Nicolas Hammond is a British

Rubik's Cube The Rubik's Cube is a Three-dimensional space, 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarians, Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik t ...

expert and businessman. He has lived in the US since 1986. He made the world's first Internet banking transaction.

Early life

Nicolas Hammond was born in Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, England. He was awarded an academic scholarship to

Nottingham High School , motto_translation = Praise to the end , address = Waverley Mount , city = Nottingham , county = Nottinghamshire , postcode = NG7 4ED , country = England , coordinates = , type = Independent day school , established = , closed = , religious ...

and an academic scholarship to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1986 and was awarded a master's degree in 1990. Hammond is divorced with two sons and one daughter.

Rubik's Cube

Hammond was introduced to the

in 1979 by Peter Horrill, head of mathematics at

. The early cubes often broke and Hammond started corresponding with David Singmaster who was importing and selling Rubik's Cubes. Singmaster reported Hammond's speed in solving the Rubik's Cube (28 seconds) in his ''Rubik's Notes'' and later in his ''Cubic Circular''. By 1980, Hammond had the fastest times for solving the Rubik's Cube. '' Reader's Digest'', '' Scientific American'' (March 1981) and '' TIME'' (March 1981) covered Hammond as one of the world's first cube-meisters. Hammond was the fastest qualifier for the first British Rubik's Cube Championship when he won the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

heat of the British Rubik's Cube Championship with a time of 35.38 seconds but did not win the event. Hammond used a computer to determine an upper bound of 21 moves for the Rubik's Cube U group.

Television appearances

On 24 January 1981 Hammond appeared on BBC TV's live Saturday morning show '' Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' with

Ernő Rubik Ernő Rubik (; born 13 July 1944) commonly known by his nickname, "Little Man", is a Hungarian inventor, architect and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including the Rubik's Cube (1974), Rubi ...

and solved the Rubik's Cube in 37 seconds. This was the first solving of the Rubik's Cube on national television in England. Two weeks later, five others tried to beat this time, the closest was 57 seconds. Hammond solved the cube on other television shows including

The Paul Daniels Magic Show ''The Paul Daniels Magic Show'' was a British magic show presented by entertainer and magician Paul Daniels that aired on BBC1 from 9 June 1979 to 18 June 1994. Daniels' assistant throughout the series was Debbie McGee Debra Ann McGee (born 3 ...

, Midlands Today'', ''

ATV Today ''ATV Today'' was a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ATV, serving the English Midlands. The programme aired from 5 October 1964 until 31 December 1981 – the final day of broadcasting from ATV before the co ...

, as well as appearing on ''

The Adventure Game ''The Adventure Game'' is a game show that was originally broadcast on British television, UK television channels BBC One, BBC1 and BBC Two, BBC2 between 24 May 1980 and 18 February 1986. The story in each show was that the two celebrity conte ...

'' with Graeme Garden,

Carol Chell Carol Chell (born 1941) is a British children's television presenter and TV executive. She originally qualified as a teacher, and produced many educational TV shows in the 1960s. She is best known for her work as a long-serving presenter from 1966 ...

and

Lesley Judd Lesley Judd (born 20 December 1946) is an English former television presenter and dancer, best known as a long-serving host of the BBC children's programme '' Blue Peter'' (1972–1979). Background Born in London, the daughter of Leslie T. Judd ...

on 2 November 1981. In December 2006, almost 25 years after his first appearance on TV, Hammond appeared on ''Swap Shop'' and solved the Rubik's Cube in 36 seconds.

Publications

* The book describes the various techniques that Hammond uses to solve the cube. It is based on the bottom, middle, upper layer approach and includes tables to help improve speed. The book also includes a simple, five move, solution to solve the Rubik's Cube. * 206 pages.

Business

Hammond founded ''NJH Security Consulting'', a company specialising in performing Internet security audits for banks, stockbrokers, stock markets in 1996. He also started ''Intelligent Shopping'', a company that created software for purchasing highly secure products over the Internet in the same year. Both companies were sold to

Internet Security Systems IBM Internet Security Systems, formerly Internet Security Systems, and often known simply as ISS or ISSX (after its former NASDAQ ticker symbol) is a security software and managed security services provider founded in 1994. The company was acquire ...

in 1999. He is semi-retired.

Field hockey

Hammond started the Georgia Field Hockey Association (GFHA) in February 1991. He was one of the English speaking stadium announcers for hockey in the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in Atlanta and announced the men's final. He umpired a friendly women's international game between Spain and USA in 1995.

Bridge

Hammond started playing competitive bridge in 2002. At the 2010 world championship meet in Philadelphia, he and Willem van Eijck entered two events and finished 13th in the

World IMP Pairs Championship The World IMP Pairs Championship is a contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partne ...

. Hammond and Edward Foran won the Sally Young Pairs at the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championships (NABC) meet at Atlanta in 2005. The Sally Young is a two-day tournament open to

ACBL Life Master ACBL may refer to: * Actor-Based Concurrent Language, a family of programming languages * Adarsh Co-operative Bank, in India * American Contract Bridge League, a bridge membership organization in North America * Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League ...

s with no more than 1500 masterpoints. He finished second in the Victor Daly KO Teams event at the summer American Bridge Association (ABA) national meet in 2006. In 2006, at the ACBL NABC meet in Chicago, he won the

Mini-Spingold Mini-Spingold national bridge championships are held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). They were introduced in 2001 and are held at the same time as the main Spingold knockout team champ ...

II , another tournament for players with no more than 1500 masterpoints. His team was runner-up the previous year.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hammond, Nicolas 1964 births British speedcubers British and Irish contract bridge players British instructional writers Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Living people People from Attenborough, Nottinghamshire British expatriates in the United States