Simon Praschl Breaks 4x4 Blindfolded European Record with 57.79 – Claims Stanley Chapel's $600 Bounty
Austrian speedcuber Simon Praschl has become only the second person in history to officially solve a 4x4 Rubik's Cube blindfolded in under one minute, recording an incredible 57.79 seconds at Austrian Nationals 2026 in Vienna.
The result breaks his own European Record by 3.25 seconds, but it also represents a much more significant milestone: until now, American speedcuber Stanley Chapel was the only person ever to achieve a sub-minute 4x4 Blindfolded solve in official competition.
Simon has also become the first competitor to claim part of Stanley Chapel's $1,000 bounty, earning $600 for becoming the first person to join him below the one-minute barrier.
And remarkably, Simon didn't stop there. His three solves also produced a new European Record mean of 1:07.83, giving him both European Records in the event.
The Second Person Ever to Solve 4x4 Blindfolded in Under a Minute
Simon opened the 4x4 Blindfolded final at Austrian Nationals 2026 with his record-breaking 57.79.
His three attempts were:
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57.79 – European Record single
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1:10.00
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1:15.69
Together, these produced a 1:07.83 European Record mean.
The 57.79 improves his previous European Record of 1:01.04 by 3.25 seconds, finally breaking through the one-minute barrier.
What makes this achievement particularly impressive is the difficulty of 4x4 Blindfolded.
Unlike ordinary 4x4 solving, where competitors can continuously look at the puzzle, blindfolded solvers must memorise the entire scrambled cube before putting on a blindfold and executing their solution from memory.
Both memorisation and execution count towards the final time.
At this level, competitors must memorise dozens of pieces in just seconds, before executing a long sequence of moves accurately without being able to see the cube.
Even a single mistake can result in a DNF.
For years, Stanley Chapel appeared to be in a league of his own in this event. Simon's 57.79 is therefore an enormous milestone for competitive blindfolded solving.
The First Winner of Stanley Chapel's $1,000 Bounty
Perhaps the most interesting part of this achievement is that Simon has become the first person to claim Stanley Chapel's famous 4x4 Blindfolded bounty.
Chapel, who has dominated the event for several years, previously announced that he would offer $1,000 of his own money to encourage other competitors to break the one-minute barrier.
The money was divided between the first three competitors to achieve an official sub-minute 4BLD solve.
| Achievement | Prize |
|---|---|
| First new competitor to achieve sub-1 | $600 |
| Second new competitor to achieve sub-1 | $300 |
| Third new competitor to achieve sub-1 | $100 |
With his 57.79, Simon has now earned the $600 first prize, equivalent to approximately £460.
That leaves $400 still available for the next two competitors to achieve a sub-minute 4x4 Blindfolded solve.
The bounty was an unusual challenge because Stanley was already so far ahead of the rest of the world.
Rather than simply waiting for someone to challenge his records, he offered a financial incentive to encourage the world's fastest blindfolded solvers to improve.
Simon has now become the first person to successfully meet that challenge.
Simon Also Breaks Ryan Eckersley's European Record Mean
Although the sub-minute single will understandably receive most of the attention, Simon's 1:07.83 mean is arguably just as impressive.
The previous European Record mean was 1:22.99, held by British speedcuber Ryan Eckersley.
Ryan set that record earlier in 2026, improving his own previous European Record and maintaining his position among the world's fastest 4x4 Blindfolded competitors.
Simon's new mean improves that record by an enormous 15.16 seconds.
It also moves him into second place in the world rankings for both single and mean, behind Stanley Chapel.
This means that Simon has not only produced one exceptional solve but has demonstrated the ability to complete three extremely fast blindfolded solves in succession.
His slowest solve of the round was just 1:15.69, itself considerably faster than the previous European Record mean.
How Does Simon Compare with Stanley Chapel?
Despite Simon's incredible achievement, Stanley Chapel still holds both 4x4 Blindfolded World Records.
| Record | Stanley Chapel | Simon Praschl |
|---|---|---|
| 4x4 BLD single | 51.96 | 57.79 |
| 4x4 BLD mean | 59.39 | 1:07.83 |
Stanley set his 51.96 World Record single in January 2023, while his extraordinary 59.39 World Record mean came in June 2025.
That mean remains particularly remarkable because it was the first official sub-minute mean in 4x4 Blindfolded.
Stanley's three counting solves were 57.83, 1:04.79 and 55.54.
Simon is now just 5.83 seconds away from the World Record single, although the gap in the mean remains somewhat larger.
Nevertheless, this is the closest another competitor has come to challenging Stanley's dominance in several years.
A Historic Result at Austrian Nationals 2026
The achievement took place at Austrian Nationals 2026 in Vienna, making it an especially memorable result for the Austrian speedcubing community.
Simon won the 4x4 Blindfolded event with both European Records, establishing himself as the fastest European competitor in the event by a considerable margin.
The result also demonstrates just how quickly blindfolded solving has progressed.
For comparison, the 4x4 Blindfolded World Record stood at over two minutes as recently as 2016.
Now, two competitors have successfully completed the entire memorisation and execution process in under 60 seconds.
Watch Simon Praschl's 57.79 European Record
The record-breaking solve is available to watch on YouTube.
Watch Simon Praschl's 57.79 4x4 Blindfolded European Record
It is particularly interesting to watch how quickly Simon completes the memorisation phase before beginning his blindfolded execution.
Unlike ordinary speedsolving, where competitors can continuously adjust their solution based on what they see, every move must be planned and remembered before the blindfold goes on.
The fact that Simon can complete the entire process in less than a minute demonstrates the extraordinary level that modern blindfolded solving has reached.
Who Will Claim the Remaining $400?
With Simon becoming the first competitor to break the one-minute barrier since Stanley Chapel, attention now turns to the remaining two bounty prizes.
The next competitor to achieve an official sub-minute 4x4 Blindfolded solve will earn $300, while the third will receive $100.
There are several extremely fast blindfolded specialists who may eventually challenge the barrier, including British competitor Ryan Eckersley, Manuel Gutman of Argentina or Daniel Wallin of Sweden. It seems that former world record holder KaiJun Lin and Hill Pong Yong Feng of Malaysia who was previously closest to Stanley's times no longer compete very often.
However, breaking one minute remains a significant challenge.
Even Simon, who has now achieved 57.79, had previously been unable to break the barrier despite holding the European Record single.
His achievement is therefore a major milestone, both for European speedcubing and for the event as a whole.
For the first time in years, Stanley Chapel is no longer alone in the sub-minute 4x4 Blindfolded club.
And with $400 still available in bounty money, the race to become the third person to break one minute is now on.
Congratulations to Simon Praschl on an extraordinary achievement!
