Jump to content

Skewb

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Skewb in solved state
The four turning planes of the Skewb bisect it as shown in this figure.

The Skewb (/ˈskjuːb/) is a combination puzzle and a mechanical puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube. It was invented by Tony Durham and marketed by Uwe Mèffert.[1] Although it is cubical, it differs from the typical cubes' construction; its axes of rotation pass through the corners of the cube, rather than the centers of the faces. There are four axes, one for each space diagonal of the cube. As a result, it is a deep-cut puzzle in which each twist affects all six faces.

Mèffert's original name for this puzzle was the Pyraminx Cube, to emphasize that it was part of a series including his first tetrahedral puzzle, the Pyraminx. The name Skewb was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in his Metamagical Themas column. Mèffert liked the new name enough to apply it to the Pyraminx Cube, and he also named some of his other puzzles after it, such as the Skewb Diamond.[2]

In December 2013, the Skewb was recognized as an official World Cube Association competition event.[3]

Mechanism

[edit]
The Master Skewb, a variant of the Skewb

The Skewb's pieces are divided into subgroups and have several constraints. The eight corners are split into two groups—the four corners attached to the central four-armed spider and the four "floating" corners that can be removed from the mechanism easily. These corners cannot be interchanged i.e. in a single group of four corners, their relative positions are unchanged. A floating corner can be distinguished by squishing down when applying pressure to the corner. The centers only have two possible orientations, seen by scrambling a Skewb-like puzzle where the center orientation is visible (such as the Skewb Diamond or Skewb Ultimate), or by disassembling the puzzle.

Records

[edit]

The world record for single solve is 0.73 seconds, set by Vojtěch Grohmann of the Czech Republic at Głuszyca Open 2026.[4]

The world record for average of 5 solves (excluding fastest and slowest) is 1.37 seconds, set by Ignacy Samselski of Poland at Cube Factory League Justynów 2025, with times of 1.22, 1.43, (1.16), 1.46, and (2.93) seconds.[4]

Top 10 solvers by single solve

[edit]
RankName[5]ResultCompetition
1Czech Republic Vojtěch Grohmann0.73sPoland Głuszyca Open 2026
2United States Carter Kucala0.75sUnited States Going Fast in Grandview 2024
3Spain Alex Rosado Saez de Langarica0.80sSpain Tafalla Open 2026
4United States Zayn Khanani0.81sCanada Rubik's WCA North American Championship 2022
5India Divij Yadav0.83sIndia BITS Pilani Cube Open 2025
6Poland Tomasz Pietruszka0.84sPoland Polish Championship 2025
7United States Simon Kellum0.85sUnited States Going Fast in Grandview 2024
8United States Brayden Wroten0.86sUnited States Oredigger Open CO 2025
China Kaixi Guo (郭铠希)China Guangzhou Special 2026
10Poland Szymon Brągiel0.87sPoland Żory Open 2025
Poland Polish Championship 2025

Top 10 solvers by Olympic average of 5 solves

[edit]
RankName[6]ResultCompetitionTimes
1Poland Ignacy Samselski1.37sPoland Cube Factory League Justynów 20251.22, 1.43, (1.16), 1.46, (2.93)
2Czech Republic Vojtěch Grohmann1.40sCzech Republic Czech Championship 20261.36, (3.74), (1.14), 1.58, 1.26
3Poland Oskar Hanuszkiewicz1.51sPoland Cube Factory League Kalisz 2026(1.18), 1.61, 1.22, 1.71, (2.66)
4United States Carter Kucala1.52sUnited States CubingUSA Heartland Championship 20241.65, 1.45, (2.57), (1.37), 1.45
United States Machesney Park Spring 20261.75, 1.32, (2.59), (1.28), 1.50
China Kaixi Guo (郭铠希)China Xi'an Summer 20261.52, 1.85, (1.08), (DNF), 1.18
5United States Dominic Redisi1.53sUnited States Rubik’s WCA North American Championship 2024(2.05), 1.63, 1.43, 1.52, (1.07)
7Spain Alex Rosado Saez de Langarica1.54sSpain Sarriguren Open 2025(0.95), 1.24, (2.32), 1.75, 1.64
8United States Zayn Khanani1.56sUnited States Pretzel Mania 20221.30, (1.20), 1.79, 1.60, (4.89)
United States Dean Jacob Adamo SusskindUnited States Bay Area Speedcubin' 69 20261.30, (1.18), 1.82, (2.03), 1.56
10United Kingdom Ariel Benchetrit1.57sUnited Kingdom Wiltshire Spring 20261.56, 1.56, (2.41), (1.41), 1.59

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Tony Durham Mechanical Puzzles". The Metagrobologist (Wayback Machine archive). Archived from the original on August 12, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Jaap's Puzzle Page, Skewb Page". Jaap's Puzzle Page.
  3. ↑ "Add Skewb. Resolves issue #102. · thewca/wca-regulations@66d6da9". GitHub. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  4. 1 2 World Cube Association
  5. ↑ World Cube Association
  6. ↑ World Cube Association
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skewb&oldid=1377966123"