A six-year-old girl from Chengdu has shattered the women’s world record for the average time to solve a 3x3 Rubik’s Cube, completing the puzzle in an average of 4.27 seconds at a recent competition in Guangzhou. The event, held on September 16, was organized by the World Cube Association. The young prodigy, known as Zhizhi, lowered her own previous record of 4.52 seconds set earlier in the month. In some individual attempts, she has managed to solve the cube in under four seconds.

Zhizhi’s mother, Lin Yangxi, described the achievement as a “dream come true” for her daughter, who dedicates up to three hours daily to speedcubing practice. Lin said that Zhizhi was overwhelmed with joy upon breaking the record and that her accomplishment has drawn significant attention at school. “The whole school knows her now,” Lin said, adding that older students have been approaching Zhizhi’s teacher with autograph requests.

Zhizhi began speedcubing classes at age four, introduced by her mother as part of a range of seven or eight extracurricular activities. Recognizing the potential for development in speedcubing, her parents decided to focus more of her time and energy on it. After several months, Zhizhi reduced her average solving time to eight seconds but then encountered a plateau lasting three to four months despite continued practice.

Her progress accelerated after securing a specialist coach in Shanghai and learning more than 1,300 algorithms related to Rubik’s Cube solving. This additional training helped her improve rapidly while she continued to balance her kindergarten studies with her rigorous speedcubing schedule.