PARIS -- Jerome Jean-Charles, 25, has beaten 10 other finalists to win the best time in lining up Rubik's Cube' colors the fastest.
Jean-Charles, scored 25.6 seconds Wednesday in the popular cube game which has sold 25 million copies in the world to date.
Erno Rubik, 36, the Hungarian architect who invented the game, appeared at the contest to award a 'golden cube' to Jean-Charles.
Four thousand cube fanatics entered the preliminary matches throughout France. The finalists, between 16 and 20 years old, usually practice daily for around two hours, they told journalists at the final match.
'To practice I shut myself in my room with a stero headset on my ears,' said one. 'That relaxes me and stimulates me at the same time.'
Rubik said he invented the cube in 1974 'just for myself. Then I shared my sensations. This game concerns all humanity, it is for everybody. The scientist sees in it a scientific aspect, the artist sees beauty, the engineer construction, the child a toy. The fanatics of cross world puzzles find in the cube a difficult task to solve.'
The cube was manufactured first in Hungary in 1975. In 1979 it was bought by an American firm, Ideal Toys, which set up factories in the United States, Hong Kong and Japan.
