Notation problem with BH corners

MrMoney

Veteran
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Messages
346
Location
Oslo, Norway
WCA ID
2009SULE01
Hola people,

I am abit confused as to how people actually "read" BH corner algs.

What is UFL (obviously I understand it means Up Front Left corner) but which STICKER is it? Is it the first letter that determines the sticker?

If so, why not ULF?

Really random I know :o
 
Last edited:
The last letter determines which side the sticker is facing. For example, UFL means the up front left corner, with the sticker facing L, so if you hold your cube with white on U and green on F, the UFL sticker should be orange. (assuming you use the international colour scheme)

UFL and FUL is the same, they both point to the same sticker, but ULF is different as it refers to the sticker facing the Front instead, which is green.

Other examples: URB would be the sticker on the upper right back corner, with the sticker facing the B face, which is blue.

Edit: oh wow after reading randomtoad's post I went and check the algos and I just realise both first and last letters work! And all this while I've been using the back sticker as buffer...I fail so hard
 
Last edited:
Edit: oh wow after reading randomtoad's post I went and check the algos and I just realise both first and last letters work! And all this while I've been using the back sticker as buffer...I fail so hard

But that depends on how you arrange the letters. On Chris's BH corner page, he lists the letters going anticlockwise. I don't know why he chose to do that. Is it a standard I'm unaware of? I always write the letters going clockwise.
 
Edit: oh wow after reading randomtoad's post I went and check the algos and I just realise both first and last letters work! And all this while I've been using the back sticker as buffer...I fail so hard

But that depends on how you arrange the letters. On Chris's BH corner page, he lists the letters going anticlockwise. I don't know why he chose to do that. Is it a standard I'm unaware of? I always write the letters going clockwise.

As long as you are consistent with being anti-clockwise or clockwise choosing the first or last sticker should work just fine.
 
The last letter determines which side the sticker is facing. For example, UFL means the up front left corner, with the sticker facing L, so if you hold your cube with white on U and green on F, the UFL sticker should be orange. (assuming you use the international colour scheme)

UFL and FUL is the same, they both point to the same sticker, but ULF is different as it refers to the sticker facing the Front instead, which is green.

Other examples: URB would be the sticker on the upper right back corner, with the sticker facing the B face, which is blue.

Edit: oh wow after reading randomtoad's post I went and check the algos and I just realise both first and last letters work! And all this while I've been using the back sticker as buffer...I fail so hard

I'm 100% sure that the standard for naming is the first letter... The reason why the last letter works most of the time is because most people name their pieces in a consistent direction, meaning UFL will ALWAYS be UFL, not ULF. I know that I name my pieces opposite from chris, but since the first sticker is what matters, you never have a problem.
 
Yeah, it's pretty much like Dan described. The first letter determines the actual target sticker, and our convention is to name going counterclockwise. The counterclockwise convention came from Daniel. Previous to talking with Daniel I honestly did not even know that there was a convention to name in the same direction. We only later realized that most people name clockwise, but we will probably not go through and rename each cycle, because as Dan says the first sticker, or the target sticker, is really all that matters when actually blindsolving. There are some neat patterns you can notice about the cycles if you always think of the name in the same way, but they are not absolutely necessary to solve BLD, only neat to think about/use.

Chris
 
I see..I didn't know that it is the norm to look at the first letter. The first time I see corner notations eg. UBR I instinctively followed the order of the letters on the cube, so I look at the U face first, then back, then end up at the R side sticker :p
 
I'm surprised Chris didn't mention this, since it's a favorite idea of his in blindsolving:

The reason the last stickers work as well as the first stickers (assuming they're always labeled in the same direction) is because cycles work from any perspective. Chris calls this viewpoint shifting, and it's a useful way to learn about the BH algorithms.
 
I'm surprised Chris didn't mention this, since it's a favorite idea of his in blindsolving:

The reason the last stickers work as well as the first stickers (assuming they're always labeled in the same direction) is because cycles work from any perspective. Chris calls this viewpoint shifting, and it's a useful way to learn about the BH algorithms.

Actually, I worked out how to recognize cyclic shifts like that. If there are two facing away from each other (like the T OCLL case) and one facing up, it's a cyclic shift. Same if there are 2 corners like the L OCLL case and a corner facing up (and 'between' the others). (I always rotate to make the corners on U)

I wouldn't have seen the second example though. I'm really bad at seeing optimal comms quickly. So that is really useful! I'll use it if I can't see a 8 move solution next time.
 
I'm surprised Chris didn't mention this, since it's a favorite idea of his in blindsolving:

The reason the last stickers work as well as the first stickers (assuming they're always labeled in the same direction) is because cycles work from any perspective. Chris calls this viewpoint shifting, and it's a useful way to learn about the BH algorithms.

Actually, I worked out how to recognize cyclic shifts like that. If there are two facing away from each other (like the T OCLL case) and one facing up, it's a cyclic shift. Same if there are 2 corners like the L OCLL case and a corner facing up (and 'between' the others). (I always rotate to make the corners on U)

I wouldn't have seen the second example though. I'm really bad at seeing optimal comms quickly. So that is really useful! I'll use it if I can't see a 8 move solution next time.

Yes, viewpoint shifting is indeed very useful for BH corners. When you break it down, there really is only one case for cyclic shifts (and per specials too I think). It also helped me view 8-move comms as keyhole insertions, for example I sometimes use (R U2 R' U' R U R') D (R U' R' U R U2 R') D' for certain A9 and columns cases as I find it more fingertrick friendly and makes more sense to me.
 
I sometimes use (R U2 R' U' R U R') D (R U' R' U R U2 R') D' for certain A9 and columns cases as I find it more fingertrick friendly and makes more sense to me.

[D, R2 U R2 U' R2] plz

U' [R2, U' L2 U] U ?

Anyway, I've never seen anyone use the last letter to indicate sticker. Would that be for edges too? Those people shoot to LU when using Classical Pochmann?

Well, it's never been like that on bigger cubes, and there it definitely makes a difference.
 
Back
Top