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Fewest Moves: Tips and Techniques

Cubenovice

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Sometimes it can be usefull to try moves on a different cube than the one you are actually solving.
This makes it easier to track where pieces go and you do not risk messing up your "main" cube when you make an error.

They also come in handy for checking your scramble, I typically scramble two cubes and (too) often I find that they are not the same...
Imagine working with just one cube and solving a wrongly executed scramble!

There is even more than the three cubes, you are allowed to use little stickers to highlight certain pieces / sticker so it is easier to look for insertions.

I reccomend reading this whole thread, the FMC article in the wiki and the FMC home thread to get a good idea what FMC is all about.
I am nit very good at it but still I find FMC a really rewarding cubing discipline.
 

MarcelP

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I am normally not about bumping old topics. But the first post in this topic is so excellent that I just had to do it. Thanks mr van Galen. I have printed out all your examples and will go over them a few times. This is great stuff!!
 
Last edited:

Luis

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I'm learning FMC now and have come across this thread. I find a couple of things missing that I'd like to mention:

1) Some examples of a beautiful technique to insert a commutator that "doesn't solve any piece but just cycle unsolved pieces with many cancellations" can be seen in this same forum here. I love it. :)

2) Concerning the shortest existing edge commutator, don't forget that it can be expressed in four different forms. This widens the possibilities for cancellations. For example:

R' L F2 R L' U2

produces identical results than

R' F2 R L' U2 L,
F2 R L' U2 R' L and
L F2 R L' U2 R'
 

patrickrib

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Aug 16, 2013
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Heise build 4 squares method

Alright, I figured it was best to post this here:

I'm looking for some advice on improving my FMC. I did a solve a few hours ago and it was 38 turns, which while not necessarily bad, is not as good as I'd like. Here's the solve:

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

Solution:
Block building: F2 R' B2 U F D' R2
Orient two corners: D' B D B' D' B U' B' D B D' B' D B
More block building: F2 R2 U' R F'
Edges, then corners with commutators: L' U2 B' U2 B L2 D L' U' L D' L'

Besides replacing the 14 turn (with cancellations) orienting corners commutator with the 12 turn optimal alg that I just learned, how would you improve this? What are your thoughts?

Also, how do you determine where something should be inserted (i.e. how do you spot a place where an alg can be inserted with a large number of cancellations)?

Thanks

Hi, Paiev.

I' m a beginner in fewest moves and find an interesting way to begin the FM using a piece of the Heise method (http://www.ryanheise.com/cube/heise_method.html). The endings of this method I think is more complicated.

I find out one good solution in about 20 minutes as follow:

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

1st SQUARE - F2 R' B2 U
2nd SQUARE - F D'
SAVE MOVE FOR THE 3RD SQUARE - R2 B
3rd SQUARE - U'
4RD SQUARE - F2 R2 U'
3 CORNERS - F R F2
FINAL F2L - U F U' F' U2 L' U' L - 23 (NORMAL F2L, ONLY TURNING THE U FACE)
U2 L F2 R' F' R F' L' - 31 (OLL - SAME AS r U2 R' U' R U' r')
PLL SKIP

Hope help someone.


For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
 

Mike Hughey

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I just went searching for this post, and I wanted to put it somewhere easy to find so I don't ever have to spend an hour searching for it again. I think it fits nicely in this thread.

Here's some movecounts that I gathered from experience, imo it's very useful to know what's a good start and how many moves you can expect to finish up in. Feel free to correct and such.

Some movecounts for good starts:

Square+pair: 3
2x2x2: 4
Two squares: 5
2x2x3: 9
F2L-1: 14
F2L: 17

Average movecounts for insertions:

Single alg insertion:
3-corner cycle: 6
3-edge cycle: 7
2-corner 2-edge swap: 9

Two alg insertion:
2-corner twist: 8 (2+6)
5-corner cycle/4-corners "2+2" or "3+1": 10 (4+6)

Slightly higher when you need to insert edge cycles instead

I would love to see move count goals from other good FMC solvers out there.
 

porkynator

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I just went searching for this post, and I wanted to put it somewhere easy to find so I don't ever have to spend an hour searching for it again. I think it fits nicely in this thread.



I would love to see move count goals from other good FMC solvers out there.
That's useful! My movecount averages/goals are similar for insertions. For blockbuilding I'd say
- 2x2x2 in 4 hard (also considerong that the worst optimal case is like 8 iirc); my goal is around 5-6, but it depends on the continuation;
- 2x2x3 in 10 is also good for me, but only if there aren't too many bad edges
- for F2L-1 13-14 is good if there are 2 bad edges; if all edges are oriented, even 16 may be good for me; with 4 bad edges I'd throw away even a 12 moves one, unless some other random blocks appear while orienting edges;
- 1x2x3 in around 6 moves;
- I almost never complete F2L without influencing LL
 
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