My Life with CJ Furey: How I became Ireland's Rubik's cube champion

CJ Furey, Offaly, is Ireland’s reigning National Rubik’s Cube Speedsolving Champion

14-year-old CJ Furey, who holds the title of National Speedsolving Champion of the traditional 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube.

I can still remember the first time I picked up a Rubik’s cube.

I was eight years old and watching with fascination as my cousin frantically attempted to solve it.

Just six years on and I’m Ireland’s reigning National Rubik’s Cube Speedsolving Champion.

I participated in the contest back in August when more than 200 cubers gathered to compete in the Waterford SETU Arena. 

They included Ciarán Beahan, who had won the contest for 10 consecutive years before my victory. 

I came in first at 7.03 seconds, which means I now hold the title of National Speedsolving Champion of the traditional 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube.

The first time I saw someone solve the cube was like a breakthrough. I decided this was something I really wanted to learn. 

As a child, I always had a Rubik’s cube to hand. Now that I’m 14, and at this a long time, I try to limit practising to when I’m at home.

The first time I learned you could do this competitively was during the pandemic when I was searching for cubing-related activities online.

However, my first time showcasing my skills publicly was during a school talent show when I was around 11.

It wasn’t nerve-racking as there were so few in my primary school.

Some performed magic tricks, while others told jokes but I was the only one to introduce a Rubik’s cube into my performance. 

My act saw me present three Rubik’s cubes to random members of the audience, who in turn scrambled them up for me.

I then timed how quickly I could do the three of them at once. From what I can remember, I won that year and I’ve been in a good few competitions since.

Over the years, I have collected an array of Rubik’s cubes.

There are a lot of different shapes and brands which many people don’t realise.

I have accumulated 50 in total, which are located in various parts of the house.

My most unusual is probably the pyramid-shaped one and there are some with more layers than others.

I think people sometimes overestimate how hard cubing is. Really, it’s like anything that takes a lot of practise.

You solve the bottom layer, the middle layer and then the top. All you have to do is learn the different sequences of moves to solve the different cases you get.

14-year-old CJ Furey, who holds the title of National Speedsolving Champion of the traditional 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube.

There have been a few highlights in life for me so far, but my biggest one probably has to be meeting the fastest cuber in the world Tymon Kolasiński.

We didn’t speak much, but I was lucky enough to have my photograph taken with him and get his autograph.

At the time, I was starstruck because it was my very first competition and I had no idea he was even going to be there.

There are other people I look up to as well, including those who featured in the documentary Cubers on Netflix.

Winning the Irish National Rubik’s Cube Speedsolving Championships was a very positive experience for me. I was very nervous before the event.

It was a big deal to me because I was only the second person to have this title after Ciarán Beahan.

He was sitting beside me in the final, and it was 50/50 between us. I had won a few local competitions before that, but this was my biggest event yet.

I am always nervous ahead of any competition and this one was no different, but I had my head down for an hour straight practising beforehand.

All I could think about was solving. It was great, and also very rewarding, to secure such a decent result after five years of practising.

Children often come up to me at competitions and ask me questions such as how I handle nerves. It’s nice thinking that only a few years ago I was one of those little kids.

I’m doing my Junior Cert next year, but haven’t really thought about what I’d like to do when I leave school yet.

If I’m able to get anywhere near the top 10 ten in the world then I’ll try to make a career out of it.

The European Championships are coming up next year, so hopefully, I’ll make the finals of those.

I’m still practising all the time at home. I might do up to 10 cubes in a straight row at once and time myself. My average time for five cubes is currently between 40 and 50 seconds.

People are impressed when they see how fast I can solve. However, when I’m with my friends, I tend not to really talk about cubing.

When it comes to school, my biggest interest is maths because –similar to the Rubik’s cube – there is only ever one right answer, unlike other subjects where you might have multiple right answers.

My family are very proud of what I have achieved. They don’t mind all the cubes around the house even though it can get annoying for them at times.

I have two brothers Loughlann, 10, and Donncha, 13, and while I’ve taught them both how to cube, they wouldn’t have much interest in competing. I’m lucky to have such a supportive family.