World Rubik’s Games Championships in Toronto this summer

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Get Ready Toronto — the Cubists are coming! This summer the Ontario Science Centre will host The World Rubik’s Games Championships featuring the celebrated RUBIK’s Cube® on Saturday, August 23 and Sunday, August 24. More than 300 of the world’s fastest, brainiest, most remarkable Cubists will pit themselves against the RUBIK’s Cube… and other Rubik games… for global bragging rights and $18,000 in cash prizes.

The weekend-long event will feature mind-boggling competition ranging from Speed and Blindfolded Cubing, to Underwater, One-handed and Foot Cubing, and a spectacular two hour finale featuring super-human feats of Cubing. New world records will be set by contestants competing in three age groups: 18 and under; 19 to 39; and 40 and over. Winners from each group will advance to the Final for a shot at the title, RUBIK’s Cube World Champion.

The 2003 World Rubik’s Games Championships

Date: Saturday, August 23 and Sunday, August 24
Time: 11 AM – 5 PM daily
Sunday Finale – 3 PM
Where: The Ontario Science Centre
177 Don Mills Road, Toronto

Forty three quintillion configurations
The RUBIK’s Cube was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik, a professor at the Hungarian Academy of Crafts and Design in Budapest. His original intent was to create a cube with parts that could move around a centre axis. He painted each side a different colour for demonstration purposes, and accidentally stumbled upon the puzzle we now know… and love, as the RUBIK’s Cube.
Untold millions have attempted to solve the RUBIK’s Cube. Few have succeeded, but some can solve it in seconds.
RUBIK’s Cube’s 27 pieces appear fairly simple to solve, but they hide an astonishing forty three quintillion (43,252,003,274,489,856,000) different configurations! “God’s Algorithm,” the fewest number of moves it takes to solve a completely scrambled Cube, is 22 by some calculations.

A source of joy and frustration for some of the world’s top minds, professors at M.I.T. stage regular Cube-ins. World leaders have used the Cube as a metaphor for global complexity.

The Guinness Book of World Records 2003 names American, Minh Thai, as the world’s fastest Cuber at 22.95 seconds. No doubt, new records will be set in Toronto, by competitors said to master the Cube in under 17 seconds.

The RUBIK’s Cube: classic fun and games
The world’s all-time fastest selling toy or game at its launch in 1980, and now having sold more than 250 million makes it the world best selling puzzle or game EVER!. The RUBIK’s Cube won top toy awards in Britain, Germany, France and the United States when first introduced. Today retailers consider it a classic, as a new generation of Cubists challenge the puzzle with outstanding speed.

+Who knows what solutions will take centre stage at the Toronto World Rubik’s Games Championships, August 23 – 24, at the Ontario Science Centre? An entirely new set of Master Cubists will awe and inspire with feats of speed and memory.

For more information please visit www.rubikschamps.com or www.rubiks.com.

To attend or learn more about the World Rubik’s Games Championships, please contact David Weinstein or Stephen Hodge at Strategic Objectives: TEL: 416-336-7735, Fax: 416-366-2295, or e-Mail: davidw@strategicobjectives.com

RUBIK’s Cube® is a registered trademark of Seven Towns