The second layer

The layer in between

The white layer is done. Next comes the middle layer: the four edges with neither white nor yellow on them — green-orange, green-red, blue-red and blue-orange. The middle layer owns no corners (every corner lives in either the top layer or the bottom one), so this step is all about edges.

Keep holding the cube yellow side up. You'll hunt for middle-layer edges in the top layer and lower them into place from there. On this cube, two of them are already home; the other two, green-orange and green-red, are waiting up top.

The upside-down T

First, find a candidate. Scan the edges in the top layer: any edge with yellow on it belongs to the last layer, so skip it. An edge without yellow is the one you're after.

Turn the top until that edge's front sticker matches the center beneath it. A tall upside-down T now stands on the front face: the bottom row, the center and your edge above it, all in one color.

Now read the edge's top sticker. It tells you where the edge is headed: toward the center of the same color. Here the top sticker is orange, and the orange center is on the right, so the edge goes right.

If several top edges qualify, pick any one; the order doesn't matter. And if the spot you need is at the back, turn the whole cube (y, y′ or y2, depending on where the spot is). The T works on any side face.

To the right

U R U' R' U' F' U F

Watch what the pieces do, and you'll remember the algorithm without even trying. In the first half, U R U' R', the edge steps aside while the right face lifts the white corner up, and the two meet in the top layer. The second half, U' F' U F, repeats the trick with the front face, and corner and edge drop into place together, as a pair.

It's like going through a door: step aside, open it, walk through, close it behind you. The white corner leaves its spot for a moment, but by the end of the algorithm it's always back home.

Here's a memory hook: the first move takes the edge away from its spot. The edge is heading right, so you start with U, which swings it left. The second move turns the face that owns the spot: the right face.

To the left

U' L' U L U F U' F'

This time the upside-down T is already standing on the green face, and the edge's top sticker is red. The red center is on the left, so the edge goes left.

This algorithm is the mirror image of the first: the left hand does the work instead of the right, and every direction flips. The edge steps aside to the right, the left face lifts the corner, and the front face lowers the pair into place. Learn "right" and you get "left" for free.

An edge stuck in the middle layer

Sometimes every edge in the top layer has yellow on it. That means the edge you need is already in the middle layer, just sitting wrong: in another edge's spot, or in its own spot but flipped. Here the green-orange edge is home, but with green facing right.

The fix: use the same "right" algorithm to insert any top-layer edge into that spot. The newcomer takes its place and knocks the stuck edge up into the top layer. Here the edge pops out at the back; U2 swings it around to the front, into an upside-down T, and one more "right" finishes the job.

The yellow edge you shoved into the spot as a stand-in pops back out on its own along the way. Nothing is ruined. The top gets scrambled, of course, but the top doesn't matter yet.

Where people trip up

• Grabbing an edge with yellow on it. It doesn't belong in the middle layer; it's waiting for the next chapter.
• Getting the direction wrong. The top sticker decides: the edge heads toward the center of that color.
• Skipping the first U. It's part of the algorithm, not a turn to line things up. Build the T first, then play the whole algorithm.
• Mixing up hands. "Right" uses the right and front faces; "left" uses the left and front. If an L creeps into your "right," something has gone wrong.
• Panicking when the white layer breaks. Midway through, a white corner leaves its spot. That's normal: it's back by the end.

If the spot you need isn't at the front, turn the whole cube: y brings the back-right spot to the front right, and y′ brings the back-left spot to the front left. Yellow stays on top, white stays on the bottom: everything happens in the same grip.

Try it yourself: two edges

Here's the cube from the start of the chapter: the green-orange edge sits at the back of the top layer, the green-red one on the right. Both have green, so you can bring each of them to the green face without turning the cube. Take them one at a time: build the T, read the top sticker, play the matching algorithm.

Stuck? U2 lines the green-orange edge up in its T; then play "right": U R U′ R′ U′ F′ U F. That leaves the green-red edge already standing in its own T, so go straight to "left": U′ L′ U L U F U′ F′.

Try it yourself: a stuck edge

The green-red edge is in its own spot at the front left, but flipped. Kick it out: use "left" to insert any top-layer edge in its place. Then find the edge you evicted, build its T and put it in properly.

Next: the yellow top

Two layers out of three are done, and that was the longest stretch of the road. All that's left is the top: the eight pieces of the last layer.

From here on, the rules change. You can no longer place pieces one by one, because any careless turn would wreck what's below. So every algorithm from now on juggles several pieces at once, and does it carefully: whatever it disturbs in the lower layers, it puts back by the end. You've already seen this trick twice. The sexy move and "right" both break the bottom for a moment, then mend it straight away.

First up is the yellow cross, and the sexy move returns for it, this time wrapped in a frame.