In 2020, my big undertaking was getting better at Chess. I mostly accomplished that goal, having set my EOY target at the 1000 rating on Chess(dot)com while I was sinking to the mid 500s over the summer. I blew past 1100 in mid-December, but have plateaued a bit since then, so for 2021 I thought “why not set a goal outside of chess.”

I chose cubing.

There are a lot of overlaps between the two, honestly. They both involve pattern recognition, memory recall, and learning complex lines/algorithms. In a lot of ways, they remind me of studying music as a kid… I would sit in front of the piano, trombone, or guitar for hours, memorizing a piece of new music by slowly going through the motions over and over again… then coming back the next day to see how much I remembered without the sheet music, and then how fast I could go with it. For several years in a row, I did a piano challenge where I got a pin for memorizing and reciting 20 songs from memory. And for years after that, my practice habits and memory training is what helped me play trombone in marching and jazz band, plus guitar for various events (and just for fun jam sessions).

My wrist surgery but a hold on my musical hobbies, but studying philosophy and symbolic logic in college felt similar. And now, it’s nice to flex that part of my brain again with chess and cubing.

But back to the cube… I started with learning the beginner method fully (aka Layer By Layer or LBL). My times at the start of the year were around 3min with that method, but as I got better and could spam through the repetitive motions quicker, I got that down to just under 2min. Now, that’s nowhere near the 4sec solve times of speed cubers but I felt good about it.

The next step, was learning elements of CFOP, which build on the LBL method most people start with. I won’t get into the details since I made a vlog covering it (linked below), but it cuts out some steps and requires learning certain algorithms so when you see a pattern emerge you can quickly deal with it and get to the next stage.

As I’ve learned the various stages and algs that go with them, my time initially went back up over 2min (which is expected) but has now decreased to a new low of 47s (called “personal bests (PB)” in cubing circles). My average is a bit higher, landing around the 1min mark, but for having just spent a couple weeks with CFOP, and maybe a month relearning the cube as a whole, that feels great.

So what’s my end-goal or long-term hope with this? I’m not sure yet… with a lucky scramble, I could definitely get a sub-45s solve soon, but I think my longer-term goal will be to break the 30s barrier. To get there, that will involve making less moves and rotations on the cube, speeding up my turns per second TPS), and improving my look-ahead and overall fluency (seeing the next move before I finish the current alg).

My plan is to keep practicing for about 30m every weekday and maybe an hour over the weekend. To not just focus on 3×3 but get better at 2×2, pyraminx, and megaminx (which all have some similar algs and patterns to them). And to just keep having fun with it!

Expect new vlogs monthly, and some cool stop-motion vids of cube-art as well. The first of those is live on my social accounts, so check it out if you haven’t already.

And if you too want to join me in my learning to get better with the cube, the playlist that’s linked in my Vlog above is a great resource from JPerm. Seriously, don’t sleep on that series or his website: jperm.net. If you get started, feel free to share your times and experience with me! I’d love to have more cubing friends as I invest more and more time into this awesome hobby.

Maybe by the end of 2021 I’ll even see a few of you at local WCA comps!