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Six-year-old sets new Rubik’s Cube world record

Read the original at The Sydney Morning Herald ↗
Cite

Shanagher, L. (2026, September 22). Six-year-old sets new Rubik’s Cube world record. The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/six-year-old-sets-new-rubiks-cube-world-record-20260923-p60znr.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

The Sydney Morning Herald · collected 2026-09-22 · by Lily Shanagher

Quick Summary

Six-year-old Lian Yunzhi from China has broken the women's Rubik’s Cube world record twice within three days, achieving average solve times of 4.52 seconds and then 4.27 seconds in competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou. With over 1300 cube algorithms under her belt, Yunzhi trains daily for two to three hours and has participated in 33 competitions across China, setting a single-record time of 3.54 seconds on the 3x3x3 cube. Her mother credits cubing for improving focus, memory, logical thinking, spatial awareness, and mental health resilience.
Written by AI on 2026-09-23, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

Lian Yunzhi, a six-year-old girl from Sichuan Province, China, broke the women's world record for solving a 3x3 Rubik’s Cube twice in three days. Her first attempt at a competition in Wuhan yielded an average time of 4.52 seconds, which she then improved to 4.27 seconds in Guangzhou, making her the only female cuber with an average time under 4.5 seconds. Lian has mastered over 1,300 Rubik's Cube solving algorithms and practices for about two to three hours daily. She began learning at age four and improved dramatically after training with top professional coaches in Shanghai.

Written for “Six Year Old Rubik's Record” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 6 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Six Year Old Rubik's Record
Entertainment · 7 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 18% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Watch: Six-year-old girl breaks women’s Rubik’s Cube world record Same event
Euronews
Hedges 0 of 4 claims Outlet record 60/100
Watch: Six-year-old girl from China sets new Rubik's Cube world record Same event
BBC News
Hedges 0 of 5 claims Outlet record 68/100
6-year-old Chinese girl sets women’s Rubik’s Cube speed record Same event
Toronto Star
Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 64/100
6-year-old girl from China breaks women’s Rubik’s Cube speed record Same event
Global News
Hedges 1 of 12 claims Outlet record 63/100
Six-year-old sets Rubik’s Cube world record twice in three days Same event
Al Jazeera
Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 60/100
Six-year-old solves Rubik's Cube in record 4.27 seconds Same event
ABC News (AU)
Hedges 1 of 9 claims Outlet record 68/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
11
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
18%
2 of 11 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
61/100
The Sydney Morning Herald's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
7
Entertainment
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-23 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Sydney Morning Herald · 5737 article(s) · 15 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 15 correction(s)
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Who wrote this

Lily Shanagher
1 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 She added: “Solving a Rubik’s Cube improves focus, memory, logical thinking, spatial awareness, and helps develop a healthy mindset toward winning and losing. “It’s not just about blindly memorising formulas, but using logical reasoning to find optimal solutions.” The previous record was held by Qixian Cao, a nine-year-old who set an average time of 5.97 seconds in 2023 at the age of six after learning to use the cube at three years old.
2026-09-22 · assertive framing · Six-year-old sets new Rubik’s Cube world record
The only article under this byline in the corpus.

Topics

Chengdu China Guangzhou Wuhan a Rubik’s Cube

Subjects

China GPE · 2× Yunzhi PERSON · 2× Chengdu GPE · 1× Chinese NORP · 1× Guangzhou GPE · 1× Lian Yunzhi PERSON · 1× Lin Yangxi PERSON · 1× Red Star News ORG · 1× Sichuan province GPE · 1× Wuhan GPE · 1×

Narrative

She added: “Solving a Rubik’s Cube improves focus, memory, logical thinking, spatial awareness, and helps develop a healthy mindset toward winning and losing. “It’s not just about blindly memorising formulas, but using logical reasoning to find optimal solutions.” The previous record was held by Qixian Cao, a nine-year-old who set an average time of 5.97 seconds in 2023 at the age of six after learning to use the cube at three years old.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-23
🔮 She added: “Solving a Rubik’s Cube improves focus, memory, logical thinking, spatial awareness, and helps develop a healthy mindset toward winning and losing. “It’s not just about blindly memorising formulas, but using logical reasoning to find optimal solutions.” The previous record was held by Qixian Cao, a nine-year-old who set an average time of 5.97 seconds in 2023 at the age of six after learning to use the cube at three years old.
2026-09-23 · The Sydney Morning Herald
Six-year-old sets new Rubik’s Cube world record · assertive framing

Claims (11 extracted, 2 hedged)

A six-year-old girl has set a new world record for the fastest solving of a Rubik’s Cube. asserted
girl → set → Cube
Lian Yunzhi, from China, broke the women’s world record for the 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube twice in three days at competitions in Wuhan and Guangzhou provinces. Solving the cube five times, she first averaged a time of 4.52 seconds per cube, and then 4.27 seconds, becoming the only female “cuber” in the world to have an average time under 4.5 seconds. asserted
she → break → seconds
Yunzhi, from Chengdu in Sichuan province, has learnt more than 1300 cube algorithms, spending between two and three hours practising on the cube per day in the past year. asserted
Yunzhi → learn → year
Footage shows the young girl solving the cube at a rapid pace before proudly holding up her trophy. asserted
girl → show → trophy
In another, she is surrounded by schoolmates as she solves the cube at speed. asserted
she → surround → speed
Yunzhi was also filmed practising solving the cube at home with her parents, while they also showed her trophies lined up on a shelf to Red Star News. asserted
they → film → News
Her mother, Lin Yangxi, told Chinese media that she had been introduced to the Rubik’s Cube after attending an extracurricular class alongside dance and music lessons. asserted
she → tell → lessons
According to the World Cube Association, she has taken part in 33 competitions across China and has 569 official solves. uncertain
she → accord → solves
Lin said she had “gradually realised” that cubing was an “excellent activity for fostering a child’s comprehensive abilities” and had shifted her daughter’s focus towards it. asserted
cubing → say → it
She added: “Solving a Rubik’s Cube improves focus, memory, logical thinking, spatial awareness, and helps develop a healthy mindset toward winning and losing. “It’s not just about blindly memorising formulas, but using logical reasoning to find optimal solutions.” The previous record was held by Qixian Cao, a nine-year-old who set an average time of 5.97 seconds in 2023 at the age of six after learning to use the cube at three years old. asserted
who → add → cube
She later set a record 4.98-second average at Start of Summer Beijing 2026 in May, becoming seventh in the world overall, according to Speedcuber’s Digest. uncertain
She → set → Digest
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