The Solving Guide of the Rubik’s Cube Puzzle

By David Rubicon

Many of us have struggled to learn the Rubik’s Cube in its 40 year history. This all inclusive guide will give you the insight to overcome this frustrating obstacle.

This book is desirable for kids and beginners. Its step – by – step guide enables the reader to learn quickly.
Algorithms aren’t necessary, but I have included them for those interested.

The colourful diagrams are clearly illustrated with a nice image.
I illustrate the following three things –

1) The pictures of the original position of the cube.

2) The look of the Cube during the moves made.

3) The pictures of what the Cube should look like after the completed moves.

Here, you can also learn techniques, and finger tricks to produce faster solves.
I offer tips on finger tricks to help work up your speed.

I have provided you with information about other prominent Rubik’s Cube solvers, and their world records.
You can also read up on the history of the Rubik’s Cube.

Finally, I have informed the learner about other learning methods, and named online sites that offer help, and advice on all Rubik’s Cube related activities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Rubicon
• Release date: Dec 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005750985

David Rubicon

David Rubicon was born in Paddington in 1985. He is a qualified accountant at ACCA level. His hobbies include athletics, football, and reading.He has a personal best 1500 metres time of 3 minutes, and 48 seconds.Equivalent to a four minute, and five seconds mile.David learnt to solve the cube during the 1980's Cube craze.He developed his skills to eventually produce sub twenty seconds solves of the Cube.He went on to compete in the 1982 Rubik's Cube World Championship, but only managed to finish in 34th place.People's strong desire to solve the Cube, motivated David to teach the Rubik's Cube.This passion also led to the creation of his website, You Tube videos, and books on this topic.David has had much success in these creations, and hopes the rest of his readers are as satisfied as the rest.

Book preview

The Solving Guide Of The Rubik’s Cube Puzzle

Your guide to solving the puzzle with ease, and in much less time!

DAVID RUBICON

Table of Contents

Introduction

About the Author

Chapter 1: Learning to solve the Cube

Chapter 2: Rubik’s Cube’s Move Notation

Chapter 3: The Long Layer Method

Chapter 4: A Brief Look at Rubik’s Cube Solving Methods

Chapter 5: Speedcubing Guide for Beginners

Chapter 6: Improving Your Speedcubing Times

Chapter 7: Becoming a Speedcuber

Chapter 8: World Records at Speedcubing Competitions

Chapter 9: The World’s Fastest Cube Solvers

Chapter 10: World’s First Rubik’s Cube Competition

Chapter 11: Evolution of the Cube

Chapter 12: Our Love of the Cube

Chapter 13: Rubik’s Cube Websites

Chapter 14: Rubik’s Cube Forums

INDEX

Introduction

The Rubik’s cube was invented by a Hungarian, Erno Rubik in 1974. Now, it is loved by millions of people worldwide. Starting in the 1980’s it grew quickly in popularity.

Although more than 350,000,000 Rubik’s Cubes have been sold since its invention, only one percent of the world’s population can solve the Rubik’s cube. Still, due to Rubik’s Cube popularity, a huge number of individuals seek to solve the game.

In the 1980’s, there weren’t as many opportunities to learn to solve the cube as there are today. There were very few books that taught how to solve the cube and there wasn’t any internet access.

However today there are a lot of books on this subject and the internet is also easily accessible where websites and YouTube videos can be found on this subject.

Over the years, many new Rubik’s cube solving methods have been introduced. I recommend ‘The Long Layer’ method for beginners, but once you are able to solve the Rubik’s cube easily, you will naturally desire to solve it faster. In order to achieve this, you will need to learn a much faster solving method.

A more advanced solving method solves the cube in significantly fewer moves. This will obviously lead to faster solving times. These more advanced solving methods are more complicated to learn than the beginner’s method.

You may be talented enough to eventually produce solutions in under a minute. Individuals who can produce extremely fast solutions of the cube are referred to as ‘Speedcubers’.

I would classify a speedcuber as anyone who can produce consistent cube solutions within 30 seconds. Opinions vary on this particular issue as some people classify people as speedcubers based on more inclusive terms.

Many speedcubers often go on to take part in major Rubik’s cube speedcubing competitions that are held all over the world. In 1982, Minh Thai became the first Rubik’s Cube World champion.

He set the record in a short time of 22.95 seconds. Today, the world record stands at a staggering time of 3.47 seconds by Yusheng Du. The main reasons for such a fast world record today is because the solving methods involve minimum moves to be carried out by finger pushes which are a lot faster than hand turns.

There are about 30 individuals who have broken the speedcubing world record. They have become great speedcubing personalities. You can find a lot of information on the web about these champions. Today there are a lot of Rubik’s cube forums on the web where you could take part in discussions, ask questions and get advice. In this book I am going to teach the ‘Long Layer’ method which is the easiest method for beginners. My tutorial also teaches you move notation and how the cube is made up. This book also covers other Rubik’s cube related topics, such as the names and brief descriptions of other learning methods.

It also covers speedcubing and discusses top speedcubers. You can get information about major speedcubing competitions and achievements. I have also mentioned some speedcubing world records that have been broken.

Furthermore, I have also given you the information about top Rubik’s cube forums and websites that you can visit. I decided to write this book to give Rubik’s cube lovers insights into every Rubik’s cube related activity.

I have included the most crucial information in these chapters to entertain the readers as much as possible. Read on, enjoy and learn.

About the Author

David Rubicon is one of the world’s best tutors of the 3x3 Rubik’s cube. In 2009 he started making speed cubing videos and uploaded many of them to YouTube. Some of his speed cubing videos are of solves below 20 seconds. In March 2012 he started making Rubik’s cube tutorial videos. He trained himself for several months to become one of the world’s top teachers of the 3x3 Rubik’s cube. His tutorials are designed to teach the beginners for 3x3 Rubik’s cube and are designed in a way to help the learners overcome the difficulties they may have experienced in other Rubik’s cube tutorials. This tutorial is written with diagrams illustrating the positions to make it clearer. His aim is to make the tutorial as easy, straightforward and enjoyable as possible.

Chapter 1

Learning to solve the Cube

The Rubik’s cube is made of 6 sides; R=Right, L=Left, U=Up, D=Down, F=Face, B=Back. In Rubik’s 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 counter-clockwise. If you read R2, this would mean to turn