A six-year-old Chinese girl has claimed the women's world record for solving a Rubik's Cube, averaging just 4.27 seconds per solve, a feat that took her from shy beginner to global record-holder in roughly two years.
Lian Yunzhi first broke through at a World Cube Association-certified competition in Wuhan, the central Chinese city in Hubei province, where she posted an average solving time of 4.52 seconds on the standard 3x3x3 cube. That alone was enough to set a new women's world record. She then topped herself at a second competition in Guangzhou, a major southern Chinese city, shaving her average down to 4.27 seconds. During one individual attempt at the Wuhan event, her small fingers worked the cube in approximately 3.54 seconds.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported the records on Monday, noting that Lian is now the only female speedcuber to achieve an average below 4.5 seconds. The World Cube Association has listed her on its website as the record holder for the fastest women's average time on the 3x3x3 cube.
Lian picked up her first Rubik's Cube at age four. It took her 90 seconds to solve it, CCTV reported. She initially lacked the confidence to compete.
Her parents saw something worth investing in. They brought her to Shanghai to train with top coaches, and the hours added up. Lian now trains roughly two to three hours a day and has memorized more than 1,300 solving formulas, the sequences of moves that experienced speedcubers deploy depending on the scramble they face.
CCTV reported that as Lian's results improved and she gained recognition, her enthusiasm grew, pushing her to train harder and push through the frustrations that come with competitive speedcubing at any age, let alone at six.
Her mother, Lin Yangxi, described the transformation in personal terms.
"She was an introverted kid. Now, she is very confident wherever she goes."
Both competitions where Lian set records were sanctioned by the World Cube Association, the international body that governs competitive speedcubing and maintains official records. The association's certification means the scrambles, timing equipment, and judging met its global standards, the same standards applied to adult competitors worldwide.
Video from the Wuhan competition showed Lian wearing a red hairband with a bow, her expression serious and locked in as she worked. After clocking the roughly 3.54-second single solve, she smiled and clapped.
The story leaves a few details unanswered. Neither the previous women's world record average nor the name of the prior record holder appeared in CCTV's reporting. The exact number of individual solves the World Cube Association uses to calculate an official "average" for this record category was also not specified. And the names of the Shanghai coaches who helped shape Lian's technique remain unreported.
What is clear is the scale of improvement: a child who needed a minute and a half to solve a single cube two years ago now averages under four and a half seconds across multiple attempts, under competition pressure, on a certified stage.
In a world that spends plenty of time celebrating shortcuts, there is something refreshing about a six-year-old who put in the work, 1,300 formulas, hours of daily practice, coaches in another city, and earned the result the old-fashioned way.
