Last weekend, Ryan Eckersley from the United Kingdom broke the European Record for 4x4 blindfolded at Scottish Blind Off 2025 in Glasgow. He initially broke his own national record with a single of 1:18.79 in the first round which placed him 6th in the world and 2nd in Europe, however, in the final of the same competition, he broke his own national record again by over 10 seconds with a time of 1:07.48, this time places him 3rd in the world and 1st in Europe, it is also the world's fastest time of the year so far.
Ryan Eckersley was clearly going for speed in both rounds, his other two attempts were DNFs (does not finish) in both rounds but in each round his successes were incredibly fast. In blindfolded solving, there is often a choice made on how fast to push things, he could have gone a bit slower and reviewed his memorization slightly more to make sure all his solves were successes but then he wouldn't have got such good times when he was successful.
Ryan Eckersley currently holds all the top 62 4x4 blindfolded results in the UK, in 2023, he broke Oliver Frost's national record which had stood since 2015 and was the world record back in 2015, since then he has pushed it down from just under 2 minutes to genuinely threatening Stanley Chapel's sub-1 minute mark. Stanley Chapel's 4x4 blinfdolded bounty is still valid, if Ryan Eckersley can solve a 4x4 blindfolded in under 1 minute officially, then Stanley Chapel will personally give him $600.
