How A Minneapolis Man Conquered The Rubik's Cube, Beat World Record

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It was all the craze in the early '80s: a cube of different colors that you had to twist and turn to get just right.

Now, the Rubik's Cube is making a comeback.

"You definitely don't have to be good at math in order to be good at this," said Walker Welch, a Minneapolis man who holds a world record for "conquering the cube."

But if you want to add a little math to the equation, Walker will tell you there are more than 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 Rubik's Cube combinations.

Walker says he tackles solving the cube with one color first.

"Then afterwards, I'll just solve the rest of the cube," he said.

In 2008, nearly 30 years after the Rubik's Cube craze faded, Walker spotted one in a store. He saw six different sides and endless possibilities.

"I was a little bit arrogant, I guess, and I told my parents I could get it without any help and that was definitely not the case," Walker said.

In fact, it took him a month to finally solve the unsolvable.

But once Walker got it, he was hooked. Pretty soon he was competing nationally…and then internationally.

A couple years ago, Walker set the world Skewb record. Then, this past fall, he became a world record holder for a competition centered on solving the cube in the fewest number of moves.

He shares that record with German cuber Sebastien Aroux.

"Afterwards, the adrenaline rush was pretty high," Walker said. "It was a goal that I was shooting for for about three years."

He's gotten so good that he can even do it blindfolded.

Growing up in the town of Wanamingo, there was plenty of time for Walker to become a renowned cuber.

He learned that getting the pieces with multiple colors on the edges is key.

For Walker, it's the competition that keeps him coming back.

"I hope to break my world record and not just tie it again, but we'll see if that happens," he said.

Walker also holds three continental records, and he's a member of the World Cube Association.