David Aguila's Cube Site |

Cycle 3x3x3 Blindfold Method

Pretty much I am going to be using ideas from Macky, Tyson, Chris, Leyan, and Stefan. I modified it to how I think about the cube and it works out good. I can solve the cube blindfolded in about 4 minutes, there is plenty of time for me to improve. I will give a good description of how to use Cycle Method for solving the 3x3x3 cube.
My suggestion to go straight down the page to the algs and take a look at them. The way I solve is based off of what alg I have to use, it's strange but it works. I have been able to get times down close to under 4 min using this method. Good Luck.

Holding the cube: It doesn't matter what colors you hold on U F L R D B at first, but make sure you stay with whatever colors on that face always.

For me I hold White as U and Green as F.

Now to number or give the pieces names, I give the pieces numbers but you can give a piece a name like Red Blue edge will be Spiderman, and Orange Green edge is Aqua-man, etc. This is funny and a different concept of how I think about it but as long as it works for you go ahead with it.
I number the pieces counter clockwise edges would be starting in UL is number 1 and so forth.

There are 12 edges number 8 is behind 5 and number 12 is under number 1. The same concept is for corners, counter clockwise numbering.

There are 8 corners, number 8 is under 4.

The whole idea of cycle method is move 3 pieces, 2 go the correct spot 1 isn't, that last one then moves where it needs to go pushing that piece out and so forth until all pieces are in there correct spot.

Setup moves are something that you will have to remember. example moving a piece without disturbing what we want to move then undoing it.

Now some pieces will not be orientated correctly, meaning they need to be flipped. On edges Green or Blue cannot be on the White or Yellow faces, and White and Yellow cannot be on Blue or Green faces. The way I think about corners is by what alg I have to use. I will explain this later on.

I will go through a solve explaining how I think about it. Scramble is done with White as U and Green as F,

F' L' D R2 D F2 L' R' D' U' B2 F' L R B F L R2 B2 F' R' U2 L2 B' F' L2 U B L' U'

When you scramble the cube should look like this

Now the way I memorize is Corner Permutation (CP) Edge Permutation (EP) Edge Orientation (EO) and Corner Orientation(CO). You can swap CP with EP and CO with EO but not orientation with permutation. Orientation flips the cubes correctly and permutation moves the pieces to there correct spot.

Starting with CP I see that the corner cube in spot 1 is Yellow Green and Red there for it would be labeled 1, 6. Now the piece in spot 6 is Red White and Blue, this pieces belows in spot 3, so now we have 1,6,3. Now what is in spot 3 Green White and Orange, this works out to be only one cycle, so we have 1,6,3. Next I will start with what is in spot 2 so the piece in 2 belongs in spot 8 and 8 belongs in 7, again this works out to be only one cycle. We are now done because the pieces in 4 and 5 are in the correct spot. The cycles are 1,6,3 and 2,8,7.

The easiest way for me to explain this is: On the U or D face is either White or Yellow on the corners. We want to keep White or Yellow on the U or D face even when we move it. So if a piece was in 8 and we wanted to move it to the U face for a cycle we want to keep white or yellow on the white or yellow face. So B2 will move it to the U face keeping White or Yellow on the U face. Then B2 would be done to move 8 back.

Now to Edge Permutation, it is the same idea as corner. Starting from 1 I see 1,10, 5, 11, 3. Now this works out to 2 cycles 1, 10, 5 and then 1, 11, 3. Now when I have anything more than one cycle I make it so it is a group of 3 then groups of 2, because then first number is always the same and constantly moving. Next is 2 so, 2, 12, 6, 8, now this is a parity problem, parities have a 50% chance of coming up, we have one cycle 2, 12 , 6 then 8 so the pieces in 2 and 8 will need to be swapped later on when we find the other parity. The last one 7 and 9 this will tie into the 2, 8 we had earlier.

Somewhat similar in ideas of what I said for CP White or Yellow on the U and D face(unless its orange/blue or green, and red/blue or green) But if pieces were in spot 5 you would do F to move it up keeping white or yellow up, F' for 6. B' for 8, and B for 7. For 9 thru 12 a simple 180 degree turn on whatever side it is. example 9 would be L2.

Next I do Orientation, now I speed through this making a picture of it in my head or grouping things together. It really doesn't matter what comes first but I will start with corners.

So if you notice on the U face corner 1 is correct because yellow is flipped up, this goes with what I said earlier. What needs to be flipped are edges 2,3 one group and 6,7 another group and 4,8. The color White or Yellow needs to be on the U or D face for it be flipped correctly now in a case where it is a blue orange piece orange would be correct(red is also correct in this circumstance).

Edge Orientation same ideas again I group things so 5, 8 will be grouped 1, 9, 3, 4 ( 9 makes it so 10 12 are a faster alg) and 10, 12. That is it you have memorized the cube now onto solving.

ALGS

Now the reason I grouped things the way I did was because of the algs I use. I got some of them from Macky's site, and some off of Leyan's. What I use are commutators and not OLL algs, the algs keep every piece in the same spot only moving/ flipping the pieces I want. These are basic algs there are a lot more but these are enough for you to be able to solve it blindfolded. Now do I mean is it is facing you and facing out, this depends on which direction the yellow or white stickers are facing. So if the stickers are facing me I will use the commutator that starts with an A if out A' (this is not true for 3 corners so be aware of this case) Try them out and see what they do before solving the cube.

Commutator is A = (R'D'RD)(R'D'RD)
A' = (D'R'DR)(D'R'DR)
CO algs are
(12) facing you: U'A UA'
(1,2) facing out: U' A' U A
13): U'AU2A'U'
(123 ccw): U'AUAUAU'
(123 cw): U'A'UA'UA'U'
(15) facing you: FAU'A'UF'
(1,5) facing out: FA'U'AUF'

EO
(2,4) (M U M U M U2) ( M' U M' U M' U2)
(1,2) (M2 U M U2) (M' U M' U M' U2) (M U M')
(1,2,3,4) (M U M U M U M U) (M' U M' U M' U M' U)

CP
3 corner cycle however you prefer here's mine (2,4,3) (l' U R' D2) (R U') (R' D2 R2) you can use the inverse so it cycles (4,2,3)
swap 2 (1,2 and 3,4) H Perm (LU'RD2) (R'UL') (RU'LD2) (L'UR')
swap 2 (1,3 and 2,6) ( FR'F'R) (FR'F'R) (FR'F'R)
swap 2 (1,5 and 2,6) L' B' (FR'F'R) (FR'F'R) (FR'F'R) B L
swap 3 (1,7,3) (R2DR2D'R2U2)x2 thanks to dolphyfan for the alg

EP
3 edge cycle however you prefer here's mine (1,3,2) (F2 ULR'F2L'RUF2) inverse cycles (1,2,3)
there are more on Leyan's site.

Parities
I use PLL algs, learn them

Finally the solve.
Recap what we are doing.
CO (2,3) (6,7) and (4,8)'
EO (1,9,3,4) (5,8) (10,12)

CP (1,6,3) (2,8,7)
EP (1,10,5,11,3) (2,12,6,8)* (7,9)*

CO I will start with (2,3) setup move is U so there are in spots (1,2)facing me alg. do that then U' so they are back to where they belong.
Next (6,7) setup move is D' F2 again same alg as above then F2 D to put them back.
Last is (4,8)facing out if we do a y as a setup it is in (1,5) do the alg then a y'
the cube should now look like
onto EO

EO

I will do 1,9,3,4, first easy all 4 edge alg. set up is D F2 then alg then undo setup F2 D'
next 5,8 setup is z which moves 5,8 to 2,4 alg then z'
10,12 again rotate cube so they are in 10,12 setup is z2 or x2 both work just do it again
whatever one u did to start alg then undo
cube should now look like
onto CP

CP
(1,6,3) now again we need setup moves but it matters now how we set these up, otherwise you will mess up orientation. 1 and 3 are fine but 6. I will move 6 into 2's spot then move it out after a 3 corner cycle. There are two ways to do this.

Now how would orientation be messed up? In this case you can easily do B R B' and put 6 into spot 2, although if you do this white is not on the U face, but Blue is. Now if you were to do the cycle the blue would be on the U face in spot 3 which is not what we want.
Setup would be D R2 (this puts the white of 6 on the white face) D2 B2 what this did was moved 6 to 2's spot and 3 still in 3. I could have also done B D R2 B' but I prefer using a 180 degree turn in these circumstances for now so I don't get confused. Ok so now do a y' and 3 corner cycle of 2,3,4 then y B2 D2 R2 D'

Also I have gotten a new alg which cycles (1,7,3) so setup would be D then do the alg then a D' to undo setup moves. Then you are done, I would have mentioned it sooner but I just learned it myself.

Next is 2,8,7 an easier one for setup moves all you need to do is B2, be aware that 8 is in 3 and 7 in 4 do a 2,3,4 cycle then B2. Again see how that the color on the D face of 8 and 7 are white we want to make sure that white or yellow is on the U or D face when we do this.
the cube should now look like

EP
{(1,10,5),(11,3)} ok so we are going to cycle 1,10,5 first this will put 5 in 1 then 1,11,3
setup is not bad just remember what you do D R2 F again make sure yellow/white, orange/red on on U or D. do the cycle 1,3,2 F' R2 D'
now 1,11,3 this is better move 11 to 2 doing D' F2 1,2,3 cycle F2 D next one
{(2,12,6),8} ok so a weird one if you don't know what to do. setup is B2 moves 12 up U F' then cycle 1,3,2 FU'B2 done

cube should look like

Parity
so 2,8 and 7,9 not as bad as some parities.
simple Perm is needed for edges
setup is B' L2 D' R2 this puts 8 in 4. 9 in 1. and 7 in 3.
do the alg. undo setup moves R2 D L2 B
and we are done.

cube should look solved

Here is a direct link to Macky's blindfold page http://www.cubefreak.net/blindfoldcubing_guide.html
Here is a link to Leyan's page http://www.its.caltech.edu/~leyanlo/
Thanks to Lars Vandenbergh for making the imagecube

Remember:
Setup moves are used to move things to the spot you need them then do them backwards to move everything back. Otherwise a piece that needed to go to D may wind up on U.

When doing setup moves make sure to move pieces out of the way that you need. example 3 edge cycle of 1,9,3 setup is D F2, cycle, then F2 D' to undo.

Simple Corner Permutation Tips : Setup use 180 degree turns, at first for comfort.
Simple Edge Permutation Tips: If its on 5,6,7,8 can be done with F,F',B,B'. 9,10,11,12 180 degree turns.

Here is the the video of this solve. I hope you can see what I'm talking about better.