in WC-2007.

Square-1 :- I know I am quiet good in this. But unfortunately, I did not practice it for the last 6 months. My best single time was 34.87 sec and my best mean of 3 solves was 36.56 sec. Both the time were not my best. But can one expect to beat his best without practice ? No, Never. To achieve anything "PRACTICE IS THE KEY". Still, this time was enough to put me in the 5th place in the ranking. Anything in top -10 is very good for me. So I was very happy.
Megaminx :- My best was 2 min 25.87 sec and my avg was 2 min 46.67 sec. Again both the time were very much below my best. My minx was too tight. Thanks to Ron uncle for lending his minx. However, his minx also not good for speed solving. I do not know how he manages. Again, I have to admit that I did not practice it for some time now. Still, this time was enough to put me in the 6th place in the ranking. Anything in top -10 is very good for me. So I was very happy.

Rubik's Magic :- My best 2.42 sec, avg 3.88 sec was good enough for me to be placed 35th in the ranking list out of 60 participants, because I had never practiced it for I did not own one.
Rubik's Master Magic:- My best 5.97 sec, avg 7.17 sec is good for me and was placed 30th.

I was happy that I could compete in these 2 events: Magic and Master Magic.

DAY-3 : 07/0CT/2007

333 blindfolded :- I thought anything under 3 min is enough to place me in the finals. But my 2 min 40.02 sec was not enough to go to finals as I was placed 15th in the rank. I was happy to watch my dad competing in this event and solved it correctly in 9 min 9.97 sec. I have seen him practicing blindfold only 3 times -  Dutch Open 2006, Japan Open 2007 and in WC-2007.

Rubik's clock :-  I did not compete in this event because I do not own Rubik's clock.
Rubik's cube fewest moves :- I did not compete in this too, because I totally forgot about it and I never listened to the announcement also. Finally, Ron uncle reminded me. As I was busy practicing for 555 finals, I skipped this one.

Rubik's cube semi-finals :- 17.17 sec avg was not enough to be in the finals. I knew, I had to do my personal best here to be in the finals, sub 15 sec. I had 3 decent times 12.27 sec, 14.55 sec, 16.00 sec. But the other 2 times 20 and 26 sec ended my chance of entering into the finals. I made a mistake in F2L to get 20 sec and a bad pop to get 26 sec time. Normally, I never make mistake in F2L. Perhaps under pressure, we make too many silly mistakes.
444 finals :- I did my personal best here. I can not ask for more. I was placed 9th in the ranking list with my personal best avg of 1:06.87 sec. A very happy result for me as I finished in top-10.
1:01.11 1:16.58 1:04.13 1:12.53 1:03.81 sec.
Twice I got double parity and in other 3 cases, I got at least one parity. I dislike parity in 444. We need to be lucky not to get parity.
As I have mentioned already, many top cubists were not in the finals of 444. Perhaps they were unlucky to have double parity in the first round in both the solves!

555 finals :-  In the very first place, I was very happy to be in the finals in the big event with big names of the event Frank, Ron, Takayuki, Matyas, Frederick, Erik, Milan, Rama, etc.
Again it was my personal best single solve 1:46.27  and avg 1:57.25. I can not ask for more.
2:01.22 1:46.27 1:52.48 2:13.69 1:58.06
Moreover, I finished 6th and again in Top-10. A wonderful result and marvellous ending of my world championship-2007 dream with such a nice feeling.

The juniors :- Joshua Satterfield(13 year old), Yoshiki Yumoto(7 year old) and myself(11 year old) and of course the great Matyas Kuti(14 year old) had done remarkably well. We really missed Casey in the WC-2007.

A separate championship for juniors in the national level might see many more juniors in the next world championship-2009. In Japan I had seen  many juniors cubing. Perhaps in USA and Europe as well.
Yoshiki Yumoto has improved a lot in the last 2 months. I met him Japan Open 2007 and his performance in WC-2007 was fantastic. My hearty congrats to him.

The Oldest Mrs. Grada Ooms:- What a commitment she has. She really enjoyed it. I met her first in Dutch Open-2006 where she judged many of my solves. She was so happy to receive and greet me when I met her in the hotel lobby on the eve of the WC-2007. Her presence in the WC-2007 might have motivated many. I am inspired. My salute to her.

Thanks to Chris Hardwick :-  My special thanks is due to him for spending a lot of the time with me answering all my questions patiently.
Team solving 444 bld with Chris was a joy. He is yet another amazing personality I have ever met,  like Ron uncle. Kudos to Chris hardwick.
He loves and lives with blind solving. If he focuses his attention on speed solving also like before he start blind solving, he can do wonders. It was unfortunate for me to spend less time with him before and after the WC-2007. During WC-2007, we could not discuss many points which we had planned to discuss.

Me and Chris team blind solving a 444 in after party.

THANKS TO THE ORGANISERS, ALL PARTICIPANTS, SCRAMBLERS & JUDGES :-
        My thanks are due to the sponsors, organizers, media people, scramblers, judges and all participants from all around the world  for making this wonderful WC-2007 a grand success and memorable one for me. My sincere thanks is also due to my parents for giving me such an opportunity to meet so many wonderful people and learn from everyone.

Hope to see you all in the next WC-2009!

Special thanks to Ron uncle :- It is his motivation and gifts of good quality cubes and guidance, I could now cherish my experience in the world cup-2007. My whole hearted thanks are due to him.

My special thanks are also due to Stefan Pochmann uncle for teaching me 444 bld and 555 bld methods 2 years back. It was his 555 bld method, which is though not efficient method, made me a world champion. My sincere thanks are also due to him. I dedicate this win to him. 

It was a DREAM COME TRUE FOR me. I came to HUNGARY feeling hungry for the wc-2007 and returned back to India as a learned man form my experience with you all in wc-2007 and of course my pocket filled with 500 euros. My dad told me it is all for me!! I would save it for next world cup to meet you all again in 2009.

Have fun(Thanks to Ron uncle) & Cheers(Thanks to Stefan uncle),

J.Bernett Orlando
India.