How to solve Rubik's Cube

I have a local copy of Eric Dietz's spiffy online cube solver.

Here's my copy.

And here's one that matches the colors of the cube I happen to own.

The following solution matches the one I learned as a kid from one of the many books that were published in those days.

The images below were shamelessly stolen from Skip Lawson's solution page. He worked really hard on them, so go see his page, which gives clearer instructions and more images.

This is a quick 'n dirty reference guide I made for former cube experts (actually I made it for ME) who have forgotten their technique over the years. See Yahoo for other solution methods, some of which may be more efficient than this one.

Also don't miss the site of one of the most important Cubers, Jessica Fridrich.

Is this too wordy? Try the abridged version.

Legend

L	The face on your left as you hold the cube.
R	Right face.
B	Bottom face.
F	Front face (facing you).
-	Turn 90 degrees counterclockwise.
+	Turn 90 degrees clockwise.

If you think in terms of the center piece on each face as an ummoving anchor around which all the other colors orbit, that may help you follow this notation.

Start Here

If you can't get to this point, give up and find something easier to do.

Middle layer edge pieces

To move an edge piece from the bottom level into its position in the middle layer (checkered), there are two possibilities.

Yellow face is F in this diagram B- R- B+ R+ B+ F+ B- F-

Red face is F in this diagram B+ L+ B- L- B- F- B+ F+

Repeat until the top two layers are completely solved. The bottom level will remain a mess.

Bottom Corners (position)
Turn the bottom face (blue here) until two of the four corner pieces are in the correct position (without regard to alignment). The next step will get the other two in place.

To exchange positions of adjacent bottom corner pieces (gray): Red face is F in this diagram R- B- R+ F+ B+ F- R- B+ R+ B+ B+

To switch diagonal corners: Red face is F in this diagram R- B- R+ F+ B+ B+ F- R- B+ R+ B+

Bottom Corners (alignment)
Now that all four bottom corners are placed correctly, they need to be aligned. There are only seven possible arrangements of the corners on the bottom of the cube:



Align your cube to match one of the configurations above. The red face is F in these diagrams.
R- B- R+ B- R- B+ B+ R+ B+ B+

Repeat until the corner pieces are all aligned.

Bottom Edges (position)

Hold the cube so that the checkered piece is in the correct position. The red face is F in this diagram (if no edge pieces are in place, run through this sequence until at least one is).
L-R+ F+ L+R- B+ B+ L-R+ F+ L+R-
Repeat this step until all four bottom edge pieces are placed correctly.

Bottom Edges (alignment)
Every piece on the cube is now where it should be. All that remains is aligning the last of the bottom pieces. There are three possibilities. The red face in these diagrams is F.

"Checkerboard" L-R+ F+ F+ L+R- B+ B+ L-R+ F+ L+R- B+ B+ L-R+ F+ F+ L+R- B- Finished!	"Letter H" L-R+ F+ L+R- B+ L-R+ F+ L+R- B+ L-R+ F+ F+ L+R- B+ L-R+ F+ L+R- B+ L-R+ F+ L+R- B+ B+ Finished!
"Diagonal" L-R+ F+ L+R- B- L-R+ F- L+R- B- L-R+ F+ F+ L+R- Don't panic. Now go back to "Bottom Edges (position)" one last time to complete the cube.