"I'm ecstatic," said Knights, who's been cubing since 1999. "I feel so lucky - any of the finalists could have won."

Knights goes home with $3,500, a trophy and best of all - the knowledge that he is the fastest cuber in the world. Second place was awarded to Jessica Fridrich of the Czech Republic with an impressive average solving time of 20.48 seconds. Third went to David Wesley of Sweden with an average time of 20.96 seconds.

The championship was held on Saturday, August 23 and Sunday, August 24 at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. In total, over 100 competitors from 15 countries participated in the event which featured the classic speed cubing competition, as well as such unusual and astounding events as blindfolded cubing, one-handed cubing and foot cubing.

"This World Championship brought out the best cubists from around the world. Forty-three players from the United States alone competed in the 3x3x3 event," said Mark Stark, vice president of Marketing, Hasbro Games. "Though it has been around for more than 20 years, Rubik's Cube continues to grow in popularity An event like the World Championship celebrates Rubik's Cube as a great and intriguing puzzler."

Forty-three Quintillion Configurations

The RUBIK'S CUBE was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik, a professor at the Hungarian Academy of Crafts and Design in Budapest. His original intent was to create a cube with parts that could move around a center axis. He painted each side a different color for demonstration purposes, and accidentally stumbled upon the puzzle we now know and love as the RUBIK'S CUBE.

RUBIK'S CUBE appears fairly simple to solve, but it hides an astonishing forty-three quintillion (43,252,003,274,489,856,000) different configurations! The fewest number of moves it takes to solve a completely scrambled cube is 22, by some calculations.

The RUBIK'S CUBE: Classic Fun and Games

RUBIK'S CUBE launched in the United States in 1980. Since that time it has reached pop icon status and continues today to puzzle and delight children of all ages. Each of its six faces is a different color, and each face is divided into nine squares. With a few random twists, the faces become varied mixes of red, yellow, orange, white, green and blue squares. The object is to restore the cube to its original state, with each face again a single color. The RUBIK'S CUBE is for ages 8 and up and is available at all major toy and game retailers in the U.S. for an approximate retail price of $9.99. For more information please visit www.rubiks.com.

About Hasbro

Hasbro Games manufactures and markets games and puzzles under the brand names Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. Included in its product line are some of the world's best-known games and puzzles including: CANDY LAND, the MONOPOLY game, SCRABBLE Brand Crossword Game, YAHTZEE, TWISTER, THE GAME OF LIFE, TRIVIAL PURSUIT and BIG BEN Puzzles. The company also markets its games in three focused initiatives: MY FIRST GAMES (pre-school games), FAMILY GAME NIGHT (family games) and GET TOGETHER GAMES (adult games).

Hasbro is a worldwide leader in children's and family leisure time entertainment products and services, including the design, manufacture and marketing of games and toys ranging from traditional to high-tech. Both internationally and in the U.S., its PLAYSKOOL, TONKA, MILTON BRADLEY, PARKER BROTHERS, TIGER and WIZARDS OF THE COAST brands and products provide the highest quality and most recognizable play experiences in the world.

(C)2003 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

SCRABBLE is a trademark of HASBRO in the U.S. and Canada.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT is the registered trademark of Horn Abbot Ltd. for the games distributed under exclusive license to Hasbro, Inc.

RUBIK's Cube(R) is a registered trademark of Seven Towns