Copyright © 2015 All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the
publisher.DisclaimerAll the material contained in this book is provided for educational and
Informational purposes only. No responsibility will be taken for any results or
outcomes resulting
from the use of this material. While every attempt has been made to provide information
that is
both accurate and effective, the author does not assume any
responsibility.
 Contents
CHAPTER 1 About the
Author.....................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2 Understanding The Rubiks
Cube..............................................................6
CHAPTER 3 Learning The Rubiks
Cube.........................................................................7
CHAPTER 4 The Long Layer
Method............................................................................. 9
Get the first layer
cross................................................................9
Place the
corners.....................................................................13
Place the middle
edges............................................................25
Get the last layer
cross............................................................33
Match up the cross edge
colours.............................................36
Position the
corners.................................................................39
Solve the
corners.....................................................................41
CHAPTER 5 Learning
Methods.........................................................46
The Lars Petrus
Method...........................................................47
 The Fridrich
Method................................................................ 48
CHAPTER 6 Improving Your
Speedcubing Times.......50
CHAPTER 7 Becoming A
Speedcuber.......................51
CHAPTER 8 Speedcubing World
Records Under 20 Seconds.....................53
CHAPTER 9 Top Speedcubing
Personalities.............. 55
Tyson
Mao.............................................................................. 55
.
Toby
Mao...................................................................................55

ThiabaldJacquinot......................................................................56.

Felix
Zemdegs............................................................................56

Matts
Valk....................................................................................56
 CHAPTER 1
About the Author
Rodney Scarlett is one of the world’s best tutors of the 3x3 rubiks
cube. In 2009 he began making speedcubing videos and uploaded
a lot of them to You Tube. Some of his speedcubing
videos show
his solves below 20 seconds. By March 2012 he began making rubiks
cube tutorial videos. He trained at this for several
months to
become one of the world’s top teachers of the 3x3 rubiks cube. His
tutorials are designed to teach the beginners of the 3x3 rubiks cube
and are designed in a way to help learners overcome the difficulties
they may have experienced in other rubiks cube tutorials. His tutorial
in this book is a written tutorial with diagrams
illustrating the
positions. His aim is to make the tutorial as easy, straightforward
and enjoyable as possible.
 CHAPTER 2
Understanding The Rubiks Cube
The rubiks cube is made of 6 sides which are
R=Right, L=Left,
U=Upper, D=Downer, F=Face, B=Back. In rubiks
cube notation if
you read R, this would mean to turn the Right side a
quarter turn
clockwise. If you read R’ this would mean to turn the
Right side a
quarter turn anti-clockwise. If you read R2, this would mean to turn
the Right side in either direction 2 quarter turns. If you turned the R
file in any direction 4 quarter turns, you would end up in the same
position from where you started. If you read D’ this would mean to
turn the Downer side a quarter turn anticlockwise. If
you read U,
this would mean to turn the Upper clockwise a
quarter turn. The
rubiks cube is made up of 3 layers which are the first layer, the middle
layer and the last layer. There are 3 different pieces
that make
up a rubiks cube. Firstly there are in all 8 corner pieces. Each corner
piece consists of 3 different coloured stickers. Secondly there are in
 all 12 edge pieces. Each edge piece consists of 2 different coloured
stickers. The edge pieces are located between the
corner pieces.
Thirdly there are 6 centre pieces. Each centre piece
consists of a
single sticker. The centre piece is the middle piece on
each side.
The centre pieces can’t move at all they are fully stationary which
means all the other same colours as the centre colour
must be
placed on the same side with that centre.

CHAPTER 3
Learning The Rubiks Cube
Now you want to get started learning the rubiks cube. As a beginner
you would be wise choosing the easiest method of
solving the
rubiks cube. This tutorial will teach you to solve the rubiks cube using
The Long Layer Method. This is the easiest learning
method and it is the
 one I first learnt. After you’ve learnt this method you
may decide
that you want to learn more advanced solving
methods. This will
give you step by step instructions including diagrams illustrating the
positions. When referring to the moves of the cube I
will not be
using the commonly used algorithms. Instead I will state the name
of the side to move. For example instead of stating R, I will just say
Right. When an anticlockwise move is made I will state anticlockwise.
So instead of stating R’,I will just state Right
anticlockwise.
When I state Face, it means to turn the Face one quarter turn
clockwise.
When I state Face anticlockwise, it means to turn the
Face
one quarter turn anticlockwise. If I stated Downer
twice, it means
to turn the Downer twice. If you turned the Downer twice in either
the clockwise or anti clockwise position you would
still end up at
the same point. Therefore if you turn any side twice it doesn’t matter
whether you play it in the clockwise or anticlockwise
position.
I prefer to teach using these move descriptions
because it’s a lot
simpler and also because a lot of people don’t like algorithms. You
may be wondering how long it will take you to master
the rubiks
cube. Well this will depend mainly on two points. Firstly it will depend
upon your natural learning ability for solving the
rubiks cube.
Secondly it will depend upon the amount of time and
effort you
dedicate to this tutorial. Learning the rubiks cube can be very
enjoyable
 but it can also be frustrating for some people. If you
begin
to feel frustrated whilst learning the rubiks cube then
just take a

rest. If you want to achieve anything in this world, you’re going to

need patience. I firmly believe most people could the rubiks cube
within a few days if they applied their selves to this
tutorial for at
least an hour per day. You have plenty of detailed instructions with
well illustrated diagrams to learn very well from this
tutorial.

CHAPTER 4
The Long Layer Method
 There are 7 (seven) stages needed to complete to solve
the cube
using this method. These seven stages are to
1) Get a cross on the top layer
2) Place the corners correctly in the top layer
3) Place the edges in the middle layer
4) Get the last layer cross
5) Match up the cross edge colours
6) Position the corners correctly in the last layer
7) Solve the corners in the last layer

Get the first layer cross

I will begin by solving the white layer. So firstly I must
turn the white
centre to the top. The white and orange edge and the
white and
green edge are already correctly placed in the top layer.
I know they
are correctly placed because their edge colours are
matching up with
the centre colours their next to. For a piece to be
correctly placed its
sticker colours must match up with the centre colours
their next to.
On the Right side below the centre there is a red sticker
of an edge
piece as shown in Diagram 1
 The bottom of this edge piece has a white sticker. I
need to place
this white and red stickered edge piece on the top
layer to match
up with the other white stickers. In order to carry this
out I must
first match up the edges red sticker with the red centre
by moving
the Downer side anticlockwise as shown in Diagram 2

Now red edge sticker and red centre are matched up I

can match up
the edges bottom white sticker with the top layer white
stickers by
moving the Front side twice as shown in Diagram 3
 You can see a white and blue edge on the top layer
wrongly placed
between the white and blue centres. This edge piece
must be
placed correctly between the white and blue centres.
In order to
correctly place the white and blue edge piece in the top layer I must
move the Right anticlockwise to get the white and blue edge to the
middle layer nearest to me as shown in Diagram 4
 Now the yellow and red edge piece can be seen between
the white
and blue centres. Therefore I now need to place the white
and blue
edge in the position of the yellow and red edge piece. In
order to do
this I must firstly move the Upper clockwise. Now you
can see that
the white and blue edge piece is able to be placed in the
position of
the red and yellow edge as shown in Diagram 5

Now I must move the Face anticlockwise to place the

blue white
edge in the position of the red and yellow edge as shown
in Diagram 6
 From this position all the cross edge colours can now be
matched
up with their centre colours beneath them by moving the
Upper
anticlockwise as shown in Diagram 7

Place the corners

Now you can see the first layer cross has been solved.
The next task
is to now to correctly place all the corners in the first
layer. I know
 that any corner piece with a white sticker must belong
on this top
layer. I will firstly place the red, white and blue corner
in the top
layer. I bring this corner into view by moving the
Downer side two
turns. Below the red centre on the right hand side you
can now see
this corner pieces red and white sticker as shown in
Diagram 8.

The bottom sticker of this corner piece is blue. Because this

corner
piece has red, white and blue stickers it means it must be
placed
between the red white and blue centres. Therefore this
corner
must be placed above the red centre in the top right hand
corner
position.
This top right hand corner must be turned down to place the
white,
blue and red corner piece in its position. This top right hand
corner
can be turned down in 2 different ways. The first way it can be
turned down is by moving
the Face clockwise as shown in Diagram 9
 The other, it can be turned down is by moving the
Right anticlockwise
as shown in Diagram 10

From this position I am able to join up the corner into

position by
moving the Downer side anticlockwise as shown in
Diagram 11.
 I then move the Right side clockwise to bring the white
stickers on
the top layer as shown in Diagram 12

I will next place the orange, white and blue corner in the
top layer.
An orange and blue stickered corner is seen below the
red centre
on the right hand side. The bottom sticker of this
corner is white.
I need to place this corner between the orange, white
and blue
centres. So I firstly turn the cube around to bring the
orange and
blue centres into view. I then move the Downer side
clockwise to
place the corner between the orange and blue centres
as shown
Diagram 13
 Before I can place this corner correctly in the top layer I
must firstly
turn up its white sticker. In other words I must make sure
its white
sticker is no longer positioned at the bottom. In order to
do this I
must move the Front side clockwise. Now the corner is
positioned
below the blue centre at the left hand side. The corners
white sticker
is out of view its white sticker is no longer on the bottom
but it is
facing up at the side of the orange sticker as shown in
Diagram 14
 I then move the Downer side 2 turns to bring the
corners white
sticker into view positioned below the orange centre on
the right
hand side as shown in Diagram 15

I then must move the white stickers back on the top layer
by moving
the Face anticlockwise as shown in Diagram 16

In order to now place the corner in the top layer I must first position
 it up by moving the Downer side anticlockwise as
shown in Diagram 17

To enable me to place the corner I turn down the top

corner by
moving Front clockwise as shown in Diagram 18

I then move the Downer side clockwise to join up the

corner as shown in Diagram 19
 I finally turn the white stickers to the top layer by
moving the Front
anticlockwise as shown in Diagram 20

I
I then solve the next 2 corners in exactly the same way and I now have all
my corner pieces solved and the first layer solved as
show in Diagram 21
 Now you can see the top layer has been solved your
next task is to
solve the middle layer.

Place the middle edges

You need to correctly place 4 edge pieces in order to
solve the middle
layer. All the white stickers are now on the top layer.
All the
yellow stickers belong on the bottom layer because
that layer has
a yellow centre. This means that all the edge pieces in
the middle
layer can’t have either a white or yellow sticker on
them when the
cube has been fully solved. Therefore when I find an
edge piece
which has neither a white or yellow sticker on it then I
know it must
belong in the middle layer. A red and green edge
sticker can be seen
on the bottom as shown in Diagram 22
 Which means this edge must be placed between the red
and green
centres because they are the same colours as the edges
colours. To
correctly place the red and green edge in the middle
layer I must
first correctly position it up. To do this you must first
look at the
colour at the bottom of the edge piece which is green.
This means
that I must turn this bottom green edge sticker opposite
the green
centre as shown in Diagram 23
 Because the edges other colour is red it means that I
must now turn
the red centre in front of me as shown in Diagram 24

Now I must turn down the side with the green centre on it
by moving
the Left clockwise, then the Downer anticlockwise, then the
Left anticlockwise, then the Downer anticlockwise, then the
Face
anticlockwise, then the Downer clockwise and lastly the
Face clockwise.
Now you can see the red and green edge piece is correctly
placed as shown in Diagram 25
 If you have an incorrectly placed edge piece in the middle
layer it
must first be taken out in order to be accurately placed.
The orange
and blue edge is incorrectly placed in the middle layer as
shown in
Diagram 26
 In order to take out an incorrectly placed edge piece in
the middle
layer you must firstly turn the incorrectly placed edge
to the right
hand side of the cube and then you must play exactly
the same
moves you would play to put an edge piece in that
same place.
Before I play my moves you can see I have the edge
correctly positioned
with the red centre in front of me.

In order to take out the incorrect edge I must now move

Right anticlockwise,
Downer clockwise, Right clockwise, Downer clockwise,
Face clockwise, Downer anticlockwise, Face anticlockwise.
You will
 notice that the incorrectly placed orange and blue edge has
now
moved from the middle layer to the bottom layer as shown
in Diagram 27

You can also see the blue and red edge on the bottom
layer.
I will decide to firstly place this blue and red edge. I
then position this
edge by turning its bottom blue sticker opposite the
blue centre as shown
in Diagram 28
 This edges other colour is red which means I must next
turn the red
centre in front of me. In order to now place the edge I
must keep
this red centre in front of me and then make the moves
Right anticlockwise,
Downer clockwise, Right clockwise, Downer clockwise,
Face clockwise, Downer anticlockwise, Face
anticlockwise. You can
see that the red and blue edge has now been correctly
placed in the
middle layer as shown in Diagram 29

I next place the remaining middle edges in the same

way which
means that the whole middle layer has now been
solved as shown
in Diagram 30
 As you can see I have now successfully solved the first
2 layers of
the rubiks cube. My next goal is to solve the last layer.
So the first
thing I need to do is to turn the rubiks cube upside
down causing
the white stickers to be on the bottom and the yellow
centre on the
top as shown in Diagram 31

Get the last layer cross

 The first stage of solving the last layer is to get a cross.
Because I
have a yellow centre on my last layer it means my cross
must be a
yellow one. This means I need to get all the 4 yellow
edge stickers on
the last layer which with the yellow centre will form a
cross. To get
a cross I will need to play either one, two, or three set of
moves.
It solely depends on the how many yellow edge stickers
I already
have on this last layer. You need to learn all the 3
stages. Firstly I
will naturally start from a situation where I have no
yellow edge
stickers on the last layer as is the situation right now.
The red centre
is the Face. From here I must play the first set of moves
to
complete the first stage of getting my cross. From here
I must make
the moves Front clockwise, Right clockwise, Upper
clockwise, Right
anticlockwise, Upper anticlockwise, Front
anticlockwise. Now you
can see I now have 2 yellow edge stickers on the top
layer as shown
in Diagram 32
 If you imagine that all the last layer edge places are the
points of
a compass it means I must position these 2 yellow edge
stickers in
the North West position as shown in Diagram 33

From this position I must now play exactly the same

moves I played
for the first stage for the cross in order to complete this
second
stage. Therefore these moves to now play are Front
clockwise,
 Right clockwise, Upper clockwise, Right anticlockwise,
Upper anticlockwise,
Front anticlockwise. You can see that I am now left with
a yellow line as shown in Diagram 34

I must now correctly position this yellow line before I

can play the
third stage for my cross. I must position this yellow line
in a horizontal
position. Remembering Red is my Face it means the
yellow line
must then be positioned as it is already seen. From here I
will play
the third stage for my cross which will be exactly the
same moves
I previously played in the stages for the cross. When I
play the moves of this
third stage of the cross I will finally have the cross. I now
play the
moves Front clockwise, Right clockwise, Upper
clockwise, Right anticlockwise,
Upper anticlockwise, Front anticlockwise. You can now
see I have the yellow cross as
 shown in Diagram 35

Match up the cross edge colours

Now that I have the cross I must next match up all the 4
cross edge
colours with their centre colours below them. My cross
edge colours
are the sticker colours at the other side of the yellow
edge
stickers.

Any 2 cross edge colours that match up with their centre

colours below them fall into 2 categories. Firstly these

matching
edge colours can be opposite colours. For example the
blue and
the green cross edge colours or the red and the orange
cross edge
colours. Secondly these matching edge colours can be
near colours.
 For example the red and the green cross edge colours as
shown in
Diagram 36

You will need to learn how to match up all the cross edge
colours
in both situations. In order to also match up the blue and
orange
cross edge colours I must firstly turn the cube around to
bring the
orange and blue centres into view and I must keep one of
the non
matching edge colours in front of me and the other one
on the right
hand side as shown in Diagram 37
 You can see that I need to swap the orange and blue cross
edge colours
around in order for them to match their centre colours
below
them. I have the orange centre as my Face and the blue
cross edge
colour is facing me and the orange cross edge colour is on
the right.
I must then play Right clockwise, Upper twice, Right
anticlockwise,
Upper anticlockwise, Right clockwise, Upper
anticlockwise, Right anticlockwise.
You can now see that all the 4 cross edge colours are now
matching
their centre colours below them as shown in Diagram 38

When you have a situation where you have 2 opposite

cross edge
colours that match their centre colours below them you
must hold
one of the matching cross edge colours in front of you and
play the
moves Right clockwise, Upper twice, Right anticlockwise,
Upper anticlockwise,
 Right clockwise, Upper anticlockwise, Right
anticlockwise.
Next you must turn the Upper to match up the cross edge
colours and you’ll find you’ll have 2 near cross edge
colours that
match their centre colours below them.

Position the corners

My next task is to correctly position all the corners. You
can see that
by luck I already have the yellow, orange, and blue
stickered corner
solved.

Before you start positioning the corner

pieces you must choose a Face centre colour that must be
kept
in front of you while you are positioning the corner pieces.
When
there are no corner pieces in their correct positions you
must play
Left anticlockwise, Upper clockwise, Right clockwise,
Upper anticlockwise,
Left clockwise, Upper clockwise, Right anticlockwise. You
must then turn the Upper to match up all the cross edge
colours
with their centre colours below them and then check to see
if there are
any corner pieces in the correct position, if not then play
these moves again.

Before I position my corners I find I already

 have the yellow, orange and blue stickered corner piece
already in
the correct position. This means I must now hold the cube
so as this
corner piece is in the top right hand corner position and
keeping the
orange centre in front of me while I position the rest of the
corner
pieces. From this position I must now play Left
anticlockwise, Upper
clockwise, Right clockwise, Left anticlockwise, Left
clockwise,
Upper clockwise, Right anticlockwise. I must now turn the
Upper to
match up all the cross edge colours with their centre
colours below
them and I find my correctly positioned corner is still in
the correct
place and the three wrongly positioned corner pieces have
moved
places but are still in the wrong positions as shown in
Diagram 39

Because I still only have the same corner piece

in the correct position it means I will have to play exactly
the same
moves again keeping the orange centre in front of me and
the correct
 corner in the top right hand corner position. Once I played
these same moves again I found that I now had all the 4
corner
pieces in their correct positions as shown in Diagram 40

The next stage will be your final stage to complete the

rubiks cube.
This next stage will be to solve the corners.

Solve the corners

You must make sure the yellow centre is kept on top.
Before
I begin to solve these corners I need to choose a centre
colour
to keep in front of me as my Face while I solve all these
corners. I
will choose to keep the blue centre in front of me as my
Face while
 I solve all the corners. Every corner must be positioned at
the front
top right hand corner before solving. I will decide to first
solve the
red, yellow and blue stickered corner since it is already
correctly
positioned in the front top right hand corner as shown in
Diagram 41

To solve the corners I only need to keep playing the same

4 moves
and then after the fourth move I must check to see if the
corners
yellow sticker is on the top layer. You will have to play
two sets of
these 4 moves or four sets of these 4 moves to solve any
corner
piece. If I see the corners yellow sticker is on the top
layer it means
that I must stop because that corner is now solved. The
cube will
 get a bit messed up while your solving these corners but
it doesn’t
matter because all the colours will join up once you’ve
solved all
the corners. I will start solving this corner by playing
Right, Front
anticlockwise, Right anticlockwise, Front. I now check to
see if the
corners yellow sticker is on the top layer and I find it
isn’t as shown
in Diagram 42

Because the corners yellow sticker isn’t on the top layer

it means
I must again play Right, Front anticlockwise, Right
anticlockwise,
Front. I then check to see if the corners yellow sticker is
on the top
layer and I find that it now is as shown in Diagram 43
 This means this corner is now solved. I then now did as I
should by
keeping the same blue centre in front of me as my Face and
also by
turning the Upper to bring any next unsolved corner to the
front
top right hand corner position to be solved as shown in
Diagram 44

From this position I then played the same 4 moves to

solve this
corner which are Right, Front anticlockwise, Right
anticlockwise,
Front. I then checked for the corners yellow sticker and
I found it
wasn’t on top and so I then played the same 4 moves
again and I
saw the corners yellow sticker was now on the top layer
as show in
Diagram 45
 I then made sure I still kept the blue centre in front of
me and
turned the Upper to bring the next unsolved corner to
the front
top right hand corner position to be solved as shown in
Diagram 46
 I then played Right, Front anticlockwise, Right
anticlockwise, Front.
I then checked for the corners yellow sticker and I found it
wasn’t
on the top layer and so I played the same 4 moves again
and I found
the corners yellow sticker was now on the top layer as
shown in Diagram 47

Now all the corners are solved you can notice how all the
last layer
edge colours are all matching up. It looks beautiful.
All you need to do now is to turn the Upper twice and
congratulations
you have now solved the rubiks cube as shown in Diagram
48
 CHAPTER 5
Learning Methods
Today there are numerous ways of solving the
rubiks cube. All
these solving methods have evolved over the last
three decades.
When deciding what solving methods to learn you
must first consider
your goal. You may just want to learn to solve the
rubiks
cube. Alternatively you may have already learned to
solve the
rubiks cube and now want to learn a faster solving
method. The
three most common learning methods of solving the
rubiks cube
are, The Long Layer method, and the Fridrich
method. The latter
being the most advanced method. There are also a
lot of other
learning methods. There are hand written tutorials
of the three
main learning methods which are assisted by well
illustrated diagrams.
I would strongly recommend a beginner to learn
The Long
 Layer method. This is the easiest of all the learning
methods. This
is the original method designed to solve the rubiks
cube. It takes a
maximum of 120 quarter turns of the cube to solve
it by using The
Long Layer method. There are seven stages needed
to complete
the cube using this method. These seven stages are
to
1) Get a cross on the top layer
2) Place the corners correctly in the top layer
3) Place the edges correctly in the middle layer
4) Get a cross on the last layer
5) Solve the cross edge colours
6) Place the corners correctly
7) Solve the corners.

The first three of these stages are fairly

straightforward but the rest
of these stages will take more thinking about. This
tutorial is designed
to help learners overcome the difficulties they
sometimes
experience learning the rubiks cube. Well illustrated
diagrams are
included in this tutorial. This step by step tutorial
thoroughly explains
every situation in detail.
The Lars Petrus method and the Fridrich method are
advanced
methods of solving the rubiks cube. These methods
should only be
learnt once a person has already learnt to solve the
rubiks cube.
 The Lars Petrus Method
The rubiks cube will be solved in an average of 75 moves by using
this method. It is a very complicated learning
method. There are
seven steps needed to complete the cube using this method which
include:
1) Step 1-Build a 2x2x2 corner
2) Step 2-Expand to 2x2x3
3) Step 3-Twist the edges, you will either have 2,4,or
6 bad
edges
4) Step 4-Finish 2 layers
5) Step 5-Position the corners
6) Step 6-Twist the corners
7) Step 7-Positon the edges
You can get help with block building tricks for steps
1,2, and 4.
There are also 13 example solutions you can
practice.

The Fridrich Method

This is the most advanced learning method of
solving the rubiks
cube. It is used by most of the world’s top speedcubers. This method
was invented in the early 1980s by a group of
speedcubers who
created the algorithms. It was put online in 1997 by Jessica Fridrich.
This method of solving the rubiks cube consists of a maximum of
120 algorithms. The steps needed to solve the cube by this method
 are as follows.

F 2 L – First 2 Layers
To solve the first 2 layers you must place a corner with a matching
colour edge piece in a certain position. Next you must play the correct
sequences of moves to join the corner and edge
piece. Once
they’re joined with their colours matching up the
corner will be
at the top and the edge will be in the middle layer.
There are 42
algorithms that need to be learnt in order to solve the first 2 layers.
Once the first 2 layers have been completed the next step is to
orientate
the last layer.

OLL – O rientate L ast L ayer

To orientate the last layer means to make all that last
layer the
same colour as its centre colour. For example if your last layer had
a yellow centre then it would mean all the other sticker colours on
that layer must also be made yellow. There are 58 algorithms that
need to be learnt to carry out the OLL stage.
The last and final stage is to permute the last layer.

PLL – Permute Last Layer

To permute the last layer means to match up all the last
layers side
 colours. Once this is done the rubiks cube will be
completed. There
are 13 algorithms that need to be learnt to carry out the
PLL stage.
Other advanced rubiks cube solving methods are the
Waterman
method and the Roux method. The Waterman method
is carried
out by solving the corners first. It is one of the most
complex and
optimized methods to learn and has many sequences
that need
to be mastered. The Roux method is a commonly used
method by
world class speedcubers. This is a last 6 edges rubiks
cube solving
method.
 CHAPTER 6
Improving Your Speedcubing Times
Once an individual has learnt to solve the rubiks cube it is only natural
for them to want to solve it faster. Practising more will
help to
achieve this. Apart from practice there are two other
main ways to
produce faster solving times. These include learning to
solve the
cube in less moves and learning to carry out moves of
the cube by
quick finger pushes. The Fridrich method consists of
120 algorithms
which once mastered enables the cuber to solve the cube in an average
of 65 moves. Finger pushes on the cube are carried out
much
faster than by moves carried out by turns of the hand. The fast finger
pushes cuts out the time delay from turns of the hand.
You can
also get help to cube faster by getting advice from
speedcubers
You can also watch speedcubing tutorials on the web
which will
give you more insights into speedcubing. Today there
are numerous
speedcubing videos on the web and also many finger
pushing
tutorials. I have found these tutorials very useful.
Firstly you should
watch the basic finger pushing tutorials and once
mastered you can
go on to watch the more advanced tutorials. There are
a lot of both
 of these tutorials at You Tube. Rubiks cube world
champion Felix
Zemdegs hosts numerous finger pushing tutorials
which are very
popular. These finger skills are essential if a
speedcuber wants to
produce solves under 20 seconds. There’s more
algorithms being
created and more advanced finger pushing tutorials being introduced
all the time. With these continually increasing faster
solving
times are being produced and may be one day the rubiks cube solving
world record will stand under 4.5

CHAPTER 7
Becoming A Speedcuber
What is a speedcuber one may ask themselves. The
simple answer
to this question is different to different people. For
some people
a speedcuber is someone who can solve the cube under one minute.
There are extremely few people who can solve the
rubiks cube
under one minute. Therefore I would consider them
very good. A
 lot more people would consider a speedcuber to be
able to solve
the cube under 30 seconds. Everyone would
definitely agree that
any person who can solve the cube under 20 seconds
is definitely
a speedcuber. I would expect a speedcuber to be able
to at least
solve a cube at 3 moves per second. This speed is
very fast. I first
learned to solve the cube in 1982. After 3 months of
practice I could
solve the cube in 27 seconds. At that time the fastest
speedcubers
in the world were solving the cube in this same time
as me. I at that
time would have been considered a world class
speedcuber. The
rubiks cube solving method used in 1982 was called
The long layer
method. This method consisted of about 10 algorithms. The moves
of the cube were carried out by hand turns. Using this
method it
would take a maximum of 120 quarter turns to solve
the cube. As
time progressed better solving methods were introduced enabling
a cuber to solve the cube in less moves. This led to
faster solving
times. These faster solving times were improved
further by using
finger pushes. Finger pushes are carried out solely by
the use of
your fingers. World class speedcubers of today
average about 5-6
turns per second when carrying out moves by finger pushes. Finger
pushes are carried out on the Upper,Downer,Front and
Back files.
 The Left and Right files need to be moved by hand
turns. Finger
pushes are carried out by using every finger excluding
the smallest
one. Even the thumbs can be used in finger pushing.
Finger pushes
are carried out by holding the cube with your thumbs
and middle

and wedding fingers. You must now make quick

pushes with your
index finger to carry out moves on the Upper,Front
and Back files.
To carry out moves on the Downer file you must hold
the cube
with your thumbs, middle and index fingers and push
the Downer
file with your wedding fingers. Apart from producing
much faster
solves by finger finger pushes it also looks a lot more
cooler. The
development of these speedcubing skills has led to
world class
speedcubers averaging solves under 15 seconds. If
you’re serious
about becoming a speedcuber you must be dedicated
to learning.
You must practice a lot and I would advise you to do
some research
on the subject.

CHAPTER 8
Speedcubing World
Records Under 20 Seconds
 The first world record set for solving the rubiks cube
under 20 seconds
was achieved at the West German Championship 1982.
This
championship witnessed the German born Ronald
Brinkmann produce
a solve of 19.00 seconds.
This world record was then broken by Robert Pergyl of
Czechoslovakia.
He achieved this at the Czechoslovakian Championship
1982
by clocking 17.02 seconds.
There was a massive gap until the next Rubiks Cube
World Championships
which wasn’t held until 2003. At this World
Championships
Dan Knights of the USA broke the rubiks cube world
record with a
solve in 16.71seconds.
In the same year Jesse Bonde of Denmark solved the
rubiks cube in
16.53 seconds at the same championships in 2003.
Japanese born Shotaro Makisumi is one of the biggest
names in the
history of the speedcubing world. This isn’t surprising
considering
he’s broken the world record five times for solving the
rubiks cube.
In the year 2004 Makisumi improved the current world
record of
16.53 seconds down to 12.11 seconds.
He broke the world record for the first time at the Caltech
Winter
Competion 2004,by solving the cube in 15.07 seconds.
He then
went on to solve the rubiks cube in 14.76 seconds at this
same
 competition breaking the world record again. Later on in
the same
year Makisumi competed at the Caltech Spring
Competition. At this
competition he broke his previous rubiks solving world
record by
clocking 13.89 seconds which was a new world record.
He broke
the world record again at this same competition by
solving the cube
in an amazing 12.11 seconds.

CHAPTER 9
Top Speedcubing Personalities
Since the invention of the rubiks cube certain
individuals have
made a big impact solving the rubiks cube. These
people will live
long in people’s memories. Although Minn Thai may
not have been
one of the fastest ever speedcubers, the fact that he won
the first
ever Rubiks Cube World Championships gives him a
place in history.
Furthermore he also broke the world record at this
1982 Rubiks
 Cube World Championships. However I have no
knowledge of any
rubiks cube related events since that he’s been a part
of.

Tyson Mao
Tyson Mao was a world class speedcuber in 2005. He
is mostly
remembered for solving the rubiks cube blindfolded on
CNN TV in
front of millions of viewers. He competed in the 2005
Rubiks Cube
World Championships. In 2005 he was averaging 15
second solves
of the rubiks cube which was world class standard at
that time. In
2006 he broke the blindfolded world record for solving
the rubiks
cube. Tyson Mao’s fame increased even further by
becoming the co
founder and a current board member of the World Cube
Association.

Toby Mao
Although Toby Mao didn’t achieve anything compared
to other top
speedcubers to be that memorable he did break the
world record
He achieved this in 2006 in a time of 10.48 seconds.
He is easily
remembered because he is Tyson Mao’s brother.

Thiabald Jacquinot
 Thiabald Jacquinot has certainly made his place in
history by being
the first person to solve the rubiks cube under 10
seconds.
He clocked 9.86 seconds at the Spanish Open 2007 to
achieve this.

Felix Zemdegs
Felix Zemdegs is by far the most memorable figure in
the history of
the speedcubing world. He has set untold records.
Firstly Felix Zemdegs
is the youngest person to break the world record for
solving
the rubiks cube. In the year 2010 at the age of 14 Felix
set a world
record by solving the rubiks cube in 6.77 seconds. He
has gone on
to break his own world record five times. He has held
the world
record for the fastest rubiks cube solve six times,which
is more
times than anyone in history. He has also won the most
speedcubing
competitions than anyone else. He has set world
records for the
fastest solves for the 3x3,4x4,and 5x5 rubiks cube
solves. Further to
this he has also set a world record for the 7x7 average
rubiks cube
solves and set a world record for the rubiks cube one
handed solve.
He has the fastest Rubiks Cube World Championship
winning time
 which he achieved in the 2013 World Championships.
He won this
World Championships in 8.18 seconds.

Matts Valk
Matts Valk must obviously be in all our minds as he
is now the world
record holder for solving the rubiks cube. His
speedcubing world record
stands at 5.55 seconds.
 Table of Contents
(Untitled)