4 Ways Cubing Is Related to Chess

Hey guys! Today I'll be showing you how cubing, which is the art of solving a twisty-puzzle-cube, is related to chess. 

Many of you guys know and have seen these hard puzzles, or commonly known as, "Rubik's Cubes." It's very hard to find a straight-up good cuber, not just solving a regular Rubik's Branded 3x3. I mean hard-core GAN 356 Air SM, Average: 13 second solvers, who have a variety of cubes, mostly WCA legal ones.

Variations are infinite, coming from 3x3x3s to 21x21x21s, Megaminxes to Hexagonal Dino Cubes, and more and more and even more.

Don't worry, if you don't understand anything I'm saying, it's fine. I'll explain when I actually get to the point. 

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1. ALGORITHMS

Not knowing your algorithms when solving a cube is like not knowing how to move any peice when playing in an OTB tournament. 

Algorithms MAKE UP cubing, just like how moves and tactics make up a chess game.

One of the many algorithms you need to know to solve a cube using CFOP.

And to remember why you should move where, you have to memorize them, and keep on making moves until it becomes instinctively easy to play.

Take for example, a 3x3x3 cube. It has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 permutations, or possible configurations. 

And, the fastest 3x3 cube solve of 2018 is broken at a whooping 4.22 seconds by Felix Zemdegs, using the method called CFOP. (Cross, First Two Layers, {F2L} Orientation of the Last Layer, {OLL} and Permutation of the Last Layer. {PLL})

Guess what? OLL itself has 57 algorithms you need to memorize, and the total number of algorithms you need to memorize for CFOP is around 85, not including intuitive F2L cases, each algorithm consisting of an average of seven moves. 

So how do they do it? Let's see what happens with no intuition:

• Your brain actually sees 1/10th of a second slower. What this means is that you are seeing in the past, and if you were using the method CFOP, the average number of algorithms being 5<, (3< cases of F2L, 1 OLL case, and 1< PLL case) your brain would fry if you didn't have intuition. And if we divide 4.2 seconds by the least number of algorithms to solve a cube, that's 0.85 seconds for each algorithm. Since you are seeing 1/10th slower than the real world, that makes it 0.75 seconds, and if we account friction and how long the brain reacts to the situation, it turns to a sad 0.5 seconds for each algorithm. 
• Keep in mind that your brain has to see all the colors, process it, and go to your long term memory to bring out the case of where you last solved that particular permutaion, and go through each and every memory until you find the correct algorithm.

Ouch.

Thankfully, whatever you believe in (evolution, God, etc.) gave your brain a right hemisphere, specifically a ventromedial prefrontal cortex, cerebral cortex, and a locus coeruleus, all helping with intuition.

Felix Zemdegs planed out what he would do, literally saw into the future, just like how good chess players would think what the opponent would play, and use that info for their own deeds. 

Okay, that was too long...

2. MOVING AND RULES

Chess is a game about strategic skill for both players, the object of the game to put the opponent's king under a direct attack from which escape is impossible, following obvious rules like illegally attacking a piece.

And you wouldn't be able to do that fairly without knowing the rules or moves, just like cubing.

All variations or types of cubes have their own mechanism. A 3x3 can have many, the most popular having a core:

A Special-Edition Moyu Guanlong and it's mechanism.

Knowing the mechanism can help you know how you even move cube, playing with it for a long time as well. You might be thinking, "I know how to move any type of Rubik's Cube!!!11!!1!"

                                   

Figured it out?

                                     

How about this; a diamond delight?

Playing with the actual cube and larning how to solve it by watching others can help you learn how to move a reti cube, (shown above) and know it's notations

3. VARIATIONS

We all know that chess has different alterations, for example, King of the Hill or Bughouse. 

Same with cubing. A standard 3x3 can have bandages, which allow you to only make certain moves, trying to catch different goals. Things like a latch-bandage on a 3x3 is painstakenly hard to solve.

                                               

A cool-looking bandaged 3x3 variant.

I get mad just by looking at this. This cube is so annoying to solve, you can only move where the arrow points.

4. STICKER MODS

Chess.com offers a variety of themes, from a green board to "Icy Sea," or "Glass." 

Well, cubing has sticker mods, or different color stickers! We can costomize our cubes however we want... Hehehehehehe...

This blue sticker sci-fi-ish mod looks like my style of oofyness... Wait wot did I just say?

Thanks for reading guys! This was kind of a rush, but I still made it out in one hour. If you're a cuber or wanna-be-cuber and you wanna buy premium good cubes, you can check out cubicle.us or speedcubeshop.com! They sell good quality cubes, stickers, tools, and others for your own cubing needs!

Note: I am not sponsored or endorsed in any way or profiting from these companies, I am stating my own opinion of the best cubing shops. (So please don't mute me, Chess.com staff lol)