Rubik’s Cube World Championships 2011 Final Results

cube, speedcubing
# Name Country 1 2 3 4 5 Best Worst Average
1 Michal Pleskowicz Poland 8.94 7.68 8.41 8.72 8.83 7.68 8.94 8.65
2 Rowe Hessler USA 8.52 8.77 10.61 10.02 9.90 8.52 10.61 9.56
3 Feliks Zemdegs Australia 9.21 9.46 11.55 10.06 9.13 9.13 11.55 9.58
4 Giovanni Contardi Italy 10.40 10.30 10.28 8.61 7.96 7.96 10.40 9.73
5 Yumu Tabuchi Japan 11.25 10.05 9.59 11.06 10.21 9.59 11.25 10.44
6 Mats Valk Netherlands 8.21 10.86 10.83 9.90 11.00 8.21 11.00 10.53
7 Yu Nakajima Japan 14.28 10.81 10.61 8.81 10.43 8.81 14.28 10.62
8 Bence Barát Hungary 12.96 10.03 11.78 10.44 10.31 10.03 12.96 10.84
9 Sergey Ryabko Russia 10.28 10.55 9.18 14.25 12.78 9.18 14.25 11.20
10 Paolo Moriello Italy 9.31 11.13 11.36 11.59 DNF 9.31 DNF 11.36
11 Hao-Zheng Lin Taiwan 11.30 13.19 11.31 11.33 12.86 11.30 13.19 11.83
12 Kailong Li China 15.43 11.84 12.93 DNF 12.33 11.84 DNF 13.56

Timer and updates

cube

I have removed the Meebo chat bar and the Facebook connect option on the site. Sorry if this is an inconvenience, but I noticed these scripts were interfering with several of my own scripts, and also they were slowing down the site tremendously. So, we have a fast site again, and you can of course still share this on facebook manually, please do!

New Speedcubing World Champion

cube, speedcubing

I just got word that the new speedcubing world champion is Breandan Vallance of the UK. He managed to set an average time of 10.74 seconds.

It seems Breandan got better over time during the competition. First round he scored a best time of 11.47, then in the semi finals got a best time of 10.43 and in the finals scored a rocking 9.63.

Here's a video of him setting a national record (not at world championships this is):

Here are all of his results

Round Place Best Average Result Details
Final 1 9.63 10.74 10.19 11.78 11.80 10.25 9.63
Semi Final 10 10.43 12.2 15.97 10.43 12.06 12.90 11.65
First 19 11.47 12.8 14.40 12.34 12.34 11.47 13.71

Amazing, congratulations. Also to Dan Cohen for setting a world record on the Revenge (4x4), Michal Halczuk on 7x7, Piotr Michal Padlewski on Square-1, B¡lint Bodor on MegaMinx, and Yumu Tabuchi for one-handed.

New Advanced Tutorial

cube, speedcubing
Tada! I would like to announce the official publication of my new advanced tutorial. For the renowned speedcubers, this does not compare to an advanced method as Fridrich or Petrus, so in that sense it's more 'intermediate'. The method has some very nice characteristics that I'd like to mention:
  • it can easily end up in a solve of less then 50 moves HTM without much luck (however it could also lead to 70-80 moves when you're not so lucky)
  • it is an excellent follow-up on the beginners method
  • it is an excellent preparation for CFOP and COLL (see glossary)
  • it requires a limited set of algorithms (minimum 13), though the full method comprises much more than the beginners method.

If you are interested in learning it, I'd like to know about it, drop me a line. Make sure you know the beginners method before you start, that helps tremendously.

I have not seen a method like this published before, but if  you know of someone who has, please let me know.

Stay posted for updated material and a video.

Online shop launched

cube, speedcubing

I have just launched the vanderblonk.com online shop. Here you can buy your very own personal training session with Michiel (that's me!). I am a certified trainer with a lot of experience, and of course also a renowned speedcuber.

You can expect a lot from a training session, however I would like people to realize that learning to solve a Rubik's cube is hardly feasible within one hour. You would need multiple sessions, or continue to study on your own.

But, most definitely I can help you get a head start, or help you finish where you're stuck.

And if the videos and tutorial helped you enough for your needs, and you'd like to show your gratitude, there's now a donate button, so please help me to support this website in the future.

Just upgraded to WordPress 2.8 beta

Personal stuff, software
wordpress-logo
WordPress

This site just got updated to WordPress 2.8 beta. If you see anything that doesn't work properly let me know.

Well, that is... anything except for alglist.ning.com, my hosted database of cube algorithms. Unfortunately it has been down for a while, and it looks like it has no intention of getting up.

I have emailed pointless times to ning.com that they should get it together and help me to get my site back, but they refuse. At a certain point in time they simply disabled the use of PHP on the site, without letting me know. Now they simply disabled my site, naming it "we're taking a short break", like they're doing some kind of maintenance. But the fact is that that same message has been there for over a month already. Not so short!

I am currently developing a new site that is much more fantastic then alglist.ning.com ever was, so I'll keep you posted on that.

Website update

cube, Personal stuff, PHP, speedcubing, Uncategorized

The last couple of weeks I have been working hard updating my website www.vanderblonk.com. It's been fun, but I'm hardly ready, there is so much more to do. Let me give you a little breakdown of what has been done and what you can expect in the (near) future:

  • There is a new home page
  • The applet has already been greatly improved, e.g. you can now enter any parameters of the applet in the url.
  • I placed google ads. I know not everyone likes ads, but I think everyone mature enough in our field (speedcubing, programming) knows how to disable them. I get a lot of juice from wikipedia of which I am grateful.

And soon:

  • I will make some help text available for all the new awesome options (which I am not revealing yet)
  • Not very useful to you, but I will integrate the style of the home page in all of my pages, it's still a collection of pages, and not a real site this way. Let me know if you like it.