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Interview with Ron van Bruchem

pjk

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Mar 13, 2006
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2007KELL02
SS Competition Results
November 26, 2008 : Interview with Speedsolving.com member Ron van Bruchem : Currently (at the time of this interview) has attended 38 competitions including 3 world championships. He is the former world record holder for the 3x3x3 single (2007: 9.55 Seconds), 5x5x5 single (2006: 1:47.22), and 2x2x2 single (2007: 2.65 Seconds). He also co-founded the World Cube Association (WCA) and runs Speedcubing.com.

Location:
Almere, a suburb of Amsterdam, in the polder of Flevoland. The area around my house is 25 feet below sea level. So if the dikes break only our attic is a safe place.

interview-ronvb.jpg


Occupation:
According to my business cards I am a Corporate IT Architect. Our team is responsible for the IT Strategy of the banking group that we work for. I have a Friday off every other week. :) Besides that I am also a WCA Board Member, which has become more of an occupation for me.

What is your favorite event, why?
Definitely the Rubik's Cube event, what else? I mainly focus on 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5, I never practice the other events. My results for Pyraminx are OK, but that says more about my opponents than about me.

What made you become interested in solving puzzles?
In 1980, I was 13 years old and I was in the hospital for 8 weeks. The mother of my best friend brought me a Rubik's Cube from Czechoslovakia. She said I could only leave the hospital if I would have solved it without help. That was a good challenge. When the cube came out in The Netherlands in 1981, I could solve it in around 35 seconds, so I was quite a popular guy in those days. I think this helped to sustain my interest in the cube. In 1982, my best average of 10 was 21.1 seconds.

What, in your opinion, is your biggest "cubing" accomplishment?
I am not very proud of my Rubik's Cube world record (9.55 seconds) in November 2007, since it was a lucky case. The funny thing is that the Guinness Book of Records 2009 still lists this record, although it was already broken in March 2008. I am proud to be the fastest cuber in the world over 40 years old (I am 41). I am also proud to have started the World Cube Association and how our hobby has grown thanks to all competition organizers and WCA delegates.

What are your other hobbies?
Mainly strategy games like Poker, Othello and Stratego. My other hobbies are: my daughter Julia (10 yr), pike fishing, web surfing, numbers, languages, travelling and sleep sports. Before that I played premier division darts, played too much Freecell and Sudoku, and was bad at sleight of hand magic (I could not even fool my daughter).

What is/are your pet peeve(s)?
That I had to use Google to find the meaning of pet peeve. In general I prefer to be around positive people and people who act instead of complain.

What will the future of cubing be like and how would you like cubing to
progress?

I hope our community will keep on growing (competitors, competitions, countries, fun) and that we will be able to keep the current friendly atmosphere among cubers. Our challenge will be to professionalize on international level and at the same time add the national and local level of competitions and meetings. This will give all people from beginners level to hard core cubers an opportunity to have fun with puzzles.
 
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