After record feat, speed cuber gunning for Guinness world record title
Kesava improved his time by frequenting local level Cube competitions
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-08-12 06:42 GMT
Chennai: It is difficult to solve a Rubik’s cube. But not for 15-year-old Kesava Kirupa Dinakaran. He can solve more than a 100 of them at a stretch. Earlier this month, Kesava went after a speed solving record for the most number of Ru-bik’s cube puzzle solved in an hour. The previous record was held by a French man, Thomas Watiotienne, when he solved 210 back in 2013. When the clock finally wound down, Kesava had solved 293, a Guinness world record.
“It is not a big task, not really that hard,” said the Class 11 student, in a tone of maturity that belies his age. “You don’t need to have a high IQ to solve it. I mean, I have seen clips of three-year-olds solving the cube on the Internet. It just takes a lot of practice and knowledge of a simple method to solve the puzzle,” he said.
Kesava’s interest in Rubik’s puzzles was piqued by a classmate of his, who would often be seen with and solving one, while in Class 7. “I learnt the basics from him. In just a week, I solved a cube in one minute and 11 seconds,” he said.
Thereafter, Kesava improved his time by frequenting local level Cube competitions. “In five months, I was taking part in a national competition held in Kerala and I managed to solve one in 18 seconds. Now, I just need 8.4 seconds on ave-rage,” he said. With Guinness set to verify the teenager’s feat, Kesava has already trained his sight on breaking another one. “There are a lot of talented cubers in India. There is this record by a Spanish team of nine cubers, who solved 1,840 puzzles among them in an hour. I hope to find a team who will be interested to take a shot,” he said.
On an individual level, Kesava wants to take on the world’s best at the Rubik’s Cube World Championships in 2017. Feliks Zemdegs, the Australian teenager, who is the reigning world champion, is his role model. In two years, he is hoping to best the Aussie.
But with cubing as such set to remain a pastime exploit in India, Kesava is ready to go in search of greener pastures that will permit him to indulge his passion.
“After 12th, I want to pursue computer engineering in one of the Ivy League schools in the U.S. I will have a better chance of admission because over there, cube solving is seen as a proper extra-curricular activity for a student to indulge in,” Kesava said.
Although he hopes that Indians see cubing as much more than just a hobby, he believes that at the rate with which cubing events are gaining popularity, it wouldn’t be long before it can stake a place in the Olympics.