Yiheng Wang

Yiheng Wang (Chinese: 王艺衡; pinyin: Wang Yiheng; born December 16, 2013) is a Chinese competitive speedcuber. He currently holds the Rubik's Cube world record average of 4.09 seconds (done twice: Xuzhou Autumn 2024 and Rubik's WCA Asian Championship 2024) and fifth fastest 3×3×3 single of 3.47 seconds.^[1]

Wang entered his first World Cube Association (WCA) competition in September 2019, at age five.^[2] He won his first competition title in January 2021, at age seven.^[3] In August 2023, at age nine, he came within 0.01 seconds of winning the 2023 World Cube Association World Championship, finishing in second place behind Max Park.^[4]

On March 10, 2023, at nine years old, Wang first set his 3×3×3 world record average at a competition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a time of 4.69 seconds.^[5][6] The previous record of 4.86 seconds had been held jointly by American Max Park and Poland's Tymon Kolasiński [fi].^[7] Since then, Wang has set five more consecutive records in the event, lowering his time to 4.48, 4.36, 4.25, and 4.09 seconds, and then tying his very own 4.09.^[8]

Wang also is very skilled at the 2x2x2 cube event, and is currently tied with Zayn Khanani of the United States for the world record average, with a time of 0.92 seconds^[9]

Wang also has the fifth fastest 3×3×3 single, at 3.47 seconds, tied for the Asian Record with Yusheng Du.^[10] Additionally, Wang also placed second in 3x3x3 at the 2023 WCA World Championship, 0.01 seconds behind Max Park and just ahead of Tymon Kolasiński.^[11]

On June 22, 2024 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Wang achieved a world record average of 0.78 seconds on the 2x2x2 Rubik's Cube. The manner in which Wang started the competition-standard StackMat^™ timer drew criticism; frame-by-frame analysis of the solves revealed that Wang had touched or even begun turning the puzzle before lifting his hands off the timer in some of the solves,^[12] both of which constitute individual two-second penalties.^[13] The technique was dubbed "sliding" as it involves sliding the hands forward to greet the puzzle rather than lifting them up, thus temporarily keeping the timer from starting and recording a faster time. Despite possible evidence of regulation violations from frame-by-frame video analysis, however, only full-speed video analysis was considered valid evidence for penalization, due to a decision from 2019.^[14]

On September 27th, 2024, the WCA Regulations Committee (WRC), responsible for deciding on such "unresolved and uncovered incidents",^[15] released a joint statement with the WCA Board of Directors on the matter; while the WRC announced that it would now use frame-by-frame analysis in certain cases such as world records, the Board concluded that Wang's solves "could not be conclusively determined to be in violation of the WCA Regulations, policies, and procedures which are in place at the time of the attempt, and cannot be retroactively applied to previous attempts".^[16] The decision was met with some backlash. It was considered unfair by some that Wang's solves, despite being considered illegal under the new procedures, would remain unpenalized;^{[by whom?]} some also believed the Board to be overstepping their boundaries by making a regulations decision meant exclusively for the WRC.^{[weasel words]} Concerns also arose over whether world records could still be achieved without resorting to a now illegal technique.^{[citation needed]}

On September 29th, 2024, a leadership crisis arose when an email written on the behalf of the WRC to the Board was leaked anonymously. It revealed that the WRC had voted unanimously to penalize Wang's solves, but that the Board had decided to overrule their decision, even suggesting that the initial statement not mention Wang's solves. Both parties cited bylaws and precedents that supported their decisions as final. The Board received widespread criticism for this decision, prompting a community petition in favor of penalization which received 1,694 signatures and a Magna Carta-style petition from a WRC member calling for internal votes to remove members of the Board.^{[citation needed]}

On October 11th, 2024, the Board publicly returned penalization discretion to the WRC.^[17]

On October 25th, 2024, the WRC announced that Wang's solves would be retroactively penalized, changing the result from 0.78 to 3.47 and thus partially stripping Wang of the world record title; his second best average of 0.92 seconds from the same event is identical to the average set by Zayn Khanani of the United States at New-Cumberland County 2024, meaning Wang and Khanani now jointly hold the record.^[18] Some of Wang’s other results, including a 3.38 second 3x3 solve and 0.49 2x2 solve, were also penalized.

Results of other competitors proven to have used “sliding” were also given retroactive penalties.^{[citation needed]}

• WCA profile
• Yiheng Wang on Instagram
• Yiheng Wang on YouTube