Quicknation    Erno Rubik

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Erno Rubik (born July 13, 1944Erno Rubik is a Hungarian inventor, sculptor and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Magic and Rubik's Clock.

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Rubik was born in wartime Budapest, Hungary. His father was a flight engineer, his mother a poet. He graduated from the Technical University, Budapest () in 1967 as an architectural engineer and began postgraduate studies in sculpting and interior architecture. From 1971 to 1975 he worked as an architect, then went back to the academia and became professor at the Budapest College of Applied Arts ( ("...and games"), then became self-employed in 1983, founding the Rubik Stúdió, where he designed furniture and games. 1987 he became professor with full tenure; in 1990 he became the president of the Hungarian Engineering Academy (). In the Academy, he created the International Rubik Foundation to support especially talented young engineers and industrial designers.

Presently he is mainly working on video game development and architectural topics and is still leading the Rubik Studios.

He is known to be a very introverted and hardly accesible person, almost impossible to contact or get for autographs. He also refuses to attend speedcubing events.

Rubik's Soma Puzzle, aka Rubik's Mini-Bricks (a variation of Piet Hein's Soma Cube: a set of different shaped bricks that can be assembled into different shapes - aim is to construct a cube)Rubik's Snake, also known as Rubik's Twist (composed of 24 wedges that can be arranged to form different shapes)Rubik's Tangle (a series of jigsaw-type puzzles, with square pieces; the aim is to create a tangle of ropes that join end to end)One player acts as the "Codemaster", creating a hidden pattern; the other player has to guess this in as few turns as possible;Each piece begins with the full power of a King, moving diagonally forwards and backwards and jumping captures as in regular checkers.Upon a first capture a piece is flipped over to the pawn-side with its movement then reduced to a backwards direction only. A second capture of the same piece removes it from the game.Possibly a re-presentation of the Magic Strategy Game with different designs for the playing pieces;the board is constructed as eight playing spaces wide, by four real playing spaces deep, with a mirror at the far edge of the board making the total depth of play eight spaces.the aim is to make as many rows of four marbles as possible whilst preventing your opponent from doing the same;Tagline - "Move one ball to change it all. The more you score four, the faster you win. Easy to learn, a challenge to master."