1982 World Rubik's Cube Championship

Minh Thai standing next to the timer after setting his 22.95 world record single.
Tournament information
Sport	Speedcubing
Location	Budapest, Hungary
Dates	5 June 1982–5 June 1982
Teams	19
Final champion
Minh Thai

The 1982 World Rubik's Cube Championship was a competition for speedsolving the 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube.

It was held in Budapest, Hungary, on 5 June 1982.^[1] Contestants selected from 19 countries took part.^[1] Minh Thai from the United States of America was the winner with a best time of 22.95 after three attempts for each contestant. The top attempt of three was taken as the competitor's score.^[2] First prize was a gold-plated Rubik's Cube.^[1]

Writing shortly afterwards, David Singmaster who was one of the judges, described the competition as being efficiently organized, although at one point power for the TV and the display timer failed in the middle of a trial.^[3] The cubes were selected by Ernő Rubik himself, and according to Singmaster "competitors described them as pretty good".^[3] However, writing around 20 years later, Jessica Fridrich who had participated in the contest, criticised the cubes for being "really hard to turn and were not prepared for serious speed cubing".^[4]

This competition was the first officially recognised competition of its kind. The next competition was held in 2003 in Canada, with many differences to the competition structure and many other puzzles being added other than the Rubik's Cube.^[5] The World Cube Association, founded in 2004, retroactively recognizes the results of the 1982 championship despite substantial differences between the event and modern speedsolving competitions.

Results

The results were:^[3]

Place	Name	Time	Status	Country	Attempt 1	Attempt 2	Attempt 3
1	Minh Thai	22.95	WR	USA	27.16	22.95	27.97
2	Guus Razoux Schultz	24.32	ER	Netherlands	24.32	31.51	26.51
3	Zoltán Lábas	24.49	NR	Hungary	24.49	27.58	28.21
4	Lars Petrus	24.57	NR	Sweden	35.42	33.11	24.57
5	Ken'ichi Ueno (上野健一)	24.91	AsR	Japan	27.56	27.90	24.91
6	Jérôme Jean-Charles	25.06	NR	France	27.87	31.18	25.06
7	Julian Chilvers	25.95	NR	United Kingdom	30.59	25.95	27.46
8	Duc Trinh	26.63	NR	Canada	37.44	26.63	36.09
9	Giuseppe Romeo	28.11	NR	Italy	34.23	41.75	28.11
10	Jessica Fridrich	29.11	NR	Czech Republic	31.49	29.11	33.20
11	Eduardo Valdivia Chacón	29.62	SAR	Peru	34.91	29.62	30.01
12	Luc Van Laethem	29.73	NR	Belgium	32.92	34.98	29.73
13	József Borsos	30.02	NR	Yugoslavia	36.75	35.33	30.02
14	Ronald Brinkmann	30.59	NR	Germany	34.80	30.59	32.52
15	Jari Sandqvist	31.17	NR	Finland	31.17	DNF*	31.56
16	Manuel Galrinho	37.11	NR	Portugal	40.74	48.67	37.11
17	Piotr Serbeński	37.50	NR	Poland	44.40	37.50	40.86
18	Svilen Tenev	47.29	NR	Bulgaria	51.88	47.29	47.35
19	Josef Trajber	50.16	NR	Austria	50.16	54.93	58.99

WR = World Record

ER = European Record

AsR = Asian Record

SAR = South American Record

NR = National Record

• Sandqivst's second attempt was disqualified since his cube was broken twice in the same attempt. This was a violation of the competition rules and the attempt was stopped at that point.^[4]

References