The contestants in The Forum’s Rubik’s Cube contest continue to work on their puzzles after winner Bernie Brayton holds out his solved cube. From left to right: Ashlee Randklev, Brayton, Aaron Feickert, Becky Asp, Harrison Suits Baer and Kellyn Wolff.
Speed cubedDave Roepke, The Forum
Published Thursday, January 11, 2007He fiddled with the Rubik’s Cube for 50 seconds or so and then he was done. Bernie Brayton wasn’t giving up on the multi-colored cube-shaped puzzle that so many have failed to conquer. He had already solved it. Brayton, 18, of Fargo, bested a field of five other youthful cube buffs in a contest The Forum hosted Monday, posting a top time of 50.0 seconds. The field’s next fastest time – everyone got two tries –was the 1 minute, 28.0 seconds Harrison Suits Baer clocked in his second run. Not that any of the other contestants had anything to hang their heads about. Heck, one of them was under the impression no one else in town even knew how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. “I guess I’m wrong,” said Baer, a Moorhead 17-year-old. Here’s how the cube contest came about: Given the spiking popularity of the retro toy, which first graced shelves worldwide in 1980, we asked readers to submit their best times. To our surprise, we heard from six area cube solvers – ages 15 to 20 – who said they could solve one in less than three minutes. So we asked them to prove it. Not that solving a Rubik’s Cube is some sort of towering achievement. There are oodles of Web sites and books to instruct a novice on moves to learn and approaches to use. But solving one fast – that’s a cube of a different color. The world record recognized by the World Cube Association is 10.48 seconds. “It’s hard to optimize and do efficiently,” said participant Aaron Feickert, 18, of Fargo. Speed solving takes either a talent for pattern recognition and algorithms or a whole lot of practice. And something else, Brayton said. “Anyone can do it, but you have to be smart to begin with,” he said. A gathering of crack solvers sparks quite a bit of difficult-to-follow cubing chat. As the organizers took the cubes – each of them brought their own – and scrambled them in the same way, the contestants talked strategy and tricks (different formations beyond solid colors on all sides). The group’s members, who all agreed they’re pretty strong math students, took to cubing for various reasons. Baer says they are a great way to pass time. Becky Asp, 15, of Hankinson, N.D., likes the challenge. Feickert says he likes solving cubes because it impresses people. Kellyn Wolff, 20, of Fargo, is a puzzle fanatic and the Rubik’s is the toughest one he has found. Ashlee Randklev, an 18-year-old from Barnesville, Minn., just took up cube solving when her little brother got one on Christmas Eve. She had it figured out by morning. 
The contest started when we gave the contestants a cube to hold behind their backs. Once all were distributed, they had 20 seconds to study the random formation. Showing he has a flair for both the logical and the theatrical, Brayton declined to use all of his studying time during both runs, looking up as the others peered at their puzzles. When the timekeeper said go, bystanders heard the swift clicking sound of the puzzles being twisted as the solvers’ fingers flew around the cubes. One by one, the contestants lifted their heads when finished, holding out their cubes to show the finished solution. Only once was one unable to complete the puzzle. “I was so nervous,” Randklev said. “I thought I was done and then I messed up on the last row.” But even for those who finished further back in the pack, the speed-solving contest (it was the first for all of them) had some value. “It lets you know you’re not the only one out there that’s like you,” Feickert said. | 
