• Welcome to the Speedsolving.com, home of the web's largest puzzle community!
    You are currently viewing our forum as a guest which gives you limited access to join discussions and access our other features.

    Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community of 40,000+ people from around the world today!

    If you are already a member, simply login to hide this message and begin participating in the community!

[Help Thread] The "Square-1 Help / Alg Sharing" thread

PapaSmurf

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2018
Messages
1,103
WCA
2016TUDO02
YouTube
Visit Channel
It depends on a lot of factors, including your method. The following is from a Vandenburgh perspective though (which I use).
Cubeshape becomes like F2L (intuitive but algorithmic), so the more you play around with it the less algorithmic it is. I would recommend using scallop-kite as well as the normal beginner's cubeshape method as you start to appreciate how cubeshape works a bit more.
CO is intuitive.
EO can be intuitive, but is a lot faster with algs (they're short and easy to learn though).
CP is similar to EO. I would recommend doing CP parity if you want minimal algs but still be decently fast.
EP is similar to cubeshape.

Including EO, CP and CP parity, you only really need 22 algs to be sub 15 (maybe faster).

Good EO algs can be found here:

Good CP+CP parity algs can be found at the bottom of this sheet (don't use the EPs):
For CP solved+parity, you can use this alg which is very similar to N/N: /-3,-3/3,0/-3,-3/-2,0/-2,4/2,-4/-1,0/-3,-3/

The 2 EP algs are really easy to learn.
Opp/opp: 1,0/-1,-1/-5,1/-1,-1/ - it looks like M2 U2 M2 on a 3x3.
Adj/adj: -2,0/3,0/-1,-1/-2,1/ - it is just a set up to an M2 then undo. You can use this logic to get an adj/adj from the front.

Using Vandenburgh the solve very much feels like you're just doing lots of algs in a row, but if you don't like that there's always Lin which is pretty good and more intuitive (has 6 algs iirc). There are some tutorials out there, although I don't really know which ones are good or bad.

It gets as repetitive as any other WCA event, it just depends on whether you enjoy it or not!

Hope this helps!:)
 

abunickabhi

Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
6,687
Location
Yo
WCA
2013GHOD01
YouTube
Visit Channel
From my personal experience, learning fingertricks and good turning is more important than learning an advance set.

Fingertricks, like slide push, eido, pinch U, RUD spam etc should be worked upon, and good fingertricks does make a huge difference on the sq-1 times.
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2020
Messages
1,727
Location
A mythical land filled with talking Ducks
WCA
2022MCCO11
What's the alg for l-L on squan? The one it shows on on SpeedCubeDB just gives you L-L.
1620785666082.png
Edit: as John_NOTgood pointed out the L is not in the correct possession. The reason I was confused is that from a solved state it does not give you the correct scrambled state like the other EO algs do. You must either reverse the alg or repeat it three times to get it.
 
Last edited:

Rouxster

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2020
Messages
38
Location
India
I just started learning CSP using Cale's tracing method.
(-5,6)/ (2,5)/ (3,0)/ (1,-2)/ (-4,-1)/ (3,0)/ (-5,-2)/ (2,-3)/ (-3,-3)/ (0,-1)/ (-4,0)/ (2,0)
I end up with odd parity on this scramble but solving the case with scallop/scallop, which is the odd alg still gives parity at the end. Is the alg wrong or am I tracing incorrectly? doing z2 and tracing again gives even parity which is correct. why does this happen?
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2021
Messages
1
I’m about to buy a square 1 and I saw that there’s a regular colour scheme and one with black replacing yellow, is there anything different about these?
 

Sub1Hour

Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2018
Messages
1,873
Location
Utah
WCA
2018BECK05
YouTube
Visit Channel
I’m about to buy a square 1 and I saw that there’s a regular colour scheme and one with black replacing yellow, is there anything different about these?
Black is just used because its easier to distinguish from white. I prefer to use that scheme because white and black have a stark contrast between each other and from the other colors on the cube. Some people also use yellow and black but I don't think that looks as nice. Basically, if you like white and yellow, get that. If you like black and white, get that.
 

rcarvalho

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2021
Messages
4
Here is a (new?) more intuitive, slightly shorter, algorithm for Square-1 Adj-Adj parity, equator is not flipped:

/-U/UD/U/-U/22/20/-24/-42/04/41/UD/U
/(-3,0)/(3,3)/(3,0)/(-3,0)/(2,2)/(2,0)/(-2,4)/(-4,2)/(0,4)/(4,1)/(3,3)/(3,0)

For comparison, this is the alg by Lars Vandenberg (2007), adapted to cancel equator flip:

/-U/D/-D/D/20/02/-20/40/0-2/02/-14/D/D2/-D

/(-3,0)/(0,3)/(0,-3)/(0,3)/(2,0)/(0,2)/(-2,0)/(4,0)/(0,-2)/(0,2)/(-1,4)/(0,3)/(0,6)/(0,-3)
 

Lid

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
909
Location
Sweden
WCA
2008LIDS01
Shorter isn't always faster.

This one does the same as yours but is imho faster, /-3,0/-3,0/-1,0/0,2/-2,0/4,0/0,-2/0,2/2,1/-3,0/3,0/0,-3/-3,0/3,0

Short analysis: 14 twists, "move" count: 29 = 14|29, sum of all layer moves: 34 (not include AUF)
Yours: 12|30, 48 (Normal alg 13|27, 34)

That is just a few things what you can look at, plus o/c you have to try the algs out.
 

unirox13

Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
557
Repetition and frustration lol. Actually I started to pay more attention to the shape that the puzzle was supposed to be in during the alg. I would repeat the algs over and over again, all the while saying the alg out loud. Then as I started to get a bit of a flow going, I started to focus on how the puzzle looked as I was going. Sounds a little confusing, but I know that during certain stages of an alg, if I don't see certain, "patterns" on the puzzle, then I've messed something up.
 

Thom S.

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
1,292
What is easiest way to memorize algorithms for Sq1
Honestly not different from other puzzles.
There are many tutorials on 'how to learn algorithms fast and easy', as always, J Perm has you covered.
One thing is that remembering Numbers that don't have any coherrency is incredibly hard so try to remember fingertricks.
 

Thom S.

Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
1,292
Which step are you lost on?
Are you already familiar with the Notation?

Can you send some pictures?
 
Last edited:
Top