Examples of extended cross solves

About the extended cross | Examples | Solving the extended cross | Opposite color solving


This page is meant to give examples of extended cross solves. Below are several example cubes, ranging from easy to see solves to difficult solves. This page as meant as a guide to my method of solving the extended cross.

What is the extended cross?:
If you're still unsure of what the extended cross is, then use your mouse to twist around the cube below. The entire setup that you see is the "extended cross". As you can see, it consists of a 2x2x2 and the remaining two edges in one layer. It is also the same thing as the cross and one solved corner/edge pair using the Fridrich system.


Example 1: Medium
Here is an example of what I consider somewhat of a medium level extended cross solve. This cube is taken from the following scramble, U B R F R' U' B' R D2 B R D2 B2 R2 F2 R F D2 R2 B2 L D2 B U' R'. If you use this scramble on your cube, the pair I've selected as the easiest is the BL pair. In the cube below, I've only included the 6 pieces of the easiest extended cross. See if you can see the 7 move solution without looking at the answer. Try it on your own cube if you have a hard time visualizing the moves. You can do turns on the example cube. Simply click on the center piece of a face to make a turn. Hold down the alt key while clicking to turn the opposite direction.

7 turns
Solution


As a comparison here is the same cube (showing the full scramble) that shows how many moves it takes to solve the cross and the first pair using the normal order of the Fridrich F2L system (9 moves). Note that it takes 6 moves to solve the cross alone.

Normal "cross" Solution

Example 2: Difficult
Ok, here is an example of a difficult extended cross solve. Sometimes a difficult setup can take up to 12 moves, but they usually tend to follow this type of pattern of how to solve the extended cross. There may be a shorter move for this setup (if you find one please let me know) but this is the best one I've found. This setup is taken from the scramble L D' F2 R' U R U L' D' B U2 R' D L2 U2 R B2 U L F R' F' D R U and the easiest pair, that I've found so far, is the BL pair. See if you can see the 10 move solution without looking at the answer. You can use your own cube or the example cube.

10 turns
Solution


And the comparison with the Fridrich method (14 moves),

Normal "cross" Solution

Example 3: Easy/Medium
After trying the other examples this one should be a bit easier to see. The scramble (from cube explorer) is R B2 U2 L B2 L' D2 B2 F2 L U' L2 D' L B R B' L2 U2 R2 L' and it solves FL. Solves like this aren't as common as the 9-12 move ones but they still occur often enough to influence an average. Just solving the extended cross when it is "easy" or "medium", I can often use this method 3-5 times per average (out of 12 times). Even if you only try the extended cross when it is easy, there is a good chance you will use it during an average of ten. Try to see if you can see the 7 move solution without looking at the answer. As before you can use your own cube or the example cube.

7 turns
Solution


And the comparison with the Fridrich method (13 moves). Notice again that it takes 6 moves to do the cross alone.

Normal "cross" Solution

Example 4: Real life example
So that you know I haven't been "fixing" all of my examples I went to Jess Bonde's timer and chose the first scramble it gave me for this example. The scramble was L B' F2 R U' D' F2 L B2 R2 U D2 R F' R2 L2 D2 L2 R' U D' F2 D R2 D2. The shortest extended cross solution that I found is 8 moves. See if you can see it without looking at the answer. You can use your own cube or the example cube.

8 turns
Solution


And the comparison with the Fridrich method (11 moves).

Normal "cross" Solution

About the extended cross | Examples | Solving the extended cross

Go back to my homepage

Special thanks to Werner Randelshofer for the code for the interactive cubes. http://www.randelshofer.ch/