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Fewest Moves: Tips and Techniques

mrCage

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Jun 17, 2006
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655
How do i solve a domino after reduction? can't figure out how without large numbers of moves

Hmm, this would have deserved a complete analysis in itself.

There are a few approaches one may take:

- blockbuilding
- focus on corners
- focus on edges

Hopefully one may achieve just 3 missing corners or 3 missing edges in rather short sequence, then find insertion (in domino group if possible).

With more extensive search (trying cleverly) the whole thing may just come together ;-)

- Per
 

malcolm

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Nov 18, 2007
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Thankyou Per.
I would be interested in knowing the longest scramble everyone can find the optimal solution for more than 10% of the time? mine is 7-8 moves
 

slncuber21

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ha! i got 117! lol still not that great.... maybe soon :D

ps- is there a time limit for this? cuz i was thinking if you wrote down your moves on a sheet of paper then did the solve, it would take less moves since you know what you're doing.... maybe...
 
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AvGalen

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There is a one hour time limit.
You can write down as many moves as you want (but you cannot use a paper with algorithms or a computer program)
You can solve the cube as often as you want during the solve and you can take back moves or do whatever you want
You can even use 3 cubes for experimenting.
But when you finally give your solution it should be written down clearly and you should be able to explain it if a judge ask you about it.
 

mrCage

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Jun 17, 2006
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655
There is a one hour time limit.
You can write down as many moves as you want (but you cannot use a paper with algorithms or a computer program)
You can solve the cube as often as you want during the solve and you can take back moves or do whatever you want
You can even use 3 cubes for experimenting.
But when you finally give your solution it should be written down clearly and you should be able to explain it if a judge ask you about it.

Hmmm. I use fmc companion most of the time if time is limited. It's an excellent time saver. You should rephrase "computer programs" to "computer solvers" IMHO, unless you really want this to be true competition format :)

-Per
 

dbeyer

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Sep 12, 2006
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Harrington, Delaware
I would have to agree with Per. I am sort of lacking on the cubes now adays. So, in order to have a visual representation of what my premoves should look like I use cube explorer, and apply the premoves like

performing U'L' on cube explorer for example. Then I'll see what I am aiming to solve.
I also write each step of the solution down on cube explorer.

I am not using the solver, just the display and text features of the program.

Later,
DB
 

mrCage

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Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
655
I would have to agree with Per. I am sort of lacking on the cubes now adays. So, in order to have a visual representation of what my premoves should look like I use cube explorer, and apply the premoves like

performing U'L' on cube explorer for example. Then I'll see what I am aiming to solve.
I also write each step of the solution down on cube explorer.

I am not using the solver, just the display and text features of the program.

Later,
DB

I find the CubeExp "flattened" cube horrible to work with. For those who have java installed i can recommend

http://cubix.idi.ntnu.no/fmccomp23_per/fmccomp.html

The CSS is optimised for Internet Explorer and it has 2 cubes!!

- Per
 

AvGalen

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I would have to agree with Per. I am sort of lacking on the cubes now adays. So, in order to have a visual representation of what my premoves should look like I use cube explorer, and apply the premoves like

performing U'L' on cube explorer for example. Then I'll see what I am aiming to solve.
I also write each step of the solution down on cube explorer.

I am not using the solver, just the display and text features of the program.

Later,
DB

I find the CubeExp "flattened" cube horrible to work with. For those who have java installed i can recommend

http://cubix.idi.ntnu.no/fmccomp23_per/fmccomp.html

The CSS is optimised for Internet Explorer and it has 2 cubes!!

- Per
For those that like to follow the official rules like you have to in official competitions (and are supposed to in our weekly competition) I would recommend to do it without any computer help during the 1 hour. It is very educational to examine better solutions/insertions after the 1 hour though and a computer can be a great help for that.
 

Johannes91

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Mar 28, 2006
Messages
1,341
what's the main best method for least moves?
What kind of least moves, linear of FMC?
Just least # of moves
I assume you don't know the difference. In linear solving, you can't take back any moves, so it's similar to speedsolving (at least if you don't use much time). But in Dan's FMC and in official competitions, you have a long time to solve just one scramble and you're allowed to take moves back, rescramble your cube or even use several cubes. There are some techniques -- like insertions, pseudo-blocks, and using the inverse scramble -- that are not as well suited to linear solving.
 

fanwuq

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Can some one take pictures of how the cube looks like after certain steps and the move count? thanks.
I'm quite bad at using commutators to solve corners. I just do petrus/heise to build F2L in 20 some moves and continue with fridrich to end at about 45-50. Cycling and orienting corners at the same time is confusing for me.
 

AvGalen

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fanwuq: Just take a solved cube, perform the scramble, perform the moves from the solution
Most of the time the moves from the solution are written something like this:
2x2x2: A B C D
2x2x3: E F G H I
Triple X-Cross: J K L . M
Finish F2L: N O P Q R S
Leave 3 corners: T U V W X Y Z
Insert 3 corners at . (cancels L and part of M): L' a b c d e f M2
 
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