ASHFIELD — An Amherst native is continuing to put himself in the record books as one of the world’s fastest speedcubers, taking first place in an event at the recent Rubik’s World Cubing Association World Championship in Seattle.

By winning the “3x3x3 fewest moves” competition, with an average score of just over 20 moves, Levi Gibson, 19, a 2024 Amherst-Pelham Regional High School graduate who now lives in Ashfield, nearly set a world record for that particular speedcubing event, putting up the fifth-best score ever recorded.

Speedcubing is the art of quickly solving a cube with a combination puzzle, the most common being a traditional three-by-three Rubik’s Cube.

Competing in 11 events alongside 1,854 other speedcubers from across the globe over the July 4 weekend, Gibson’s success is a continuation of refining his abilities since first picking up a Rubik’s Cube seven years ago.

“I started Rubik’s speedcubing when I was 12. I just got super interested and then got one myself and learned how to solve it,” Gibson said. “Ever since, I’ve been practicing hours every day and trying to get faster and faster.”

The fewest moves event is one in which contestants have up to an hour to examine the randomized Rubik’s Cube and then write down the moves they would make to solve it. Gibson was able to complete the solution for three randomized Rubik’s Cubes in 20, 21 and 20 moves, meaning his average was 20.33, topping all others at the championship. The runner-up averaged 21 moves.

“It is definitely my specialty,” Gibson said.

Gibson explained he has to examine the cube from all sides, find the shortcut solution and then write it down. A judge then has to verify that what is written is accurate.

“It is scored by the number of moves it takes to solve the cube,” Gibson said.

Among other events at the competition, where cubes of all different shapes and sizes are provided, people can compete to solve the cubes while blindfolded while others solve them using one hand.

The most traditional competition is probably solving the “3x3x3” Rubik’s Cube by hand. Gibson competes, but while solving in seven to eight seconds would seem fast, and his average time is 7.62 seconds, it only ranks him 939th in the world, a far cry from his fifth-place world ranking in the fewest moves competition.

In fact, during the world competition, Yiheng Wang, an 11-year-old boy from China, averaged 4.23 seconds in the speed competition. “My fastest time is more than double that,” Gibson said.

Gibson’s skills, though, have occasionally helped him to win cash prizes, including $1,000 for a recent first-place finish, and his expertise has allowed him to get a sales boost for an online course he teaches in speedcubing.

Gibson is among those who organize competitions in the region, having already put on local events in Northampton, Amherst, Deerfield, Erving, Ashfield and Springfield. He often travels to other New England states and New York for regional competitions.

One that is coming up, sanctioned by the World Cube Association, will be held in Ashfield on Aug. 9, where he expects those who come to participate in events around the traditional three-by-three Rubik’s Cube and bigger ones, too.

Mostly it’s about enjoying getting together and improving. Gibson said a Netflix documentary, “The Speed Cubers,” captures the good feelings of meeting others with the same interest.

“Cubing isn’t too intense,” Gibson said. “There’s a lot of camaraderie and there’s a very big culture of competitiveness, while being friends with each other.”

Heading to Oberlin College this fall after taking a gap year, Gibson said he expects to maintain his interest in speedcubing, though probably in a more casual way.

“Cubing is a whole lot of fun,” Gibson said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.