Step 1: notation and the grip
Moves are written with six letters: U up (top), D down, R right, L left, F front, B back. A letter alone is a quarter turn clockwise as you look at that face; R' (“R prime”) is anticlockwise; U2 is a half turn. Centres never move, so a face is named by its centre: the white face is wherever the white centre is. The notation page has the full alphabet; for this method the six letters and the apostrophe are enough.
Grip for steps 3 to 7: yellow centre on top, white centre underneath. Step 2 starts with yellow on top as well. When a step says “front”, it means whichever face is towards you at that moment; you will turn the whole cube to bring pieces to the front, and that is fine as long as white stays down.
Step 2: the white cross
The goal: four white edge pieces around the white centre, each with its other colour matching the centre beside it. The easiest route is the daisy.
- Hold yellow on top. Bring the four white edges up around the yellow centre so the top looks like a daisy: yellow middle, white petals. Any order, any turns; nothing else is solved yet so nothing can break.
- A white edge in the bottom layer: turn the bottom until it is under an empty petal spot, then turn that side face twice.
- A white edge in the middle layer: turn the top so the petal spot above it is empty, then turn that side face towards the top.
- A white edge on top but with white facing sideways: turn that face once, then treat it as a middle-layer edge.
- Now turn the top until one petal's side colour matches the centre below it, then turn that face twice (
F2,R2, and so on). The petal drops to the bottom in the right place. - Repeat for the other three petals. Turn the cube over to check: white cross, side colours matching the centres.
Step 3: the white corners
Keep white down. Each white corner belongs in the slot between the two centres that match its other two colours. Find a white corner in the top layer and turn the top until it sits directly above its slot. Turn the whole cube so that slot is at the front-right, then repeat
R U R' U'
until the corner drops in with white facing down. It takes one, three or five repeats. The sequence is the famous “sexy move”; six repeats bring everything back, so you cannot damage the cross. A white corner stuck in the bottom layer in the wrong slot or twisted: hold its slot at the front-right and do the sequence once to pop it up, then place it properly.
Step 4: the middle-layer edges
Yellow still on top. You are looking for edges in the top layer with no yellow on them; those belong in the middle layer. Take one and turn the top until its front sticker matches the centre below it, making an upside-down T. Now look at its top sticker:
| Top sticker matches… | Algorithm |
|---|---|
| the right centre | U R U' R' U' F' U F |
| the left centre | U' L' U L U F U' F' |
Repeat for all four. If no top edge is free of yellow but the middle layer is not done, an edge is sitting in the middle layer the wrong way round: insert any yellow-free top edge, or any edge at all, into that slot to push it out, then place it properly.
Step 5: the yellow cross
Ignore the corners and look only at the yellow edges on top. You will see a dot (no yellow edges), an L (two at a right angle), a line (two opposite) or a finished cross. One algorithm moves you along that chain:
F R U R' U' F'
- Line: hold it horizontal (left to right) and do the algorithm once. Cross.
- L: hold it so the two yellow edges are at the back and the left (12 o'clock and 9 o'clock) and do the algorithm once. Cross.
- Dot: do the algorithm from any angle; you get an L. Continue as above.
Step 6: the yellow face
Now the corners. Count how many have yellow on top, hold the cube by the matching rule, and do Sune:
R U R' U R U2 R'
| Yellow corners on top | How to hold before Sune |
|---|---|
| 1 (the “fish”) | The yellow corner at the front-left. |
| 0 | Turn the top until the front-left corner has yellow on its left side. |
| 2 | Turn the top until the front-left corner has yellow on its front side. |
After each Sune, count again and apply the rule again. At most three repeats finish the yellow face; we checked all seven possible starting cases on the engine.
Step 7: position the corners, then the edges
The yellow face is done, but the side colours of the last layer are mixed. Two algorithms finish the cube.
Corners
Turn the top until at least one corner is in its correct slot (its three colours match the three centres around it). Hold that corner at the front-right and do
U R U' L' U R' U' L
It cycles the other three corners and leaves the front-right one alone. If they are not all correct after one go, do it once more from the same grip. If no corner was correct to begin with, do it once from any grip, then look again: one will be.
Edges
Finally, turn the top so that, if possible, one edge is already correct, and hold that edge at the back. Then
R U' R U R U R U' R' U' R2
cycles the front, right and left edges and leaves the back one alone. Do it a second time if the first did not finish. If no edge was correct, do it once from any grip, then hold the one that is now correct at the back and repeat. The cube is solved.
What to do next
Do ten solves with the page open, then ten without it. Time the next ten with the timer; three minutes is a good first target. Then read the tips and pick up the F2L pairs and the two-look last layer from the algorithms page, one algorithm a week. If a cube ever gets beyond you, the solver is one tab away.
