Mnemonics for solving the Rubik's Cube.. Continued

In order to see the start of the lessons where letters are used to describe small twists, please follow the link:

Cube Solution HOME - Cube Solution HOME

Major Move Letters

Using the letters from the previous lesson, we will build sentences which get things done:

Shamrock move - Makes 3 upper edges switch positions with each other - 2 of those edge pieces flip their colour. [clockwise travel]

"Your Fortune Made Quickly: You Found Money"

Spade move - Makes 3 lower edges switch positions with each other - 2 of those edge pieces flip their colour. [clockwise travel]

"Magnificent Flush. You Quit. Money For You"

Unspade move - [anti-clockwise travel]. Makes 3 lower edges switch positions with each other - 2 of those edge pieces flip their colour.

"My Hand Yields. Quit! My Hand Yields"

S move - Imagine the blue face with all 4 blue corners present BUT they are not all flipped properly. This move makes the top left corner remain unflipped but the other 3 corners of a face flip [hopefully so that they are all the blue colour]

"Joss Helps Rotating Happily; Juggle Quarter Rotations"

E move - Makes the upper 3 edges rotate clockwise BUT no flipping of colour happens

"Pretty Fast Way Rotates Pieces. Jubilation Launches; Fantastic Party"

A move - Makes the upper 3 edges rotate anti-clockwise BUT no flipping of colour happens

"Pretty Hasty Way Rotates Pieces. Jubilation Launches; Happy Party"

T move - Earlier, I named a minor move 'T move'; an unrelated Major move is the 'T move' also [sorry!]. Its purpose is to make 2 corners switch position with each other.

"Fortunately, None Have Nibbled Biscuits Produced In Fields In Contaminated Paddocks"

Green Corner Positive Twist - The top left green corner rotates clockwise: it stays where it is but it flips its dominant colour.

"Handy Right Turn Just For Positive Handling. Reverse There! Juggles flipped pieces"

Green Corner Negative Twist - The top left green corner rotates anti-clockwise: it stays where it is but it flips its dominant colour.

"Polarity Handler. Reverse This. Juggles Flipped Pieces. Handles Really Tough Juggling Frustrations"

Combining Major Moves

A Shamrock and then an Unspade cause the top and bottom edges to travel to the middle two edges while the middle edges travel to the top and bottom edge positions. I call the move a 'forward slash' because it reminds me that the left edge travels up and to the right like a forward slash '/'. The move is useful sometimes if you are trying to move all green edges to the middle tier of the cube:

eg. perhaps the only 2 green edges of the red face are the top and bottom one; but you want them to be at the middle tier. So you do the 'forward slash' move and now the green edges are at the middle tier.

A Shamrock and then a Spade and then a Shamrock will cause the top 2 edges to change places with each other while the left and right edges change places with each other also: the ShamSpadeSham move. This may be handy in a later lesson which concerns moving the edges at the top blue face down to the bottom green face.

Even if you are only looking at these major moves because you want to solve a Rubik's cube with your eyes open, the shamrock move is great for putting an edge into a new location. Typically, you would either use it or the E move - depending on whether you want an edge to arrive in its new location flipped or not.