Tutorial in 3 steps: [First Layer] [Second Layer] [Third Layer]
(German) (English)

Hello, my name is Roland Frisch and I am a quite slow german speedcuber who has much experience in teaching beginners how to solve the Rubik’s Cube. I publish this beginner’s method since 2012. The german version is the most popular article of my blog and has more than 100.000 views per year. And it’s always improved if my experiences with cube workshops show me a better way to explain certain things.

With this article I start a new era of freshcuber.de, the first article in english. My website will stay mostly in german, but I was asked several times to do at least the beginner’s tutorial for the 3x3x3 cube in english. Please note that english is not my native language, and so please excuse any mistakes I make in spelling or grammar. I think it’s understandable at least. If not, please tell me. And now let’s start:

Here I like to show “my” beginner’s method for the standard Rubik’s Cube (3x3x3). This way to solve it is mostly intuitive so that it is easy to learn and to remember. I tought it in many beginner’s workshops since 2017 and optimized it several times. Also the different steps are made in a way that it is easy for beginners to switch later to the CFOP speedcubing method.

• Here in Part 1 we do the first layer: the white edges and the white corners.
• When that is done, Part 2 shows how to finish the second layer.
• At last we do Part 3 with the last layer that contains the yellow edges and the yellow corners.

There is a 2 sided printout of this beginner’s method, but unfortunately it’s only in german (until now). You can download and print it, and it shows you the main steps and its algorithms.

Rubik’s Cube basics

Before you start to solve the Cube you might become familiar with its construction. For that it’s useful to have a look inside.

As you can see there are three different kinds of pieces:
Center pieces (with 1 color),
Edge pieces (with 2 colors) and
Corner pieces (with 3 colors).

And however you turn the cube: Center pieces always stay as center pieces, Edge pieces always are edge pieces and also do the corners. It is impossible that for example an edge piece goes to a corner position. There are no “hidden colors” inside. I think that’s obvious and clear, but it helps to think a few seconds about that. I saw many beginners who desperately tried to bring a corner piece to an edge place.

Annother important thing is also easy to understand if you look at a disassembled cube: The center pieces cannot change their positions because they are connected. So white always stays opposite yellow and so on. Centers can be turned at their place (and they take edges and corners with them what mixes them up) but they can’t swap their places because they are connected by axes. Weiterlesen →