Belt Method

Belt method Information about the method Proposer(s): Denton Holder Proposed: unknown Alt Names: Equator Variants: 2 Look 3 Look 4Look No. Steps: unknown No. Algs: unknown Avg Moves: unknown Purpose(s): Speedsolving

Also known as "Equator", Belt is a method which involves solving the middle layer first.

Steps

1. Solve the E-Slice

2. Separate the remaining pieces into their respective layers. The corners and the edges are usually done separately, but the order varies. This can be done intuitively.

3. Orient the U and D layer pieces. Doing this step in one look requires far too many algorithms, so it is normally done by first orienting the U layer, and then the D layer. OLL (57 algorithms) can be used for this, though a parity algorithm is needed.

[To do- OLL Parity algorithm(s).]

4. Permute U and D layer pieces. The one look version takes over 300 cases, so, once again, two look is much more practical. You first correct the parity error (which occurs 50% of the time), and then you use PLL (21 algorithms) on both layers to finish the cube.

PLL Parity- M2 U2 M2

Variants

There are many variants to the method described above. Instead of seperating, orienting and then permuting, you could change the order around. You can do orientation, seperation and then permutation. Another slightly different approach is to orient all edges, THEN solve the belt and continue on.

Conclusion

Overall, Belt method has a reasonably large move count and is not as fast as other speed methods (CFOP, Roux, Petrus, CF etc.) However, it is a lot of fun and has been used to achieve sub-30.

See Also

• Human Thistlethwaite

External Links

• Speedsolving.com: 3x3 Method - KwS (a belt-style method)
• Speedsolving.com : Various Middle Layer First methods.

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