Tyson Mao

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Tyson Francis Mao (Born on May 8, 1984 in San Francisco, California), is one of the world's top competitive Rubik's Cube solvers. He is known especially for his prominence in the 3x3x3 blindfold Rubik's Cube category where his competition times are currently matched only by Leyan Lo. In 2004, with Ron van Bruchem, he formed the World Cube Association, the organization that holds competitive events for the Rubik's Cube. On January 12, 2006, he appeared on the CW Television Network's "Beauty and the Geek" as one of the participants of the second incarnation of the reality television show.

[edit] Biography

Tyson Mao

Tyson was born prematurely, approximately 8 weeks early. He grew up initially in Burlingame, California where he attended Temple Shalom, a Jewish pre-school. Tyson's family was not Jewish, but the local pre-school had been known for its excellence in raising young children. From kindergarten to fourth grade, he attended Franklin Elementary School and in fifth grade, he attended South Hillsborough Elementary School.

In 1995, Tyson enrolled in Crystal Springs Uplands School and he remained there until his graduation in 2002. Tyson attended the California Institute of Technology from 2002 to 2006, receiving a B.S. in Astrophysics on June 9, 2006. He is a member of the House System at Caltech in Fleming House.

Tyson got his first and middle name in honor of Taiwan (also known to many as Formosa). He and all of his other cousins (Tim, Terry, Tammy, Tina, Tiffany, Thomas, Toby, Tyler, Troy) all begin with the letter "T" except for Litton, who has two T's in the middle.

[edit] Rubik's Cube

[edit] Speed Solving

Tyson is considered a new generation Rubik's Cube solver. The Rubik's Cube first reached a high level of prominence in the world soon after the toy was released in 1980. Tyson began solving the cube during the puzzle's second emergence in 2003. On July 24, 2003, Tyson was spending an off-day from his summer employment as a residential counselor for EPGY Summer Institutes at home. His younger brother, Toby Mao, had returned from Los Angeles, California where he was participating in Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth program. Toby had told Tyson that he learned how to solve the Rubik's Cube from a residential assistant and after an instructive period of approximately two hours, Tyson was able to solve the Rubik's Cube on his own using the assistance of a sheet of notes.

After approximately one month of practice with his brother's beginner solution, on August 31, 2003, Tyson recorded a best average of 1 minute 22.26 seconds and a best time of 1 minute 06.33 seconds. Soon after, his brother decided to switch to a method developed by Lars Petrus and on September 10, Tyson recorded a best average of 59.26 seconds and a best time of 45.39 seconds.

Tyson currently uses the method developed by Jessica Fridrich. On September 3, 2004, Tyson broke the 20-second barrier on the Rubik's Cube, an accomplishment considered to be the defining moment for the Rubik's Cube elite. Also, on the same day, he recorded a best time of 14.18 seconds. Rubik's Cube improvement has been very rapid in the recent months and contemporary Rubik's Cube solvers would consider the elite bench mark to be the 15-second barrier.

[edit] Blindfold Solving

Tyson began solving the Rubik's Cube blindfolded under the guidance of Leyan Lo and Shotaro Makisumi in April of 2005. On May 31, 2005, Tyson completed his first successful solve. The Rubik's Cube was scrambled with the algorithm F B' U F2 R2 D' R2 L2 D' B' R2 F2 D' B2 L F2 U' R2 F2 L2 U F' R' D' L and was completed in 6 minutes 14.97 seconds. His first solve is one of the fastest first blindfold solves in the world. On June 6, 2005, Tyson completed his sixth solve by solving the Rubik's Cube blindfolded in 4 minutes 20.56 seconds. By July of 2005, Tyson was regularly completing solves in under 2 minutes and 30 seconds. As of September 2006, his fastest achieved time is 1 minute 20.18 seconds. However, this solve was not achieved in competition and did not count as the world record.

Tyson is credited for developing a three "diagonal" corner permutation for blindfold solving. In the case where one must permute three corners where two of them lie diagonally across from each other in one layer and the third corner is in the other layer, it can be very difficult to perform and manipulate the setup moves. During an explanation by Leyan Lo, Tyson misinterpreted Leyan's method and came up with the now more commonly used method, the basic algorithm for which is [(R' F R F')x3 U2]x2.

[edit] Rubik's Cube Times

3x3x3 Speed Solve: 12.89 seconds

November 6, 2005, World Rubik's Cube Championships 2005 in Orlando, Florida.

3x3x3 Speed Solve Average of 5: 16.91 seconds

November 6, 2005, World Rubik's Cube Championships 2005 in Orlando, Florida.

3x3x3 Blindfold Speed Solve: 1 minute 54.33 seconds

November 6, 2005, World Rubik's Cube Championships 2005 in Orlando, Florida.

[edit] Music

Tyson started the violin at the age of four. He was a member of the California Youth Symphony.

[edit] Media Appearances

[edit] Beauty and the Geek 2

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Tyson was on the second season of Beauty and the Geek.

[edit] Episode 1 (Air Date: January 12, 2006)

Tyson's team lost the first challenge because he didn't know who Gwen Stefani was.

[edit] Episode 2 (Air Date: January 19, 2006)

Tyson won the karaoke challenge.

[edit] Episode 3 (Air Date: January 26, 2006)

Tyson and Thais are eliminated from the show.

[edit] TWINS

Shortly after, Tyson appeared in a cameo appearance on the WB's sitcom TWINS. His most memorable line from the episode is "Taste it, bitches!"

[edit] The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (Air Date: January 27, 2006)

Tyson appeared with Jay Leno. Jay Leno was incredulous when Tyson reported that he had been spending time in a mansion living with eight beautiful women, and hence had not been practicing the Rubik's Cube.

[edit] USA Network: Show Us Your Character

Tyson appears in a commercial for USA Network in which he solves a Rubik's Cube blindfolded, but is slightly unsure that he has finished.

[edit] CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 (Air Date: December 15, 2006)

Tyson does a quick interview and demonstration on solving the Rubik's Cube while blindfolded within 75 secs., but was slightly distracted and inadvertently turned a row the opposite way than intended on the last few steps and ended up with a few blocks out of place.

The following night, AC360 showed a sped up re-do of Tyson successfully solving a Rubik's Cube while blindfolded in just over 2.5 mins. recorded after the previous night's show had aired.

[edit] Media Influences

[edit] Pursuit of Happyness

In September of 2005, Tyson was asked, along with his younger brother Toby Mao to serve as Rubik's Cube consultants for Will Smith's latest film, The Pursuit of Happyness. It is rumored that Tyson will appear on the DVD Special Features.

[edit] Chess

Tyson is an amateur chess player. He started tournament play in 1999 as a freshman at Crystal Springs Uplands School when his classmate Lee-Ming Zen enrolled in the school and started the chess club.

Currently, he is rated 1298 (1383 Unofficial) in the United States Chess Federation. It is rumored that his current goal is to achieve a rating higher than 1590 so that he may claim chess superiority over fellow cast member Joe Block from the second season of Beauty and the Geek.

[edit] Sample game

Position after 20. Nf3

In September of 2006, Tyson resumed consistent tournament play. His last rated game was in 2001. Tyson Mao defeated Andrew Chen with the black pieces in a Sicilian defense at the 2nd Annual Bernardo Smith Amateur Swiss at the Mechanic's Institute in San Francisco, California. The moves performed during the game in algebraic chess notation:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bc4 b5 7. Bd3 e6 8. O-O Be7 9. Bd2 O-O 10. Re1 Bb7 11. Re3 Qb6 12. Nb3 Nbd7 13. Rg3 g6 14. h4 h5 15. Bg5 Rfe8 16. Nd2 Ng4 17. Be3 Nxe3 18. Rxe3 Bxh4 19. Be2 Nf6 20. Nf3 Bxf2+ 21. Kxf2 Ng4+ 22. Ke1 Nxe3 23. Qd2 Nxg2+ 24. Kf1 Ne3+ 25. Ke1 Rad8 26. Nd1 Nxd1 27. Qxd1 Bxe4 28. Ng5 Qg1+ 29. Kd2 Qxg5+ 30. Ke1 Qe3 0-1