Fridrich Method - The Method

The Method

The method consists of 4 steps:

• The Cross - This first stage involves solving four edge pieces on one side. Historically, tutorials were made teaching people to solve on the white side first, so this has become common. However, newer speedcubers are commonly becoming 'colour neutral', where the cuber can start solving from the colour with the best start. This step is the most intuitive step of the solve but it is also very fast; experienced speedcubers can solve it in about 1-1.5 seconds, and in all cases it requires 8 or fewer turns to solve.

• Solve the First Two Layers (F2L) - This stage consumes most of the time as it has the most turns to solve. In most beginner methods, the corners of the cube and edge pieces are solved separately. In F2L, both the corner piece and edge pieces are solved at the same time, reducing the number of twists needed. There are 42 different cases for F2L, 41 plus the already solved case. However, most speedcubers solve this step intuitively.

• Orientation of Last Layer (OLL) - This stage involves manipulating the top layer so that all the top cubies have the same colour on top., even at the expense of incorrect colours on other sides. This stage involves learning a total of 57 algorithms. Because of the large number of algorithms, many speedcubers who are beginning to learn OLL will use the 2-Look OLL subset, which completes the edges and then the corners separately using 9 algorithms.

• Permutation of Last Layer (PLL) - The final stage involves moving the pieces of the top layer while preserving their orientation. There are a total of 21 algorithms for this stage.