Introduction to Speedcubing for Beginners, FAQ, How To's, Puzzle Shops, and More!

[Joël]

Introduction to Speedcubing for beginners

Dear members,

This post contains an introduction of speedcubing. I tried to include the most important stuff that beginners should know. Maybe I will modify this post, and add some more information in the future.

If you are new to this sport, you will find out there is a lot of information available... If you are dazzled about the amount of information, just take it one step at a time .

This post contains the following information:
-FAQ
-Useful Links
-Puzzle Shops
-How-To's Links

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Rubik’s Cube?

The Rubik’s Cube is a puzzle, invented by Erno Rubik in the 70’s. In the 80’s, the was marketed world-wide, and 200 million of them were sold. Here you can see what a Rubik’s Cube looks like.

What is speedcubing?

Speedcubing is the art of solving Rubik’s Cube (and other twisty puzzles) as fast as possible. I think most people would also say that speedcubing is more than that: Other disciplines, such as one handed cubing or blindfold cubing can also be called ‘speedcubing’.

How can I solve the cube?

If your are a beginner, there are a lot of websites available that will explain how to solve the cube in an easy way.
2x2x2 Rubik's Cube
Nick Gehring

3x3x3 Rubik's Cube
Andy Camann
Blake O'Harre
Gilles Roux
Jasmine Lee
Jason Thong
Joël van Noort
Leyan Lo
Patrick Kelly
Mark Jeays
Peter Greenwood
Scott Bedard
Jeff Plumb

How does the notation system work?

The cube has got six sides: Front, Back, Left, Right, Upper and Down (F, B, L, R U and D). A single letter represents a clockwise turn of that face. For this, imagine that every side has an image of a clock on it, and a 90 degree clockwise turn has to go in the same direction as that clock. It might take a while to get used to this, because for the B face, from the perspective of the person holding the cube, a clockwise turn looks like a counterclockwise turn in a way... But after using this system for a while, you will get used to it. A single letter followed by a ‘ represents a counterclockwise turn of that face. A single letter followed by a 2 represents a 180 degree turn of that face. In that case, the direction of the turn doesn’t matter. Most cubers use a lot more notation symbols than this. An explanation of all symbols can be found here: http://www.cosine-systems.com/cubestation/cubenotation.html.

What do all these abbreviations mean? (CFOP, ZBLL, CLL, ELL, DNF, AUF, BCFSSS and more)

As in other specialized fields, cubers use a lot of abbreviations and words that most people don’t know. An explanation of a lot of this cubing lingo can be found here: http://cubefreak.hp.infoseek.co.jp/glossary.html

My cube is very stiff... What can I do to make it run smoother?

There are a lot of cubes out there that I would not recommend for speedcubing. However, most cubes will get looser by simply using them very often. Some cubes allow you to take off the center-caps and finetune the tention of the screws. By turning the screws, you can make the cube a bit more loose. Another idea is to lube your cube with silicone spray. You should be careful with this, because some lubricants can be quite agressive for your cube. If it say’s ‘WD-40’ anywhere on your lubricant, DONT use it to lube your cube. I heard it will kill your cube. Also, lubing an extremely stiff cube, in my experience, usually works counterproductive.

One tip I heard from some people is to put in some fine sand in the cube, turn it for a while, and remove the sand later (by opening the cube and cleaning the internals). I never tried it, so I don’t know if it works.

How can I ‘open’ my cube?

You can turn one of the faces 45 degrees, and try to POP out one of the edge pieces, as shown in this picture: http://www.speedcubing.com/ton/3x3x3_dis.JPG. You should be careful with this. With extremely stiff cubes this doesn’t work.

Where can I learn those fingertricks?

There aren’t many websites that really have a section about finger tricks. On my webpage, I have one tutorial that explains the basic finger tricks, and gives a few examples. www.solvethecube.co.uk (click tutorials, and search for the ‘Fingertricks’ tutorial). There are some websites with videos that show you how to perform algorithms. www.cubewhiz.com provides algorithms with videos. This can give you an idea about how to execute certain combinations of moves. www.strangepuzzle.com hosts a lot of speedcubing videos. These videos are really fast, but it can give you some inspiration. After watching all these videos for a while, you will probably start doing your own tricks.

What is the best method for speedsolving the Cube?

I honestly don’t know... I wish I knew! I don’t really think there is a ‘best method’. I think you should just find a speedcubing method that feels right for you. Below this FAQ, you will find a list of links. Some of them link to popular speedcubing methods. However, before learning an extremely advanced method, I think it’s a good idea to first learn a beginners method!

Where can I buy puzzles?

http://www.rubiks.com sells a lot of twisty puzzles. I can highly recommmend the DIY kits for speedcubing.

http://www.mefferts.com also sells a lot of nice puzzles. Free shipping to anywhere in the world!

http://www.e-bay.com. Some cubers have luck with finding good puzzles on e-bay. I don’t have any experience with this at all... So all I can say is: good luck with searching, and be careful with buying. Look at the sellers message, and other auctions, and try to estimate if he or she can be trusted.

The stickers of my cube are starting to look ugly... How can I solve this problem?

This is a well known problem. Most cubes don’t have high quality stickers on them. This causes the stickers to start looking ugly, often after less than 2 months of using the puzzle. The BEST solution to this, by far, is going to http://www.cubesmith.com to buy yourself some new sticker sets. Making your own stickers takes a lot of time, and you probably won’t have results as good as those stickers from CubeSmith!

How can I solve higher order cubes? (4x4, 5x5)

You can find a method for the 4x4 here: http://www.speedcubing.com/chris/4-solution.html. The same ideas can be used for solving the 5x5. Another website that deals with higher order cubes can be found here: http://www.bigcubes.com.

How can I solve the F2L quickly with the Fridrich system/method?

Erik A. did a nice video on how he does the F2L slowly, check it out here, it should help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbKvOXE__CM

These two sites basically teach the same thing, but they use different algorithms.
http://www.snkenjoi.com/wikicube/index.php...e=Intuitive_F2L
http://dougreed.no-ip.org/~doug/f2l/f2l.htm

This site lists all 41 cases.
http://www.cubestation.co.uk/cs2/index.php...x3/cfop/f2l/f2l

Where can I see all current official/unofficial records?

All official records (records that are done at an official competition) can be found here:
http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/index.php

All unofficial records can be found here:
http://www.speedcubing.com/records

Other Information

For more FAQ's, please visit this link:
http://z12.invisionfree.com/rubiks/index.php?showtopic=136

Some useful links

Speedcubing Tips
I think these are the most important things you should know if you want to get into speedcubing.

http://www.speedcubing.com
Here you can find the latest speedcubing new, results of competitions, unofficial world records, and more.

http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/
This is one of the largest websites about twisty (and other!) puzzles. You can find a lot of information about different variants. Jaap’s website also deals with the mathematical aspects of these puzzles.

http://www.ws.binghamton.edu/fridrich/cube.html
This is the website of Jessica Fridrich. In the 80’s, she develloped one of the most popular methods for speedcubing. Reading this website gives you a nice impression about what speedcubing is... It’s how I started speedcubing. If you want to this method, I would advise you not to use the algorithms on her website, though. There are a lot of websites that provide algorithms that can be executed faster.

http://grrroux.free.fr/
Gilles Roux is one of the fastest speedcubers in the world. He uses a method that he develloped all by himself. And I must say, the method looks very nice. Also take a look at his funny movies!

http://www.cubestation.co.uk/
Dan Harris is the fastest speedcubing in the UK. His website contains a lot of information, especially about the Fridrich (CFOP) method.

http://www.cubezone.be
Lars is officially the fastest cuber in Europe! He has published most of his algorithms on his website. Lars has a very focussed style of cubing.

http://www.stefan-pochmann.de/
Last but not least: Stefan is one of my cubing hero’s. He’s a very nice guy, and he often comes up with very nice and inventive ideas. He also has a very easy and powerfull method for solving the cube blindfolded(!).

Puzzle Shops

This is where you can find information on where to buy puzzles:
http://z12.invisionfree.com/rubiks/index.php?showtopic=122

How-To Guides

Here is a link to the How-To section, which includes various tutorials and guides. Please check it out when you get the chance:
http://z12.invisionfree.com/rubiks/index.php?showforum=15

This post has been edited by PJK on Apr 27 2007, 12:57 AM

[Scott]

Here is a begginer solution that I wrote and have sparked many cubers in my school.

Click Here