Tyson Mao

File:Tysonmao.jpg

Tyson Mao

Tyson Francis Mao (born on May 8, 1984 in San Francisco, California), is one of the world's top competitive Rubik's Cube solvers. He is known especially for his prominence in the 3x3x3 blindfold Rubik's Cube category where his competition times are currently surpassed only by Leyan Lo, Matyas Kuti, and Chris Krueger. In 2004, with Ron van Bruchem, he formed the World Cube Association, the organization that holds competitive events for the Rubik's Cube. On January 12, 2006, he appeared on the CW Television Network's "Beauty and the Geek" as one of the participants of the second incarnation of the reality television show.

Rubik's Cube

Speed solving

Tyson is considered a new generation Rubik's Cube solver, or speedcuber. The Rubik's Cube first reached a high level of prominence in the world soon after the toy was released in 1980. Tyson began solving the cube during the puzzle's second emergence in 2003.

After approximately one month of practice with his brother's beginner solution, on August 31, 2003, Tyson recorded a best average of 1 minute 22.26 seconds and a best time of 1 minute 06.33 seconds. Soon after his brother decided to switch to a method developed by Lars Petrus, and on September 10, Tyson recorded a best average of 59.26 seconds and a best time of 45.39 seconds.

Tyson currently uses the method developed by Jessica Fridrich. On September 3, 2004, Tyson broke the 20-second barrier on the Rubik's Cube, an accomplishment considered to be the defining moment for the Rubik's Cube elite. Also, on the same day, he recorded a best time of 14.18 seconds. Top speedcuber's improvement has been very rapid since 2003 and contemporary Rubik's Cube solvers would consider the elite bench mark to be the 15-second barrier.

Blindfold solving

Tyson began solving the Rubik's Cube blindfolded under the guidance of Leyan Lo and Shotaro Makisumi in April of 2005. On May 31, 2005, Tyson completed his first successful solve. The Rubik's Cube was scrambled with the algorithm F B' U F2 R2 D' R2 L2 D' B' R2 F2 D' B2 L F2 U' R2 F2 L2 U F' R' D' L (view animation) and was completed in 6 minutes 14.97 seconds. His first solve is one of the fastest first blindfold solves in the world. On June 6, 2005, Tyson completed his sixth solve by solving the Rubik's Cube blindfolded in 4 minutes 20.56 seconds. By July of 2005, Tyson was regularly completing solves in under 2 minutes and 30 seconds. As of September 2006, his fastest achieved time is 1 minute 20.18 seconds. However, this solve was not achieved in competition and did not count as the world record.

Tyson is credited for developing a three "diagonal" corner permutation for blindfold solving. In the case where one must permute three corners where two of them lie diagonally across from each other in one layer and the third corner is in the other layer, it can be very difficult to perform and manipulate the setup moves. During an explanation by Leyan Lo, Tyson misinterpreted Leyan's method and came up with the now more commonly used method, the basic algorithm for which is [(R' F R F')x3 U2]x2 (view animation).

Rubik's Cube times

• 3x3x3 Speed Solve: 12.89 seconds

November 6, 2005, World Rubik's Cube Championships 2005 in Orlando, Florida.

• 3x3x3 Speed Solve Average of 5: 16.91 seconds

November 6, 2005, World Rubik's Cube Championships 2005 in Orlando, Florida.

• 3x3x3 Blindfold Speed Solve: 1 minute 54.33 seconds

November 6, 2005, World Rubik's Cube Championships 2005 in Orlando, Florida.

Trivia

He taught Will Smith how to solve a rubik's cube for the movie The Pursuit of Happyness.

Media appearances

• Beauty and the Geek 2
• TWINS
• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (Air date: January 27, 2006)
• USA Network: Show Us Your Character
• CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 (Air date: December 15, 2006)
• Identity
• Chung Yi Da Ge Da (Taiwanese TV show)

References

• 'Beauty and the Geek' returns to TV, Calgary Sun
• Brothers square off in cubing contest, San Francisco Chronicle
• Brain Trust Behind 'Beauty And The Geek' Says More Stereotype Breaking In Works, TBO.com

External links

• Tyson's Website
• Tyson's Website at Caltech
• Tyson's Blog
• Tyson Mao, entry on The Internet Movie Database