WATCH | Cube champion makes the right moves
Cubing champion, nine-year-old Christian Swartz, is aiming to get a national or continental record this year as he continues his rise in the ranks of the World Cube Association. He currently holds fourth position in the Africa leaderboard.
NINE-YEAR-OLD cubing champion, Christian Swartz from Musgrave, is ready to tackle his next challenge of climbing the African leaderboard where he is currently positioned in the top five of the continental standings.
Fresh from the CubeCo Durban Summer 2024 competition in December, where he took first place in the 2×2 and Skewb, and second in the 3×3, 4×4 and Pyraminx, Christian is already calculating and planning for his next move on the board, where he sits in fourth position. “My goal for this year is to get a national or continental record,” said Christian, who is ranked 1084 for the 2×2 and 1239 for the 3×3 in the world by the World Cube Association (WCA).
His time for solving the 2×2 cube is 2.36 seconds and 6.26 for the 3×3 cube. More wins in association recognised competitions means the Penzance Primary School Grade 4 learner stands a chance of improving on his rankings, nationally and internationally. Christian’s passion for solving the Rubik’s cube began four years ago, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when his grandfather bought him one to keep his brilliant mind active during lockdown.
“It took me two months to learn how to solve it and nine months after solving it, I started entering competitions,” said Christian.
With three gold, four silver and five bronze medals under his belt and one championship, his proud parents, Chantelle and Shannon Swartz, said, “As long as it is still something that he likes doing we will continue to support him.”
They travel with Christian for competitions and are among his biggest supporters. Cubing has become a family affair for the Swartzs with Christian already training his little sister and cousin in solving the cube.
“We are very proud of him. Not a lot of people know about his achievements but he is really doing well and soon Christian will be part of a show at school,” said Shannon as he looked on in amazement at his son.
Chantelle said, “Last year we set Christian a goal of if he can achieve something then we will take him to Africa champs, not expecting that he will be able to do so before the end of the year. So now we have to keep the promise of taking him to Africa champs.”
Chantelle said it is a struggle for Christian to compete against other cubers because of a lack of an organisational body and competitions in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
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“It’s the competition that drives you to do better and we do not have that in this province. In KZN we have about two competitions a year, if we are lucky,” said Chantelle. “For Christian to improve on his times and rankings he must do so in an association recognised competition which is hard to do because there is only one WCA affiliated delegate in KZN which makes it hard to co-ordinate competitions. Anybody can host a competition but if you do not have a delegate present it’s not official; even if you break the world record the time will not be recognised.”
As he gears up for his school performance, Christian encouraged other cube enthusiasts to start signing up for competitions. He advised young cubers: “You do not need to be good in maths to be good at the cube, you just need to memorise algorithms and practise. Stay calm, focused and try your best.”
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