Richmond speed cuber finds swift solutions

If you blink, you’re likely to miss a good portion of the magic 12-year-old Jonah Chen can perform with a Rubik’s Cube.

That’s because the Spul’u’kwuks Grade 7 student takes just three seconds to solve the 2x2x2 version of the venerable puzzle — a time that won him first place in the regional Canadian Cubing event Aug. 23 at the Magic Stronghold Games store in Vancouver.

Smaller than the usual 4x4x4 cube that took the world by storm in the early 1980s, Jonah’s 2x2x2 version is one he customized himself, with specially lubricated hinges, and filed down inner workings designed to be manipulated at high speed.

But that’s not the secret to his swift solutions.

In fact, the secret is so secret, Jonah is not sure himself how he twists and twirls the cube to align the cube’s back into their colour uniformed places.

The solutions just seem to come to him instinctively.

“Math has a lot to do with it,” says Jonah’s dad, Sam. “And Jonah is an A-student at math.”

In fact, SFU has a math course dedicated to the toy.

Although, if you ask Sam, one of the reasons for his son’s success with the cube is owed to his focused attention.

“Jonah is very driven,” Sam said. “If he finds something he really likes and is interested in, he will work very hard on it. It’s like him with golf now.”

Jonah has recently taken up the sport at Quilchena Golf Course near their Terra Nova home.

“I have been golfing for 15 years and Jonah is better than me after less than a year,” Sam said. “He likes golf, so he’ll really practise hard.”

To help draw awareness to Jonah’s accomplishment, David Lee Kwen, president of Misty Mountain Specialties, and a friend of Jonah’s dad, is buying the competition-winning cube with the provision the funds go towards a local charity.

“That way everybody wins,” said Kwen, who said he was a Rubik’s Cube fan as a youngster, but not to Jonah’s level.

“I used to get two sides done and thought that was enough,” quipped Kwen, who is a cell biologist, studying sciences at UBC. “But I was never a grand master.”

Kwen added he is also hoping to draw attention to the cube, and similar, complex puzzles, as alternatives to youth consuming passive forms of digital information and entertainment.

“This kind of stuff requires brain power,” Kwen said.

As for where Jonah will go next with his penchant for solving Rubik’s Cube puzzles, there is a world competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil next July, but his dad is not making a commitment to that.

“Right now, Jonah is more about golf,” he said. “We’ll see where that takes him. But the Rubik’s Cube training is something he can use when it comes to the rest of his school work, when classes go back.”