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Watch a Rubik's Cube World Record Holder Explain His Craft

World champion speedcuber Feliks Zemdegs shares the secret to his craft.

Since 2010, Rubik's Cube speed solver Feliks Zemdegs has broken a number of world records. That includes several instances of the 3x3x3 (a standard Rubik's Cube) world record, with his latest record of 4.73 seconds set at the end of last year.

In a recent video, Zemdegs described the record-breaking solve to Matt Parker, a "maths communicator" and comedian. While the camera work in the video doesn't always capture exactly what Zemdegs is pointing out, the lesson comes across so long as you don't mind a little speedcubing jargon. For example, Zemdegs often references things like "OLL," or Orientation of the Last Layer, a part of the time-tested CFOP method for 3x3x3 speedcubing.

Read More: Watch This Robot Solve a Rubik's Cube in Less Than A Second

The short version of Zemdegs' record-breaking solve is that the scramble—the starting state of the cube—was conducive to a cross pattern that allowed Zemdegs to anticipate the first few moves of the solve. Even so, Zemdegs says he made at least one mistake during his rotations, so it's possible that solving will get even faster.

Zemdegs also goes over the differences between a traditional Rubik's Cube and the likes of a 4x4x4 all the way up to the Megaminx, a Rubik's Cube in the shape of a dodecahedron. Although Zemdegs' advice isn't going to make you a speedcube champion overnight, it does offer some fascinating insight into the logic of speed cubing from the perspective of someone who holds eight different world records.

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