Masayuki Akimoto
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Masayuki Akimoto (秋元正行) is a Japanese speedcuber. He became a board member of the WCA in 2005. He also served as the chairman of the JRCA (Japan Rubik's Cube Association) from its foundation through 2011.
In the 1980s Masayuki Akimoto was fifth in the first national tournament in Japan, and the fourth in the second tournament. At the first tournament he states that his method was "very primitive (average about 50 sec?)" but he then developed an original corners-first method bringing his times down to about 27-28 seconds.[1]
He began cubing again in the early 2000s after not touching a Rubik's Cube for "two or three years around 1997-2000". He switched to a CFCE method similar to that used by Guus Razoux Schultz, allowing him to achieve sub-20 second times. He attended the World Rubik's Games Championship 2003 and won the championship for 4x4 and 5x5 using an original Columns First method.[2]
Akimoto Method
Main article: Akimoto Method
Masayuki Akimoto invented the Columns First method for Big cubes in the 1980s, which he used to win the 4x4 and 5x5 Speedsolve at the World Championship. The solution steps are:
- Solve the top corners.
- Solve the four middle layer dedges.
- Solve the top centre.
- Solve three dedges of the top layer.
- Solve the remaining centres.
- Solve the last dedge of the top layer.
- Solve the last (bottom) layer (corners, dedges, fix parities)
Achievements
| World Titles | ||
| Preceded by None |
4x4 Speedsolve World Champion 2003 |
Succeeded by Yuki Hayashi 2005 |
| Preceded by None |
5x5 Speedsolve World Champion 2003 |
Succeeded by Frank Morris 2005 |
| Preceded by None |
2x2 Speedsolve World Champion 2005 |
Succeeded by Łukasz Ciałoń 2007 |
External links
- Masayuki Akimoto new WCA board member, March 24, 2006
- Rokumentai, Masayuki Akimoto's cubing website c. 2009 at the Internet Archive
