• Welcome to the Speedsolving.com, home of the web's largest puzzle community!
    You are currently viewing our forum as a guest which gives you limited access to join discussions and access our other features.

    Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community of 40,000+ people from around the world today!

    If you are already a member, simply login to hide this message and begin participating in the community!

Interview with Erik Akkersdijk

pjk

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
6,686
WCA
2007KELL02
SS Competition Results
July 10, 2008 : Interview with Speedsolving.com member Erik Akkersdijk : Currently (at the time of this interview) holds the World Record average for the 4x4x4 event at 53.99 seconds, average and single for Megaminx (1:01.78/1:07.70), and 5x5x5 single at 1:23.83.

Location:
I currently live in Enschede, The Netherlands.

interview-erik.jpg

Occupation:
I'm going into my 2nd year now and I'm studying Environmental Management at the Saxion University of Applied Science in Deventer (this is the English name for it, Deventer is about an hour by train from Enschede.

What is your favorite event, why?
Such hard questions. It's hard to say honestly, I think it changes about each day. Of course I love the normal 3x3 event, but I think it's impossible for me to say which I like the best. The only thing I can say that there are some events I less-like (but still like), these are the magics, clock, square-1 and the big cubes blindfolded.

What made you become interested in solving puzzles?
Well I kinda rolled into it. We always had a cube somewhere but nobody could solve it. My sister's boyfriend could solve it and when I was bored he taught me. While searching for some stuff on the internet I came across Joel van Noort's videos and couldn't believe my eyes; I think that's what got me into cubing. The puzzle-solving itself never got me very interested, but more the smooth speed and beauty of it.

What, in your opinion, is your biggest cubing accomplishment?
More hard questions. I think I can't really answer this one either. The 3x3 world record was nice, but of course it was more luck than skill, the megaminx title was awesome of course, just like the 1:23 on 5x5. I can't really say which is my favorite, though I think my was the biggest on the 1:23 as you can see in the video on YouTube somewhere.

What are your other hobbies?
Good question and I have to say some of my hobbies went a bit to the background because of cubing. I was 5 years on guitar lessons, then I didn't touch it for another 5 years but because of Rama I got interested in it again and try to play some tunes now and then. Another hobby of mine is chess. I've played in a Chessclub for 10 years now, though of course not at a very high level. My best on a competition for a year was a rating of 1989 (over about 9 games) though my Dutch rating never was above approximately 1720. I should get more serious to it again, I'm sure 1800 is very realistic for me to achieve. Other small hobbies I do now and then are juggling and swimming.

What is/are your pet/peeve(s)?
I'm not a native English speaker so I wasn't sure what this meant at first. So the little things that irritate me....Well there are a few things and I'll keep it related to cubing. Especially on these forums, I don't really like it when beginners are posting beginner questions in the speedcubing section. There are getting less and less topics there that really interest me, also because of the loads of threads that were already discussed several times. Also some youtube comments annoy me, asking which cube I use when it's already in the description etc.
 
Last edited:

abunickabhi

Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
6,687
Location
Yo
WCA
2013GHOD01
YouTube
Visit Channel
I never knew so many cubers play chess. Playing chess comes so naturally to me since it is very popular in India. It was only in my second WCA competition that I decided to drop playing FIDE chess tournaments and focus on attending WCA comps on weekends.

P.S. Lonnekar chess club is awesome. All the members in it are strong and friendly on lichess.
 
Top