Speed Blindfolded Solving
Solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded using a regular F2L (i.e. Fridrich) method.
March 12-25, 2006
My current record: 20:43 memorization, 18.04 execution
• Introduction
• The Basic Idea
• Examples
• Cross
• F2L: Tracing
• Finishing up F2L
• F2L: Tips and Tricks
• OLL
• Compound OLL
• PLL •
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This is where the tracing (and fun) really begins (tracing will also be used for LL, so understand it well). From the cross moves, it is generally not trivial to predict the locations of all F2L pairs, so you have to figure that out. One piece at a time, you apply each cross move (skipping a move only if the piece is not on the turned layer) to that piece and find where it goes: I count off the cross moves so that I don't miss anything.
F2L is sort of an interesting business; it's not that difficult, and it gets easier throughout the solve, but it's all about visualization.
If you're not familiar or comfortable with full employment of corner-edge pair solving for F2L, I suggest Macky's F2L page; I learned all of it from there.
Now, you want to find not only where the piece goes, but how it is oriented. In order to do this, you pick a standard color for each cubie. You then trace only the sticker of that color -try moving your index finger along its locations. From where the sticker lands, you can then "reconstruct" the cubie at any state. I use standard colors to absolutely avoid confusion, normally the top/bottom colors for the U and D layer pieces, and F/B color for E edges. In my examples, it's yellow/white, and red/orange if those colors are not on the cubie. | The principal stickers | |
Before you start tracing anything, make sure that you know the cross very well. Even though it does something, remember it as an arbitrary sequence that operates on the cube in the beginning. Memorize it as a set of five moves. Number them, or even memorize their notation to make them very clear. | #1: The cross moves | #2: The cross moves |
For now, I'll take only scramble #1: | #1: The FR slot corner (YGR) | |
Look at the scramble and find YGR; in this case it's at FLU | #1: YGR highlighted in the scramble | #1: YGR's initial position |
Now, focus only on tracing the principal sticker. | Yellow, the principal sticker of YGR | |
Apply the cross moves, following the sticker. I find that helps to have the tactile reinforcement of following through the location of the sticker with you index finger. | #1: The cross moves: | #1: Tracing Y[GR]: |
You should now know that the sticker ended up on D[LF], from which you can reconstruct the entire piece.
| #1: Final traced position of Y[GR] | #1: The whole YGR cubie |
Now, do the same thing with the FR slot edge: RG. (It's at DB.) Its principal color is red, so follow it and you'll find that it lands at U[R]. | #1: The FR edge (R[G]) on the scrambled cube | #1: Tracing R[G] |
So for the F2L slot, I've traced two stickers, and I remember them with those stickers' positions (it helps to associate them relatively if you'll have to remember the for a while- for example, here they are both facing up/down). | #1: The FR edge (R[G]) on the scrambled cube | #1: Tracing R[G] |
This corresponds to the F2L arrangement to the right. Here you could just decide to do U' F U' F' U' L' U L and group the F2L. However, since you will have to trace the other F2Ls through this point in the solution, you might as well see if any of them are nicer. Keep this slot in your mind, though, if you can. | #1: The FR slot pieces | |
If you trace the other four F2L through the cross, you will find that they are in the states below. (Left to right: FL, BL, BR, FR) | ||
After tracing all the pairs, I have something in my mind that corresponds to the cube on the right (I'm using color on it to distinguish order: white -> yellow -> orange -> red). I remember them as four ordered pairs of stickers, like "these two, then these two, then these two, then those two." I always remember them in the order of FL, BL, BR, and FR. | #1: All 8 F2L principal stickers after cross | |
During a solve, you'd never "see" this, because you don't trace LL pieces until the end, but the F2Ls are located in the total cube states on the right. | #1: The F2L pieces after cross | #1: The entire cube after cross |
Now, you have to pick an F2L slot, and perform the placement moves in your head. At first, I suggest tracing the pieces themselves through the moves you memorized, to be certain that you haven't made a mistake (actually, on you very first solve, you might want to trace from the beginning every time). | #1: Placement of the BL slot | |
#1: Movement of the principal stickers during placement of the BL slot | ||
Until now, you have constructed a partial solution through cross and one slot. When you go on to the rest of F2L, you can treat it like the cross, or an extended cross: a sequence of moves to apply to pieces. When you trace other pieces through the moves, try always to remember what the moves are doing, to avoid small mistakes (a "small" mistake of a wrong turn affects at least 8 cubies). | #1: Solution through one F2L | |