How to solve a Rubik’s Cube for beginners

Before you start: centres, edges and corners

A 3×3 cube has three kinds of piece. The 6 centres have one sticker and never move relative to each other, so the centre tells you what colour that face will be. The 12 edges have two stickers, and the 8 corners have three.

On a cube with the standard colours, white is opposite yellow, blue is opposite green and red is opposite orange.

How to read the moves

This is the standard notation used by the World Cube Association:

• R, L, U, D, F, B: turn the right, left, up (top), down (bottom), front or back face a quarter turn clockwise, as if you were looking straight at that face.
• R′ (R prime): the same face, anticlockwise.
• U2: a half turn (either way).

Keep the same face towards you for the whole of an algorithm.

Stage 1: the white cross

With white on top, put the four white edges round the white centre so that each edge’s other colour matches the centre on its side. A white cross where the sides don’t match isn’t finished. Do this by feel.

Stage 2: the white corners

Turn the cube over so the white cross is on the bottom. Find a white corner in the top layer and turn the top until it sits directly above its slot, at the front right. Then repeat this until the corner drops in, white side down:

R U R′ U′

It can take 1, 3 or 5 goes. If a white corner is in the bottom layer but in the wrong place or twisted, hold it at the front right and do the sequence once to lift it into the top layer, then carry on.

Stage 3: the middle layer

Keep white on the bottom. Find an edge in the top layer with no yellow on it. Turn the top until its front sticker matches the front centre, making an upside-down T. If the edge’s top colour matches the centre on the right, it goes right:

U R U′ R′ U′ F′ U F

If the top colour matches the centre on the left, it goes left:

U′ L′ U L U F U′ F′

If an edge is stuck in the middle layer the wrong way round, insert any top edge into its place to pop it out, then insert it properly.

Stage 4: the yellow cross

Yellow is now on top. Ignore the corners and look at the yellow edges. You’ll see a dot, an L, a line or the finished cross. Hold an L at the back and left, or a line from left to right, and do:

F R U R′ U′ F′

Look again and repeat. A dot becomes an L, an L becomes a line, and a line becomes a cross.

Stage 5: match the yellow edges

Turn the top until at least two yellow edges match their side centres. This swaps the front and left top edges:

R U R′ U R U2 R′ U

If the two matching edges are next to each other, hold them at the back and right first. If they’re opposite each other, do it once from any angle, then line up again and repeat.

Stage 6: put the yellow corners in place

A corner is “in place” when it sits between its three colours, even if twisted. Hold one that’s in place at the front right of the top and do this to cycle the other three:

U R U′ L′ U R′ U′ L

Repeat until all four are in place. If none are, do it once from any angle first.

Stage 7: twist the last corners

Keep yellow on top, with an unsolved corner at the front right. Repeat this until that corner’s yellow sticker faces up:

R′ D′ R D

The rest of the cube will look wrecked. Don’t panic. Turn only the top layer to bring the next unsolved corner to the front right and repeat. Never turn the whole cube during this stage. After the last corner, it all comes back together.