Thank you for your reply! That is a nice addition to the info pile. I wonder what Jaap's source for this information was! Is he a member on the forums here? One curious item here:
"Rainer Seitz organised a Guiness Book of Records bash in Munich on 6-13 March 81 at the Olympia Shopping Centre. The Centre is connected with the German publisher of the Guiness Book). The best times were 38 seconds, again due to new cubes, achieved by Ronald Brinkmann and Jury Fröschl, an 18 year old Munich boy."
Other sources list Jury as the sole winner of the event, but here it lists Ronald Brinkmann as well with the same time. Either the reported times are missing something after the decimal point (and Jury was actually slightly faster), or all solves were measured in whole second (and there was in fact a tie). If it is the latter then sources online should make a correction. Also interesting is the date of event listed as 03/06/1981 to 03/13/1981. This may well be the biggest clue here, as a full week probably doesn't indicate a competitive event - It feels more like it may have been an open invitation to show up at your own leisure to solve a cube as fast as you can.
I think that the WCA recognition is possibly an afterthought here (at least for now) either way. I say this because leading into RWC03' (which I attended) the definite consensus was that Minh Thai was the first world champion. Minh attended that RWC03' in spirit - chatter about him could not be avoided. This was well before the WCA was conceptualized. Pre-WCA recognition of the RWC in Budapest (82') was (probably) the product of a very harmonized community in agreement that Minh Thai was the de facto first world champion.
I am not arguing in favor of recognizing the world championship in Munich 81', but I am inclined to think we would need more information to rule out the idea entirely. It is so far unknown to me how the rules/regulations at each event would compare. RWC-Budapest (82') does have a more official feel by virtually every measure:
- Competitors were selected after winning their respective national championships. This ensured a much larger and diverse net was cast.
- A panel of judges, including the puzzle inventor Ernő Rubik, was present. His attendance added serious gravitas to the event.
- A large audience was present. Engaged spectators essentially are built into the framework of good competition I think.
- The event was broadcast on television (and video evidence survived). This gives us the opportunity to look back and scrutinize the structure/format more effectively.
- A genuine effort was made to provide accurate timing of solves.
Questions I have about the 'world championship' in Munich (81')
- Why was the event 7 days long? There are a few possibilities: A] The event was sinfully protracted with qualifying rounds. B] It was a promotional event that lasted one week, and the actual competition occurred over a day or two in that range. C] It was simply a promotional event that lasted 7 days, and each day was an open invite for anyone to show up and attempt a solve or solve at their own leisure.
- What was the scope and degree of effort was given in advertising the event? Did notice run in a few local newspapers only? Television? Radio?
- Related to above - How far in advance were details/dates/times of the event shared?
- How many competitors participated? Were the results logged for all of them? I would love to see the results if they exist somewhere.
- Were all competitors present at the same time?
- Was their a consistent judge or judges? ...or was it just whoever worked in the space that day when people showed up?
- Was their pre-solve inspection allowed, and if so what were the parameters? What was used for timing the solves? Were the results all measured in whole seconds?
- Was there a captive audience at any point, or were random shoppers and fleeting glances the only substitute for spectators?
After some reflecting on this it does seem that the chances are slim that we should view the Munich (81') event as a world championship, but then we must admit that calling it a world championship at all is a serious misnomer. In this case we should be correcting the record. Simply calling an informal event a world championship does not make it a world championship of course. It is also possible that we are negligent in excluding Ronald Brinkmann's name from the footnotes (if there was in fact a tie). Whatever the case may be, collecting more information will not be in vain. We honor our sport when we substantiate the history.
Please forgive me if I have gone on too long on this, but I have one more thought to ponder on here. Chess history is analogous here.
"The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) or World Chess Federation[2] is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition." FIDE, and all the rules/regulations/formats that come with it, has been the standard bearer for recognizing world champions since 1948, but like the WCA there is history to consider before a standard was recognized under an international governing body.
From 1886 to 1946 there is a
recognized list of "Official Pre-FIDE" world champions.
"The championship was conducted on a fairly informal basis through the remainder of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th: if a player thought he was strong enough, he (or his friends) would find financial backing for a match purse and challenge the reigning world champion. If he won, he would become the new champion. There was no formal system of qualification. However, it is generally considered that the system did on the whole produce champions who were the strongest players of their day." This runs parallel with the recognition of Minh Thai as the first official world champion by the community and the WCA. Budapest (82') fits this criteria well: "...
it is generally considered that [RWC - Budapest 82'] did on the whole produce [a champion] who [was] the strongest [speedcuber] of their day."
Then there exists this catalog of Unofficial World Champions (Pre-1886).
"The first match proclaimed by the players as for the world championship was the match that Wilhelm Steinitz won against Johannes Zukertort in 1886. However, a line of players regarded as the strongest (or at least the most famous) in the world extends back hundreds of years beyond them, and these players are sometimes considered the world champions of their time." The 19th century makes the most compelling case - This was a time when mauling known top players in match play until the rivers ran red was your key to World Champion recognition. Not to mention you had to obtain strong enough financial backing to tour Europe for weeks (and usually months) at a time. There was no governing body, established rules, or consistent standards. Time limits for moves were not even used! You could just take as long as you pleased for any number of moves. Despite all of this, most of the Unofficial World Champions of this era are revered all the same and have earned a permanent place in chess history. It is possible then that we may have the opportunity to expand our recognition of unofficial world champions (or otherwise noteworthy speedcubers) who came through prior to RWC-Budapest (82'). We may be missing out on some fun history here - not just for the Munich event and Jury, but for other events and other cubers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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