CFOP: how the champions do it

Same cube, different speed

With the layer-by-layer method, a solve takes 120–180 moves. A speedcuber needs 55–60, and the best of them turn more than ten moves a second. Record-setting solves in competition last about three seconds, less time than it will take you to finish this paragraph.

It isn't just nimble fingers. Most top cubers follow the same plan, called CFOP after the initials of its four stages: the Cross; F2L, the first two layers; and OLL and PLL, which finish the last layer in two steps.

The method is often named after Jessica Fridrich, though she wasn't the only one to come up with it. In the early 1980s, several cubers hit on similar ideas: the cross on the bottom, corners paired with edges, the last layer in two stages. Fridrich pulled them together into a complete system and, in 1997, posted a detailed write-up online. From there, the method spread around the world.

Cross: planned in advance

In competition, you get 15 seconds to inspect the cube before the solve. You can turn it over in your hands, but you can't turn any layers. Champions spend those seconds on the cross: they find the four white edges and plan the whole route, from the first move to the last. Then they build the cross almost without looking, because their eyes are already hunting for what comes next.

There's no daisy here. Instead of collecting the edges around the yellow center, you send each one into the cross by the shortest route, and a single turn often moves two edges at once. A computer search shows that any white cross can be solved in 8 moves or fewer, and 5–7 is usually enough. This cube needs six: R' F2 D R' F D.

There's a reason the cross goes on the bottom: it keeps the top in view, and that's where the action is about to start.

F2L: columns, not layers

You already know this stage from the three chapters on intuitive F2L. A corner and an edge meet up top, join into a pair and go down together, a whole column at a time. Four pairs, and two layers are done. Here the pair is already joined, and inserting it takes four moves: U R U' R'.

In CFOP, this is the main event: it takes up about half the moves in a solve. F2L has 41 cases, which is how many different pictures the corner and edge of a single pair can make. Speedcubers eventually learn the fastest algorithm for each one, but every one of those algorithms is built from the same three ideas: split, join, insert. That's why everyone starts with intuitive F2L; the memorized algorithms come later, for speed.

Common mistakes:

• Breaking the cross. If a move lifts a white edge out, the same trick has to put it back.
• Freezing while you search. A pause between pairs costs more time than slow hands do. It's better to turn slowly and never stop.

OLL: the whole top turns yellow

Two layers are solved, and only the top one is left. OLL (Orientation of the Last Layer) turns all its pieces yellow side up, without caring yet where each one sits. Right now the cube shows only yellow, and that's exactly how cubers see this stage too.

Full OLL has 57 cases, each with its own algorithm. To start, 2-look OLL is enough. It takes two looks: one for the yellow cross, then one for the corners. You already know the cross, except that now there's one algorithm per case, with no repeats:

• the line, running left to right: F R U R′ U′ F′;
• the L-shape, with its yellow edges on the right and at the front: f R U R' U' f'. Here f turns the two front layers together;
• the dot: both in a row, as on the cube. F R U R' U' F' turns the dot into an L-shape, and f R U R' U' f' turns the L into a cross.

Seven pictures for the corners

With the cross done, it's time to twist the corners. There are only seven cases, and each one has a name: Sune, Antisune, H, Pi, U, T, L.

The cube shows Sune, also known as the fish: only one corner on top shows yellow, and together with the cross it draws a fish. Hold it like this: the yellow corner at the front left, and the front-right corner's yellow sticker facing you. The algorithm is R U R' U R U2 R'. Antisune is the mirror-image fish, and its algorithm is Sune played backwards: R U2 R′ U′ R U′ R′.

Recognize Sune? In the layer-by-layer method, R U R′ U R U2 R′ U swapped two edges. That's the same Sune plus one turn of the top. One algorithm, two jobs: it shuffles edges and it twists corners. Back then you needed the first job; now you need the second.

Try it yourself: the fish

There's a fish in front of you. Hold it as before and play Sune, R U R' U R U2 R'. It's easiest to remember in two chunks: R U R′ U, then R U2 R′. The bottom two layers will come apart along the way and snap back together only on the very last move, and the top will turn solid yellow.

PLL: everything in its place

The top is yellow, but the colors around the sides are jumbled. PLL (Permutation of the Last Layer) rearranges the pieces without disturbing the yellow top. There are 21 cases, each named after a letter, and for many of them the arrows on the diagram really do trace that letter.

The cube shows the T-perm: the left and right edges trade places, and so do the two right-hand corners. Together the arrows form a T lying on its side. The algorithm is R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F'. Among the others, Ua and Ub cycle three edges, H swaps opposite edges, Z swaps neighboring edges in pairs, A cycles three corners, and J and Y swap corners along with edges.

2-look PLL: look for headlights

2-look PLL gets by with six algorithms. Corners come first. Look for "headlights": a side where both corners have side stickers of the same color. Here they're on the left face: two red corners with an out-of-place orange edge between them. None of the other sides has headlights.

• Headlights on one side: put them on the left, as here, and do a T-perm.
• No headlights anywhere: do a Y-perm.
• Headlights on every side: the corners are already in place.

Then fix the edges with Ua, Ub, H or Z.

In the layer-by-layer method, the last layer took four stages: the cross, the edges, placing the corners and twisting them. CFOP does it in two: first orient everything, then put everything in its place.

Try it yourself: T-perm

Fourteen moves is a lot, but you can learn them in chunks. The first chunk is an old friend, the sexy move R U R′ U′. Next comes R′ F R2 U′ R′, and the finale is U′ R U R′ F′. Play the three chunks back to back, and the cube is solved.

Fingers, eyes and what's next

A cuber's hands work like a pianist's. U is a flick of the index finger, R is a turn of the wrist, and the sexy move sounds like a quick drum roll. These techniques are called fingertricks, and they let you play an algorithm without ever regripping the cube.

But the real speed is in the eyes. While your hands insert one pair, your eyes are already searching for the next. A cuber who turns slowly but never pauses will beat one who rushes ahead and then freezes.

Where should you start? With 2-look: sixteen algorithms, 10 for OLL (one of them, the dot, is just two familiar ones in a row) and 6 for PLL. After that, pick up the full sets one algorithm at a time. All 57 OLL and 21 PLL cases are in the algorithm library, with diagrams and animations.

And in the next chapter: why every position of the cube can be solved in twenty moves or fewer, and how we know.