This is still an overview of my system - since I might be able to market the mnemonics themselves in a future publication. Note: A 'face' of the cube is one of the sides of the cube; for example, the blue face is the face where the central piece is always blue.
Associate each edge combination with a letter of the alphabet. eg. a Green-Orange edge piece is associated with the letter 'A' . This makes it a lot easier to visualise moving pieces because you can imagine a letter rather than a 2-colour piece. You also develop an awareness that when the 'A' piece flips to show its other colour then it becomes the letter 'N'.
Learn an image for each letter of the alphabet.
Then use the letters A-X to represent edges and corners. So, a green/orange edge piece will be represented by the 'A' image: an apple. In a visual story, the apple will occur next to an image which represents a position on the cube. I also make the apple have as its main colour ‘green’ with a tinge of ‘orange’. But the orange/green orientation of that same piece is represented by the image for 'N'. I also use letters A-X to represent corner pieces and their orientations.
A digit for common sequences of moves. These sequences move 3 edge pieces without upsetting the position or orientation of the other pieces. I will not list the specific moves – just the fact that I have my own names for these moves.
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Shamrock |
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Unshamrock |
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Spade |
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Unspade |
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etc. |
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A pre-prepared
list of about 75 images (more pegs if a 'slice rotation' is required
[see below]). Each image represents a useful fact about the cube
such as which corner piece is soon going to be at the top left of the green face
(and the orientation of that piece). I have my own list
system. For position 14, I
imagine a town hall office where birth certificates are distributed. I will add
to that story a relevant fact about the cube
I have an image for digits 1-8 and I will use these to represent some information too.
I have little phrases where the first letter of each word equates to a particular rotation of a slice of the cube. I say a phrase and do its corresponding moves. Each phrase achieves something such as twisting the top left corner piece of the green face of the cube: its position is the same but a different colour shows at that position. eg. My shamrock move is: "Your Fortune Made Quickly, You Found Money" to give me the "YFMQYFM" steps where F, for instance, is a clockwise turn of the face which is immediately in front of me.
When pieces do twist (ie. orient
themselves without necessarily changing their position on the cube), it is good to know which colour follows when the piece twists once
clock-wise or twice clockwise; so I have a memory technique for that as well.
For the moves listed above, when three edge pieces swap
positions, 2 of them flip their colour.
The middle tier green edges will arrive in the front face by one of 16 memorised routines. eg. A GGGG routine when each middle tier piece is showing green at the red face and at the orange face [the flipping of those edge pieces shows green rather than the other flip colour which might have been on display]. I will memorise the cube's edge pieces not how they are now but how they will be soon when the green edges have arrived in the middle tier.
Since, right at the start, I am keen to put green edges to the middle tier, I have standard ways of making green edges go there.
I need awareness that two of those green edges may swap position when I move corners from the blue face to the green face. However, green edges remain in the middle tier; so I can live with that problem: they will still be in the middle tier when I come to the steps which put green edges from the middle tier into the green face.
At some point, the problem of
positioning green face corners will need to be tackled: get all 4 of them to the
green face, orient them so that the green part is showing on each of them, position
them at the correct corners. The act of positioning the corners in the correct 4
corners will often affect edge pieces of the green face. I have made notes about routines which
position corners without moving or flipping the edges which are residing at the
green face too much. However, sometimes, 2 edges there must swap position. Note:
I always swap corners from the blue face to the green face by using the white
face as the in-between face: it is between the green face and the blue face. I do this because ‘swapping
corners’ has a side effect of swapping 2 edges – by always using the white
face, it is always just the same 2 edges which swap and hopefully unswap with
each other as each corner exchange happens.
Before wearing a blindfold, I COULD have memorised how to make green edges arrive at the middle tier. I note the moves which will achieve that. If it looks like few moves will put green edges into the middle tier then I concentrate on memorising the cube's current pieces: orientation and positions; BUT if I see a face with 3 green edge pieces (or 4 green edges at one face!) then that complicates things - so I decide which slice of the cube to rotate in order to remove the difficulty. When the blindfold goes on, I will immediately do that slice rotation and then the cube will be just like the positions that I have memorised: an offset of the original cube. But often, no slice rotation is needed. Either way, I will memorise which moves will put green edges into the middle tier: remember that I have special moves which can move 3 edge pieces without disturbing the rest of the cube; I memorise the 3 edges which I want to switch position with each other - later on, I will memorise specifically which new position each edge is at but, now, I just memorise the move that needs to be applied to the 3 targeted edges.
With the blindfold on, the green edges reach the
middle tier, I try to tidy the other edges before I do the corner moves which I
just mentioned. You see, I think about the blue-coloured edges which I
want to be temporarily at the green face, and the non-green-non-blue edges which
I want to be temporarily at the blue face. At this point, I can set up the green
slice and the blue slice so that an exchange of 2 edges may take place at the
white face. This will affect 2 middle tier green pieces but they will still be
in the middle tier.
I can do that type of routine
until all blue edges are at the green face (flipped or not) and the remaining
non-green pieces are at the blue face (flipped or not). I then need to
re-memorise the edges which I claim are now in the blue face and the edges which
I now claim are at the green face. After doing this, I consider some earlier
knowledge: Remember that I said that I should know the green face edges which
might change place when green corners position themselves? I use that knowledge
when I consider the middle tier edges: since I know that, pretty soon, 2 edges
on the green face are going to change position, I need that information when I
consider exactly what flip state and position the blue edge pieces are
at. I also use my knowledge of the effect that corner positioning has on middle
tier edges to deduce where green edges really are positioned at the green tier.
You can imagine that, when the blindfold finally goes on, I want to have control over:
1). Putting green edge pieces into the middle tier;
2). Putting non-green edge pieces into the face where they belong (using an awareness of how 'green face corner positioning' will soon affect the edges currently at the green face);
3). Moving any green corner pieces to the green face that are currently at the blue face (which possibly has a knock-on effect on 2 of the green-edge pieces at the white face of the middle tier);
4). Orienting those green corners;
5). Positioning those green corners (may affect 2 of the blue edge pieces which are currently at the green face).
The next step then is to think
about middle tier green pieces and how to place them, correctly flipped, into
the green face (the GGGG routine, etc. will handle that); but I need to pay
attention to the white face green edges: they may have changed since I first
memorised them: corner techniques and edge-exchanging at the white face may have
altered them. Just for the record, the first G of GGGG means that the red/white
edge location of the cube is predominantly showing green at the right of the red
face (eg. a green/white edge as opposed to a white/green edge). GGGG is
answering that yes, yes, yes, yes along the middle tier, green is showing
predominantly. I have a pre-learned
story where a dog named TOTO ('Barking Dog, Farm House') scene. I need to recall
that GGGG matches with that story. TOTO tells me which
sequence of moves to do (eg. O means 'turn middle tier 180 degrees), and BDFH [eg.
B=Barking, D=Dog] initials tell me how green face edges will arrive at the middle tier [a code
that I will not explain here but it relates to the flipping and positioning of
blue edge pieces during the sequence which puts green edges into the green
face).
So, if the first G of GGGG is a green/white piece then I will want it to reach the green face at the point where the green face meets the white face; the piece that is displaced from there will arrive in the middle tier either flipped or not, at one of the 4 edge positions of the middle tier; BDFH relates to that output new positioning of a piece. I will reach a point where all green edges are in position. i can then think about elevating middle tier blue pieces up to the blue face.
I can move blue face (non-green-non-blue) edges down to the middle tier with the knowledge that, each time I move a piece to the middle tier, a blue edge piece must surely travel to the blue face. I figure out, at that time, specifically which blue-coloured edge is travelling to the blue face by thinking about previously memorised edges and the effect of the GGGG routine on them. I also need to think about the flipping that can happen if a non-green-non-blue piece at the blue face needs flipping before it is placed into the middle tier. During all that complication, I memorise the edges which have ended up at the blue face.
At the final [blue] face, I have made routines which allow corners to orient themselves without changing position and without edges changing position. There is a set-up rotation of the face sometimes so that the corners are oriented appropriately for one of my memorised routines. Once the routine is done, the face will be rotated back to how it is positioned in my mind. So, if the back face needs a 90 degree turn before it will look like my known solution starting point then I need to bear that in mind when I memorise which pieces are changing on the back layer.
I can then use my knowledge of positioning blue face corners and the effect that this has on blue face edges; in this way, blue corners are complete and I can consider the final edges: their orientation and positioning. There are a small number of blue-ede-flipping routines - one of which makes sure that blue shows on every edge. Similarly, there are a small number of positioning routines so that those blue edges are in the right position. So appropriate routines are applied.
In conclusion, I use about a quarter of the pre-prepared list before the cube is allowed to be removed from sight. I use the rest of the pre-prepared list images to store temporary changing information about the new positions of pieces.
On a good day, green corners may reach the green face without edges changing at the white face [that is down to luck in the scramble]; similarly, I might be lucky with edges arriving at the desired face early on. Corners might already be oriented, edges might already be correctly flipped. So, not all of the steps which I have described will necessarily be used when solving a cube. In fact, I do wonder how people define a 'scrambled cube': what is a detrimental scramble for one person's cube strategy might be beneficial for someone else's solution.
Note: Do not be surprised if I modify this method. If I see a better way of doing technique then I will introduce it. I am not promoting this solution as being one of the best solutions. I am presenting it as a mentally stimulating exercise which was fun for me to develop. I also think that it would be very entertaining to tell an audience what is about to happen to the pieces at each stage. it's not a fast solution always but it is impressive and robust.
June 2006 - A cube competitor named Chris Hardwick is using letter pairs to help him with the 4x4 cube and the 5x5 cube.
October 2006 - I simplified my approach to making green edges reach the middle tier (as seen in the document you just read). I developed javascript flash cards so that I can revise my lists of symbolic notes on how to solve the cube blindfolded. I would ideally like to develop a video programme to teach my method - supplemented with javascript flash cards. There is a lot of memorisation of flash card notes but, once learned, the blindfolded rubik's cube is not such a daunting challenge.
mick_curtis@yahoo.co.uk (subject heading: Rubiks Cube)