A Rookie’s Guide to the Rubik’s Cube

Written By: Eason Yu

Introduction

With over 43 Quintillion combinations, the 3x3 Rubik’s Cube is one of the most unique, fascinating, yet complex puzzles. Designed and invented by Erno Rubik in 1974, it was first called the ‘Magic Cube’ due to its “magical” feel when the player manages to reassemble the parts back to their original locations. Due to its difficult and complex nature, the Rubik’s Cube is often associated with the stereotype of being played by smart people. However, for the general public, solving the Rubik’s Cube consists of memorization of algorithms and moves in order to complete this complicated puzzle. With new solutions constantly surfacing, the sport of “Speed Cubing” was created, where millions of people around the world attend tournaments to solve puzzles such as the 3 by 3, and compete for the fastest time or average.

3 Methods to Solve a Rubik’s Cube

A scrambled Rubik’s Cube or 3 by 3 for short can be solved via various methods. Popular methods among the ‘Speed Cubing’ community consists of ‘CFOP’ or ‘Roux’. Both methods are widely popular due to their capabilities to help ‘cubers’ score faster times. Nonetheless, for the general public, solving a 3 by 3 can be done easily with the beginner method, which is a much simplified version of CFOP.

1. Beginner Method

The Beginner Method is a method that solves the 3 by 3 layer by layer. only consisting of-memorizing 3 major algorithms- at most-, this method is much easier to learn compared to other techniques. It solves the puzzle by first completing the ‘white face’, then slowly building the second layer, and finishing off by completing the cross of the ‘yellow face’ and orienting it’s edges. Although the beginner method solves the slowest amongst its other counterparts, it is the most beginner-friendly, hence its given name.

2. CFOP

Invented by professor Jessica Fridrich, CFOP is short for ‘Cross, First-2-Layers, OLL(Orientation of the Last Layer), and PLL (Permutation of the Last Layer)’. CFOP is considered a more advanced and efficient version of the beginner method. Rather than building layer by layer, CFOP solves 2 edge layers at once. Rather than conducting multiple moves to solve the final layer, CFOP completes the final layers in 2 steps using ‘full OLL’ and ‘full PLL’, or completes the final layers in 4 steps with ‘2-step OLL and PLL’. CFOP is widely praised by the speedcubing community with cubers such as 2-time World Cubing Champion Felix Zemdegs also solving with the CFOP method.

3. Roux

Named after the inventor, Gilles Roux, the Roux method is a popular method used amongst many skilled cubers. Unlike CFOP, Roux does not solve the 3 by 3 layer by layer. Instead, Roux orients the edges first, then the center columns and lastly orienting the rows with a series of well designed algorithms and moves. Famous Roux users consist of Vincent Wong of Australia and Sean Patrick Villanueva.

The World Cube Association

The World Cube Association(WCA) is an organization founded in 2004 which acts as the governing body for most puzzle speed solving events. The WCA hosts tournaments around the world from the USA to China to even Taiwan. Official puzzles consist of the standard ‘3 by 3’, ‘4 by 4’, and even unique puzzles such as the ‘Square-1’ and ‘Pyraminx’.

World Records

The WCA’s official time for the fastest solve of a 3 by 3 was set by Chinese cuber Yu-Sheng Du in 2018 with a record of 3.47 seconds.

An ‘average solve’ in the puzzle solving community is set by 5 different solves, and the average time is recorded by finding the mean of the solves excluding the fastest and slowest amongst the 5. Recently, the ‘3 by 3’ average record was broken by Chinese cuber Yiheng Huang with an average time of 4.69 seconds. Beating the previous record holder Max Park’s record by 0.17 seconds.

Yiheng Huang (Left) & Max Park (Right)

Conclusion

Despite the fact that the Rubik’s Cube may be one of the most challenging puzzles to solve and grasp, the rise of the internet has made cube solving methodologies more accessible for the general public. With a rise in demand, more cube brands were established such as ‘GAN’ and ‘Moyu’ who many believe to hold higher quality cubes that allow better performances compared to the original ‘Rubik’s Cube’. Learning to solve the Rubik’s Cube can be rewarding in many ways, it is an activity used to kill time, a secret skill you can impress your peers with, and ultimately become a newfound hobby that you can master.