Rubik F2L
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This page is dedicated to solving the first 2 layers of the Rubik's cube.
Resources
Intro
This page is dedicated to solving the first two layers of the Rubik's cube, after making the cross on the D face.
The principle is to always fall back in one of the 4 basic cases. A basic case is one that requires only 3 moves to solve:
- Case /R1/:
R U' R'and case /L1/:L' U L(mirror)
- Pair next to each other, horizontal and left (right) of target slot.
- Case /R2/:
R U R'and case /L2/:L' U' L(mirror)
- Corner above target slot, edge on UB. Corner white sticker facing right (left), front sticker same as edge up sticker.
Notes:
- Always put the corner above the slot, and solve from the right side first, then switch to left if necessary.
- In algorithm below, whitespaces
- We can always replace
U2 R U' R'withU sledgeR'. - Case solve are coded for fast reference. (R2, BR) means we want to get a basic case /R2/ by bringing the corner above BR corner. (R2, BR, rot) means we aim at obtaining a /R2/ case by using the BR corner, but this time with rotation of the corner; this means that the corner is moved above the BR corner not using a U move (followed by R ... R' that would preserve orientation of the corner), but with a R moves that changes orientation of the edge. So rot indicates that the solves change the F2L family.
We follow Bob's Burton classification.
Corner correct, edge not placed
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Edge correct, corner slot free
- Case 05 can be easily inserted from any angle without cube rotation.
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This is different from case 15 because corner and edge color mismatch. |
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Corner in first layer twisted clockwise
- White sticker on FRONT / RIGHT face
- First move edge on its color, then
- If white sticker is on the SAME face → use a double sexy or sexyL.
- If white sticker is on DIFFERENT face → use a TRUNCATED double sexy' or sexyL' , where first UP rotation is skipped.
- Cases are identified by the visible colors on corner and lateral color on the edge. This is useful when solving the F2L in the wrong slot.
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col-white F-col — (alt. |
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white-col1-col2 — (alt. |
Corner in first layer twisted counter-clockwise
- White sticker on FRONT / RIGHT face
- First move edge on its color, then
- If white sticker is on the SAME face → use a double sexy or sexyL.
- If white sticker is on DIFFERENT face → use a TRUNCATED double sexy' or sexyL' , where first UP rotation is skipped.
- Cases are identified by the visible colors on corner and lateral color on the edge. This is useful when solving the F2L in the wrong slot.
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col2-col1-white — (alt. |
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col-white R-col — (alt. |
Corner in U-layer with cross-color on U-face
- Not touching cases
- There are four such cases. Get a basic base by
- bring edge to its color
- raise empty slot
- bring corner above the edge, then
- turn back slot.
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(L2, FL, rot) create a /L2/ case by using BL corner with y L' move, and U2. |
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Not touching case — see above. |
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Not touching case — see above. |
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(R2, BR, rot) create a /R2/ case by using BR corner with R move, and U2. |
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(LLBU2, BR) fall-back to case 22 using BR corner with U' then R, . |
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Not touching case — see above. |
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Not touching case — see above. |
Corner in U-layer with cross-color on R-face
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Corner in U-layer with cross-color on F-face
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Setup:(R' F R F')(R U' R' U) U
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Tips
- When edge + corner are on the 1st and 2nd layer,
- Pull them off with a sexy move if the edge is (R U R' U) correctly oriented;
- Pull them off with a sledgehammer (R' F R F') if the edge is not correctly oriented;
- Indeed, the SH is necessary in order to swap the parity of the F2L edge.
- A pair can be inserted w/o cube rotation using RU or LU moves only and only if edge top color (when on U face) matches the Front face color.
- All other cases either require a cube rotation, or a move using F face (or R face).
- This rule can be used to quickly see if a pair can be inserted without cube rotation.
- This works for all cases! So if edge is on the 2nd layer, bring it up to U face such that to satisfy rule above either with a RU/LU move or a sledgehammer. An other solution is to use E moves
Tutorials
- Déconjugaison intelligente
- Avoid
y2moves, but solve the F2L cases as is (with empty slots in the back).
- This is true for all "base" cases, both contiguous and not.
yandy'is ok. When choosing between both, favor the one that leads toRandUmoves.
- For instance, better do
y' R' U Rthany L' U Lto insert a base case.
- Use free slots
- Goal of this part: Avoid
yandy'move whenever possible. - Introduce another commutator, the sledgehammer:
R' F R F'
F'move must be done with the right thumb!
- Case:
R U' R y L' U2' L y', white sticker UP, FR corner.
- Subcase FR. Use sledgehammer
U' R' F R F' R U' R' - Subcase FL. Use left sledgehammer, or
y'then subcase FR above. - Subcase BL. Use
L U' L' y' L' U2 L. Or sledgehammer also possible, but with re-grip (B with right hand index). - Subcase BR. Usual solution is
R' U R' F R F' R, butR' U R y U' R U' R'(U' while y) is also ok.
- Case:
U y L' U' L U' y' R U R'
- Avoid cube rotation with sledgehammer:
U2 R' F R F' U2 R U R'
- Case:
U y L' U L U2' L' U L y'
- Can be inserted from any angle. Either pick contiguous base case or separated.
- If corner in FR or BL:
U R U R' U2 R U R'orU L U L' U2' L U L'. - If corner in FL or BR:
U L' U L U2' L' U L(alt using sledge:U L' U L L F' L' F, F with thumb) orU R' U R U2' R' U R
- Case: corner on D face
- See my shortcuts above with sexy moves above.
- Case: le Belge
- When corner in FRD, and correct edge on UR, two solutions:
R U' R' U' R U' R' U R U R'(grip: LH F/B, index doing all U' and first U, RH U/D, index 2nd U) (R U' R' to create a known F2L case)U' R' F R F' R U R'(with a sledgehammer)
r' U' R U M'(to solveL U L' U' y, normally solved withd L U' L)r' R2 U' R' U M'(to solveL' U L U y', normally solved withd' L' U' L)l R U' R' U l'(grip: LH thumb U face) (to solveL' U2 L y', normally solved withy' R U2 R')
- Reverse formula,
l U' R U R' l'(grip: LH thumb U face, RH thumb D face, or better LH thumb U face first, thenUdone by pushing with right ring finger, andU R' l'is executed likeU R2'in the Ub PLL perm), is an alternative toR U R' U R U' R', where 2ndUmust be done by pushing with left index.
- TRAINME — Sometimes a mere d or d' is the easiest way to get an easy pair to insert (instead of all the other tricks given here). But should see which one is the fastest.
- TRAINME — Insertion with F U' F' or F' U' F. Note that Victor does not like the left mirror, and instead do a d or d'.
- This app shows solutions for all F2L cases.
- FAST: Use
dandd'move instead ofy' Uory U'. This happens extremely frequently, and is very useful to solve pair in any slot without turning the cube.
- Fridrich F2L: Going Slow and Looking Ahead (PCwizCube)
- Do not pause! Turn slow instead and look aheak for the next pair (it's better to run slow without pause than racing like crazy with pause, The Turtle and The Hare).
- Always follow the next pair when solving the current pair. Your eyes must never follow the current pair.
- Dan Knights' quote: While solving the first two layers, pause halfway through inserting the first pair. Find the second pair, and then force yourself to watch the second pair as you allow your hands to complete the first pair. Repeat with the remaining pairs. The most important part is that your eyes are physically tracking other pieces on the cube, instead of the pieces you are solving.
- Use a metronome (http://www.metronomeonline.com/). Set it on 60 beats per second. Turn a face (1/4) on every beat, never missing one. Then when feeling confident, gradually increase the frequency, like 72/s, then 84/s, 96/s, etc).