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Fewest Moves: Tips and Techniques

MistArts

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Jan 5, 2008
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Simple example: R (U' L' U) R' (U' L U)
Simplest example: M U2 M' U2

Also simple, but harder to find
(R' D2 R) U (R' D2 R) U'
(R' D2 R) U2 (R' D2 R) U2
(R' D2 R) U (R' D2 R) U'
etc

And you don't need insertions/commutators to get pretty decent results. I got my 33 move official solution before I even knew about insertions and commutators. Just be original and pause between every move you do. Don't blindly apply an alg you know.

But 30 moves with Fridrich seems impossible unless you get a really really lucky F2L, a short OLL and a PLL-skip. Same for Petrus, 30 moves only happens when you get very lucky.

I got 28 with a PLL skip (kind of worked for) with Petrus in one of the weekly competitons.

I just dugged it out....

Scramble: D' U2 L2 R' U' B' U R2 B2 D' R2 B' F2 D' L' B' U2 B' L' R' F2 D L2 D' R D U2 B2 F R B' F U L' R' U2 L D U' R' U2 R' F' L2 R2

Solution: L' D R B2 U' R2 F' B' U' B F2 y2 F' U' F U2 R U y' l F U ' F' R' F R U l' y R U' (28)

Explanation:
2x2x2: L' D R B2 U' R2 (6)
2x2x3: F' B' U' B F2 (11)
Pseudo F2L: y2 F' U' F U2 R U (17)
OLL: y' l F U' F' R' F R U l' y (26)
Undo Premove: R U' (28)
No, that wasn't Petrus. Petrus doesn't use premoves. And getting a PLL skip would be lucky.

Maybe Petrus doesn't use premoves, but I do. Lucky is part of Petrus. And it took a few tries to get that LL.

EDIT: I just notice that I beat you that week....
 
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cubeRemi

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I am trying to solve domino style, and I'd like some help.

this weeks scramble: R' U2 F2 L2 D2 U2 R' B2 L R U L' B2 F2 U B D' U B' R' F2

solution: z' UL'x' URUR' y RUR'U'R'FRF' y'UF' U2 B2 U FB'U2 F'B L2 F' B2U2 B2U2 B2 F2
(32) ( watch at: http://fmc.mustcube.net/fmccomp.php )
this is not even a real solution, it leaves 3 corners unsolved but permuted...
apart from the last 3 corners can someone give me some advice?


z' UL'x' URUR' (6) I think this is a nice start, 3 E-layer edges solved + 3 pairs.

y RUR'U'R'FRF' y' ( 7) orient 2 pairs

UF' U2 B2 U FB'U2 F'B L2 ( 11 ) building + M'F2MF2 commutator.

F' * U2 F2 (3) place blocks/pais.

* insert this “alg” B2U2 B2U2 B2U2, cancel moves ( + 4 moves )

how could this have been done better, domino style? should I worry less about breaking up pairs? should I solve les and insert more?
pleas give me some tips.

Remi
 
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First of all, doesn't this look so much nicer as opposed to rotation-ridden notation?:

R U' B D B D' L B L' B' L' D L D' B R' B2 L2 B R L' B2 R' L U2 R' L2 B2 L2 B2 L2 R2

Second of all, your solution is pretty screwed. Time to go back to one of the steps and try another approach.
 

nigtv

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Jul 13, 2009
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I personally find it very hard to see cancellations with rotations in my solve, but that's just me...

EDIT: this is one of the best threads I've seen on this entire forum, I think it deserved the bump, even if its >1 year!
 

Cyrus C.

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dumb question, is R2 one move or two?

It depends how you're counting it. In HTM (half turn metric), which is standard, it counts as one move. In QTM (quarter turn metric) it counts as two moves.

In HTM you count a 90° turn or a 180° turn as 1 move.

In QTM you count a 90° as one turn.

In both of these a slice move counts as two moves. STM, which counts a slice turn as one move but follows the rules of HTM is also very popular. HTM is still the official one however.

EDIT: Woah! I thought this was the OAQT. It's one move.
 
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Boxcarcrzy12

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dumb question, is R2 one move or two?

It depends how you're counting it. In HTM (half turn metric), which is standard, it counts as one move. In QTM (quarter turn metric) it counts as two moves.

In HTM you count a 90° turn or a 180° turn as 1 move.

In QTM you count a 90° as one turn.

In both of these a slice move counts as two moves. STM, which counts a slice turn as one move but follows the rules of HTM is also very popular. HTM is still the official one however.

EDIT: Woah! I thought this was the OAQT. It's one move.



Thanks Much
 

CuBeOrDiE

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Hey guys. I just started Heise yesterday and I have a question about it; seemed appropriate to post it here. I can solve the cube like Ryan said, but in his step 3 (where you solve remaining 5 edges and 2 corners) I am having some trouble. I usually either solve all edges and one corner and then solve the remaining 4 corners using two commutators OR I solve 2 corners but end up with two edges swapped, which I can't solve while preserving my already solved pair of corners. In other words, I am not efficient at this step. Could anyone give me a few pointers or an example solve or summing?
 

deepSubDiver

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Jun 17, 2009
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I separate this step into two steps:
Building a 2x2x1 block on U should be no problem, the next thing I do is pairing a corner and an edge while permuting the remaining edges. This leaves me with a corner commutator as well and is not painfully less efficient. Sometimes, you find a nicer solution to do it in one step, though. This never happened to me during speedsolves, though ;P
 

Mike Hughey

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Thanks,really nice

Is it true that we dont get to touch the cube in FMC

No, of course you can manipulate the cube in FMC. For the WCA Fewest Moves event, you're allowed up to 3 cubes, and you may use them to your heart's content.

There are a couple of things I can think of that might have led to this idea. One is that, for "linear fewest moves", you're not allowed to take back moves - every move counts. So you're not allowed to touch the cube except to apply your solution. But this is not an official event - it's just an event that has been run in many unofficial competitions (and is rather fun).

Another thing that might contribute to this idea might be my fault: we speculated on what would be required to do an "official blindfolded fewest moves" solve. For that, since the regulations say in general for blindfolded events that you can't apply moves to the cube until you've donned the blindfold, you would have to work out your entire fewest moves solution without touching the cube, then pull the blindfold on and write the solution down. The idea was that you could make moves on the cube after pulling on the blindfold, but that really wouldn't be much help anyway, so it amounts to not being able to touch the cube for blindfolded FMC. But this is just a (very) silly idea that we had, and has nothing to do with any normal FMC competition.

For the normal event, you're allowed to make moves on the cube all you want for FMC.
 

kinch2002

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Another thing that might contribute to this idea might be my fault: we speculated on what would be required to do an "official blindfolded fewest moves" solve. For that, since the regulations say in general for blindfolded events that you can't apply moves to the cube until you've donned the blindfold, you would have to work out your entire fewest moves solution without touching the cube, then pull the blindfold on and write the solution down. The idea was that you could make moves on the cube after pulling on the blindfold, but that really wouldn't be much help anyway, so it amounts to not being able to touch the cube for blindfolded FMC. But this is just a (very) silly idea that we had, and has nothing to do with any normal FMC competition.
When I did FMCBLD I touched the cube during tracing/memorization, because I thought it was just that you can't apply moves. Surely you mean that?
 

ilikecubing

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i didnt quite get that...so we can touch the cube but making moves on it is not allowed at all,but if it goes this way then how do we know that which OLL,PLL will come up?
 

Cubenovice

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They are discussing BLINDFOLD FMC... a very rare unofficial event.

In regular FMC you have one hour to play with up to three seperate cubes and you can twist and turn as much as you want.
Goal is to write down a final solution which is a short as possible.
 
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