Skewb

The Skewb (/ˈskjuːb/) is a combination puzzle and a mechanical puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube. It was invented by Tony Durham and marketed by Uwe Mèffert.^[1] Although it is cubical, it differs from the typical cubes' construction; its axes of rotation pass through the corners of the cube, rather than the centers of the faces. There are four axes, one for each space diagonal of the cube. As a result, it is a deep-cut puzzle in which each twist affects all six faces.

Mèffert's original name for this puzzle was the Pyraminx Cube, to emphasize that it was part of a series including his first tetrahedral puzzle, the Pyraminx. The name Skewb was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in his Metamagical Themas column. Mèffert liked the new name enough to apply it to the Pyraminx Cube, and he also named some of his other puzzles after it, such as the Skewb Diamond.^[2]

In December 2013, the Skewb was recognized as an official World Cube Association competition event.^[3]

Mechanism

The Master Skewb, a variant of the Skewb

The Skewb's pieces are divided into subgroups and have several constraints. The eight corners are split into two groups—the four corners attached to the central four-armed spider and the four "floating" corners that can be removed from the mechanism easily. These corners cannot be interchanged i.e. in a single group of four corners, their relative positions are unchanged. A floating corner can be distinguished by squishing down when applying pressure to the corner. The centers only have two possible orientations, seen by scrambling a Skewb-like puzzle where the center orientation is visible (such as the Skewb Diamond or Skewb Ultimate), or by disassembling the puzzle.

Records

The world record for single solve is 0.75 seconds, set by Carter Kucala of the United States at Going Fast in Grandview 2024.^[4]

The world record for average of 5 solves (excluding fastest and slowest) is 1.37 seconds, set by Ignacy Samselski of Poland at Cube Factory League Justynów 2025, with times of 1.22, 1.43, (1.16), 1.46, and (2.93) seconds.^[4]

Top 10 solvers by single solve

Rank	Name^[5]	Result	Competition
1	Carter Kucala	0.75s	Going Fast in Grandview 2024
2	Pratik Khanna	0.76s	BITS Pilani Cube Open 2025
3	Zayn Khanani	0.81s	Rubik's WCA North American Championship 2022
4	Divij Yadav	0.83s	BITS Pilani Cube Open 2025
5	Simon Kellum	0.85s	Going Fast in Grandview 2024
6	Brayden Wroten	0.86s	Oredigger Open CO 2025
7	Szymon Brągiel	0.87s	Żory Open 2025
8	Antoni Stojek	0.88s	Cube Factory Brzeziny 2024
8	Manuel Prieto de Antón	0.88s	Baztan Open 2023
10	Ignacy Samselski	0.89s	Żmigród Open 2024

Top 10 solvers by Olympic average of 5 solves

Rank	Name^[6]	Result	Competition	Times
1	Ignacy Samselski	1.37s	Cube Factory League Justynów 2025	1.22, 1.43, (1.16), 1.46, (2.93)
2	Carter Kucala	1.52s	CubingUSA Heartland Championship 2024	1.65, 1.45, (2.57), (1.37), 1.45
3	Dominic Redisi	1.53s	Rubik’s WCA North American Championship 2024	(2.05), 1.63, 1.43, 1.52, (1.07)
4	Zayn Khanani	1.56s	Pretzel Mania 2022	1.30, (1.20), 1.79, 1.60, (4.89)
5	Kaixi Guo (郭铠希)	1.57s	Shenyang Autumn 2025	(1.20), 1.49, 1.80, (9.61), 1.42
6	Oskar Hanuszkiewicz	1.64s	Beskidy Cubing Day 2025	1.62, 1.64, (1.46), (2.14), 1.65
7	Tomasz Pietruszka	1.69s	Silesian Cubing Mysłowice 2025	1.65, (2.85), 1.72, 1.71, (1.52)
8	Alex Rosado Saez de Langarica	1.70s	Tafalla Open 2025	1.55, (1.53), (1.93), 1.70, 1.86
9	Brayden Wroten	1.73s	Grand Junction Dysfunction 2025	1.77, 1.70, 1.72, (3.44), (1.33)
10	Vojtěch Grohmann	1.78s	Rubik's German Nationals 2024	1.78, 1.93, (2.39), 1.64, (1.32)