The second layer

The layer in between

The white layer is done. Now for the middle layer: four edges that carry neither white nor yellow — green-orange, green-red, blue-red and blue-orange. The middle layer has no corners of its own (corners only live on the top and the bottom), so this step is all about edges.

We still hold the cube with yellow on top. You'll find the middle-layer edges in the top layer and bring them down into place from there. On this cube two of them are already home, while the other two — green-orange and green-red — are waiting up top.

The upside-down T

To find the right edge, scan 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 want.

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

Now check 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: to the right.

If several edges up top qualify, take any of them; the order doesn't matter. And if the slot you need is at the back, turn the whole cube with y — you can build the T on any side face.

To the right

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

Watch what happens and the algorithm will stick all by itself. In the first half, U R U' R', the edge steps aside and the right face lifts the white corner up, so the corner and the edge meet in the top layer. The second half, U' F' U F, does the same with the front face, and the corner-and-edge pair drops into place together.

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

A memory hook: the first move takes the edge away from its slot. The edge is heading right, so you start with U, which sends it left. The second move turns the face of that very slot — 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: to the left.

This algorithm is the mirror image of the first. The left hand does the work instead of the right, and every direction is reversed. The edge steps aside to the right, the left face lifts the corner, and the front face brings the pair back down into place. Once you know "right", you already have "left" in your hands.

An edge stuck in the middle layer

Sometimes the top layer has no yellow-free edges at all. That means the edge you need is already in the middle layer but in bad shape: in someone else's slot, or in its own slot but flipped. Here the green-orange edge is home, but with green facing right.

The fix: insert any top-layer edge into that slot with the same "right" algorithm. It takes the spot and knocks the stuck edge up to the top. Here the edge pops out at the back; U2 brings it round to the front, into the upside-down T, and then it's "right" once more.

The yellow edge you parked in the middle layer pops back up on its own along the way. Nothing is ruined: the top is scrambled, of course, but we don't care about the top yet.

Where people trip up

• Grabbing an edge with yellow on it. That edge isn't a middle-layer piece; it's waiting for the next chapter.
• Getting the direction wrong. The edge's top sticker decides: the edge goes toward the center of that color.
• Skipping the first U. It's part of the algorithm, not an alignment turn. 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 has crept into your "right", something's gone wrong.
• Panicking when the white layer breaks. Midway through, a white corner leaves its slot. That's normal: it comes back by the end.

If the slot you need isn't at the front, turn the whole cube with y until it's at the front right or front left. Yellow stays on top and white on the bottom — everything we do, we do in one grip.

Try it yourself: two edges

The cube from the start of the chapter: the green-orange edge is at the back of the top layer, the green-red one on the right. Both are green, so you can bring both to the green face without turning the cube. One at a time: build the T, read the top sticker, play the matching algorithm.

A hint if you get stuck: U2, then U R U' R' U' F' U F, then U' L' U L U F U' F'.

Try it yourself: a stuck edge

The green-red edge is in its own slot at the front left, but flipped. Kick it out by inserting any top-layer edge into its place with the "left" algorithm. Then find the edge you evicted, build the 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. Only the top is left: the eight pieces of the last layer.

From here on, the rules of the game change. You can't place pieces one by one anymore — any careless turn would wreck what's below. So each algorithm from now on does several jobs at once, and does them carefully, so that the lower layers always end up back where they were. You've already seen this trick twice: the sexy move and "right" both break the bottom for a moment and then fix it straight away.

First up: the yellow cross. The sexy move comes back for it — this time wrapped in a frame.