Six-year-old Lian Yunzhi sets women's Rubik's Cube world record twice in three days
The Chengdu girl became the first female speedcuber to average under 4.5 seconds on the 3x3x3 cube.
What to know
- Lian Yunzhi, six, of Chengdu, is the first and only female speedcuber to average under 4.5 seconds on the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube.
- She broke the women's world record twice in three days at World Cube Association competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou, improving from 4.52 to 4.27 seconds.
- Her mother says she trains two to three hours daily and has mastered over 1,300 solving algorithms.
- The story was first reported by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV before spreading to international outlets including CNN and BBC.
“It's not just about blindly memorising formulas, but using logical reasoning to find optimal solutions”
Lin Yangxi, Lian Yunzhi's mother · Chengdu's Red Star News, via Yahoo Sports ↗ · Sep 21
Lian Yunzhi Six-year-old speedcuber, nicknamed "Zhizhi"Lin Yangxi Lian's motherCCTV Chinese state broadcasterWorld Cube Association Governing body for competitive speedcubing
How it unfolded 0 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump
-
background
State broadcaster CCTV reports on record and Lian's training regimen — CCTV publicised the achievement, and Lian's mother Lin Yangxi described her daughter's training of two to three hours a day and mastery of over 1,300 solving algorithms, before international outlets including BBC, Yahoo and Bangkok Post picked up the story.
-
background
Lian breaks her own record again, averaging 4.27 seconds in Guangzhou — Three days after her first record, Lian lowered her average to 4.27 seconds across five solves at a competition in Guangzhou, becoming the only female speedcuber ever to average under 4.5 seconds.
-
background
Lian Yunzhi sets first women's world record, averaging 4.52 seconds — At a World Cube Association certified competition in Wuhan, the six-year-old posted a new women's 3x3x3 average world record of 4.52 seconds.
What people are saying 17 voices from 2 sites · verbatim
- Yesterday
-
It's for the same reason we split any contest by gender: so women can win it.Chess has a whole separate WxM category so while if they're really good at chess they can become a real GM, but there's also an easier category called WGM (Woman Grandmaster). Same for IM, FM, and CM - they're just as open to women as to men, but they still have easier…
-
before opening - I hope she is not Asianof course she is Asian, poor kid, Asian parents do this to their kids, so they excel in one field/discipline after hundreds of hours training and lost childhood, it's completely meaningless victory for her future life, but at least parent's ego was stroked and they have now bragging rights, sad...for anyone…
-
When the differences are in the one tens and one hundreds of a second, isn't the initial configuration a huge factor? How do they prepare the start for a competition like this? Can't just be a random scramble, right?
-
I would be interested to see a leaderboard comparison between male and female cubers. As far as I know, there should be no real biological advantage either way
-
R
Not sure she even watched YouTube videos to learn. https://www. theguardian.com/games/2026/sep /22/six-year-old-chinese-girl-rubiks-cube-world-record-lian-yunzhi Yes, she is ranked by the World Cube Association (which you probably didn't even know was a thing!): Yunzhi Lian (连允之) https://www. worldcubeassociation.org/perso ns/2025LIAN01 #…
-
I was surprised, too, and looked it up. WCA officially doesn't differentiate. The human World Record is 3.51 currently held by a Yiheng Wang (male). So there is quite a gap to the new record by Lian Yunzh. But if she continues like that, I think we will find out soon whether there are any biologic reasons for the gap or if it is just because there…
-
It's probably more about encouraging participation in the event amongst women. There's probably a hundred male competitive cubers for every female cuber. Having it segregated means that stories like this find their way onto the front page of HN.
-
So happy to see that she is still 100% kid, but with superpowers that surprise her, first, I might add, because she is just fast like that. As a (past) cuber myself, but generaly into almost any competitive hand eye cordination thing, it would be fun to introduce her to the full varity of targeting, thrown or shot , and similar sports, and more…
-
I'm a bit curious about the rationale behind splitting the category by gender for rubik's cube. Is there a difference in dexterity to justify it?Sound about as useful as splitting rubik's cube champion by weight class.Video looks impressive, though the resources poured into that training seems excessive to me. Maybe I'm too poor and don't…
-
For her, it's all downhill from here.Which is a good thing, because going downhill is fun and easy!
- Sep 23
-
A
Six-year-old girl from China breaks Rubik's Cube world record https://www. bbc.com/news/videos/cmvgyzgnq9 e3o
-
Six-year-old girl sets Rubik's Cube world record https:// abcnews.com/video/136698922/?u tm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub Posted into News @ news-abc
-
Six-year-old breaks Rubik's cube record https:// abcnews.com/video/136678731/?u tm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub Posted into News @ news-abc
-
S
https://www. abc.net.au/news/2026-09-23/six -year-old-solves-rubiks-cube-in-just-over-four-seconds/107184182?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web
- Sep 22
-
B
Six-year-old girl from China sets new Rubik's Cube world record (Why is there still no emoji for a Rubik's Cube‽) https://www. bbc.com/news/videos/cmvgyzgnq9 e3o
-
F
6-year-old Chinese girl sets world record for solving a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube in just over four seconds (Video: ANSA) # AureFreePress # News # rubikscube
- Sep 21
-
B
# BBC # News Watch: Six-year-old girl from China sets new Rubik's Cube world record