All lessons
Step 1

How to read the moves

Names for the six faces and the turns

Goal: Be able to read any sequence of moves and copy it on your cube.

Hold your cube with the white centre on the bottom and the green centre facing you. Keep it that way for the whole solve — if you turn the whole cube around, the instructions stop matching.

Each of the six faces has a letter: U for the top face, D for the bottom, F for the face pointing at you, B for the back, R for the right and L for the left.

A letter on its own means turn that face a quarter turn clockwise, as if you were looking straight at it. A letter with an apostrophe (R') means a quarter turn anticlockwise. A letter with a 2 (R2) means a half turn — direction doesn't matter.

So 'R U R'' means: right face clockwise, top face clockwise, right face back again.

Watch it happen

R — right face clockwise

R

R' — right face anticlockwise

R'

U2 — top face half turn

U2

The 'sexy move': R U R' U'

R U R' U'

The most used little sequence in the whole method.

Worth knowing

  • Clockwise always means clockwise as seen from outside that face — so a D turn looks anticlockwise from above.
  • Say the moves out loud while you turn. It is much easier to spot a mistake.
Loading cube…

Turning Up · arrow keys turn it, letter keys pick a face