Guimond Method

Guimond method Information about the method Proposer(s): Gaétan Guimond Proposed: 1980s Alt Names: none Variants: none No. Steps: 3 No. Algs: 21 (13 min) Avg Moves: unknown Purpose(s): Speedsolving Beginner Method

Guimond solves the cube by orienting both layers, then permuting both layers (PBL). This method is very popular because it is efficient. For the first step, solve just 3/4 of a face of opposite colors, which means you have to get three stickers of one color and the opposite color on one face. You can usually get this step in one move or less, so you can look forward to the next step. In the next step, you finish the face and orient the opposite one, so that you have two opposite faces of opposite colors. Then you sort the opposite colors by putting all of one color onto one face and all of the other color onto the other, and finally you permute both layers like in Ortega. Except for the last step, all of these steps usually take four or less moves, and experienced users can often look all the way through to the last step during inspection. Guimond requires 21 algorithms (or 13 without reflections).

Guimond as a Beginner Method

Gaimond makes a slightly more efficient and intuitive alternative to Beginner LBL. The beginner method procedure is as follows:

1. Use intuition to orient three cubies on both U and D faces. Mixing U/D colours at this stage is fine, as long as each U/D face has three oriented cubies (ie. with U or D colour on top).
2. Using a U face turn, place the misoriented U-face cubie in UFL. Flip the cube using x2 and do the same for the opposite layer.
3. Now check the orientation of the mosoriented UFL cubie. If the U/D colour is facing you, use x2 to flip the cube. Now the misorineted cubie should have the U/D colour facing to the left.
4. Apply the algorithm R U' B L to complete orientation of the U/D faces.
5. Using F2 R2 and U moves, swap U/D cubies until the U-face contains only U colour.
6. Now look at the U layer only
   • If you see 1 bar, position the cube (using y turns) so that the bar is in the back face. Apply the algorithm R' F R' B2 R F' R' B2 R2 (A-perm).
   • If there are no bars apply A-perm to create a bar.
7. Do x2 and repeat step 6 for the D layer to complete the cube.

Guimond-style 3x3x3 Method

It is possible to solve the 3x3x3 cube using the same basic phases of the 2x2x2 Guimond method. The method is broken down into:

1. Orientation of all the pieces
   • Orientation of edges (see EOLine)
   • Orientation of corners (same as Guimond, but preserving EO)
2. Separation of the U/D Layer
   • Move all mid-edges into E-slice
   • Corner Separation (same as Guimond)
   • Edge Separation
3. Permutation of all the pieces
   • Final solve of E-Slice
   • U/D layer permutation (Using PLL)

Predicted Separation

This is a more advanced form of regular Guimond, which allows one look to be eliminated. During inspection the solver works out the separation case (step 2), so that the separation alg can be executed immediately after the first step, without pause.

2 Step Guimond

This goes one step further than predicted separation and actually carries out separation and orientation (steps 1 and 2) all at the same time. The solver starts with three corners of one colour, then uses a larger set of algs to solve orientation and separation in one step.

Ortega-style OLL

Where a scramble leaves one face with four oriented U/D corners, it is possible to simply use an Ortega OLL alg to bring the cube straight to the separation step. Because mixing of U/D colours doesn't matter in this step, slightly more efficient algorithms may be used. See OLL (2x2x2)#Mixing U/D

See Also

• OLL (2x2x2)
• PBL
• LBL
• Ortega Method

External Links

• funpic.org
• Martijn Bakker' doc on RapidShare
• Speedsolving.com 2 Alg Guimond
• Speedsolving.com What is the "fridrich" of 2x2x2 cubing? (info on 2-step Guimond)
• Speedsolving.com 3x3x3 Guimond-style Method