A six-year-old Chinese girl has stunned the speedcubing world after breaking the women’s world record for solving a 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube twice in just three days.
Lian Yunzhi, from Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province, first established the record at a World Cube Association (WCA)-certified competition in Wuhan on September 12, recording an average time of 4.52 seconds over five solves. Just two days later, she travelled to Guangzhou and broke her own record, reducing the average to an extraordinary 4.27 seconds.
The achievement makes Lian the first female speedcuber to record an official average below 4.5 seconds. Her performance has attracted international attention not only because of the speed involved, but because she is only six years old.
Speedcubing is considerably more demanding than simply solving a Rubik’s Cube quickly. At official WCA competitions, competitors normally complete five solves, with the fastest and slowest attempts removed before the average of the remaining three is calculated. Lian’s 4.27-second Guangzhou average therefore represents an exceptional level of consistency as well as speed.
Footage from the Wuhan competition shows just how rapidly she can manipulate the cube. One of her individual solves was completed in approximately 3.54 seconds, although that time was not her official world-record average. At the Guangzhou competition, her five recorded times ranged from approximately 4.02 to 4.54 seconds.
Lian’s progress has been remarkably rapid. According to reports from Chinese media, she first encountered the Rubik’s Cube at about four years of age. What initially took her around 90 seconds to solve has developed into a skill capable of producing sub-five-second competition averages.
Her mother, Lin Yangxi, has said that Lian has learned more than 1,300 solving algorithms and has been training for approximately two to three hours a day. Her parents also took her to Shanghai to train with professional coaches as her ability became increasingly apparent.
The sheer number of algorithms Lian has learned illustrates an important part of competitive speedcubing. Although the finished cube may look like a simple children’s puzzle, elite competitors use highly developed systems of memorised sequences and rapid visual recognition. Competitors must recognise patterns almost instantaneously and then execute the appropriate sequence using extremely rapid finger movements.
The Rubik’s Cube itself was invented in 1974 by Hungarian architect and professor Ernő Rubik and became an international phenomenon after its commercial launch in the early 1980s. Today, competitive cubing has developed into a global sport with official competitions covering not only the standard 3x3x3 cube but also larger cubes, one-handed solving and blindfolded events.
Lian’s achievement is particularly notable because the overall world record for a single 3x3x3 solve is held by a male competitor. Nine-year-old Polish speedcuber Teodor Zajder recorded a single solve of 2.76 seconds earlier in 2026. Lian’s 4.27-second achievement is therefore a women’s average record rather than the overall single-solve world record.
Her rise also reflects a broader change in competitive cubing, where increasingly young competitors are reaching elite levels. The combination of intensive practice, memorisation, sophisticated solving techniques and increasingly specialised coaching has pushed performance well beyond what was possible when speedcubing first became popular.
For Lian, however, the numbers are only part of the story. Video footage shows her celebrating after completing her record-breaking solves, pumping her fist and applauding. Her mother has described the cube as an activity that has helped develop concentration, memory and logical thinking, while also giving her daughter greater confidence.
At six years old, Lian Yunzhi has already established herself in the record books. Her 4.27-second average demonstrates how far the boundaries of speedcubing have moved — and, given her age and rapid improvement, the Rubik’s Cube community will be watching closely to see how much further she can push them.
