In case the guide and the example isn't enough, here are several posts on using cycles in the Yahoo! speedcubing groups.

Puzzles I've solved blindfolded - in chronological order

Introduction - 2x2x3 is a very simple puzzle, since the orientation cannot changed in both corners and edges. Therefore, you only need to worry about the permutation of each piece. I hold the puzzle so that the 2x2 squares are U and D layers. I did this on a 2x2x3 "Franken" tower from Time Traveler's Web Page I won at US National 2004, but you can always simulate this on a regular 3x3x3. I always get distracted by the U and D layer edges when I do this though....

Pre-memorization Stuff - Prior to memorization, you must hold the cuboid in such a way that each middle edge has a correct orientation. If it does not, you can simply fix this by performing the rotation y. From here, you can perform y2 and x2 to match as many of the corners as possible. Once you have done this, you can memorize the permutation of corners and that of edges.

Solving the corners - This is the algorithm I use to switch corner 2 and 3 (URF and URB) without disturbing the middle edges:

Solving the middle edges - There are only a couple of cases for this step, each one of which can be solved with a short algorithm. Let us name the edges in the following manner: starting at the Front Left edge and going counter clockwise, name 1, 2, 3, 4. These are the algorithms I use:
1.(23) [R2U2]x3
2.(321) ER2E'R2
3.(14)(23) [R2E2]x2
It should be simple enough to determine which ones should be used for the permutation you get.

Introduction - 3x3x2 also does not have correct or incorrect orientations, and you are only left to worry about the permutation of 8 corners and 8 edges. The real 3x3x2 cuboid would be a Rubik's Domino, but I use a 3x3x3 to simulate this by restricting the moves within (R2L2F2B2UD) group. IF I ever get to try this on a real Domino, I will probably be really confused not knowing where each piece has to go. =D What? How did I take that pic then? Um, good question.... ;D Ok, let's jump right into algorithms.

Solving the corners - Here's the algorithm I use to swap corners 2 and 3 (look at solution for 2x2x3):

Solving the edges - Again, I only have a 2 edge-swap algorithm, but this one is well-known and very short:

[Edit] Only 1 day after I wrote the above cry for help, Stefan Pochmann came to the rescue! =D He sent me a 3-cycle for both the corners and the edges on 3x3x2, which are listed below. He also recommended me using ACube, which I have downloaded and am currently struggling with. ^^;; Thank you, Stefan!

Introduction - I first simulated this on a 4x4x4. Although each 1x1x2 block can now be oriented in 3 ways, the puzzle itself is not too hard. If you can solve two 2x2x2's blindfolded, this should not be a problem, as you only need to memorize 1 set of orientation. If there is anything hard about this, it will be determining the permutation of the middle layers. This is due to the fact that there is two pieces with the same color combination, just in different order. You can easily see by tracing, and noticing that the colors flip when moves to the other layer in the same vertical slot.

Pre-memorization Stuff - Hold the cuboid in the same way you did a 2x2x3. There's no need for middle edge orientation check.

Memorization - Simply memorize the permutation of the middle 2 layers, the permutation of the top and bottom layers, and the orientation of the 1x1x2 "corners." Each one of these will be solved independently.

Solving the orientation - You can do this just like you would a 2x2x2 or 3x3x3.

Solving the middle two layers - Set up the pieces within {R2,L2,F2,B2,Uu,Dd} group. This keeps the orientation correct. The following algorithm swaps the RF and RB "edges" of the middle layers, and can also be used for a 3-cycle:

Solving the top and bottom layers - This is basically the same. Now you may want to set up within {R2,L2,F2,B2,U,D} group for mental comfort, (although that doesn't afffect anything). You may use this algorithm to swap the RF and RB corners:

II. Solving the Cube

Here's an example blindfold solve of a 3x3x3. I just took one algorithm from Jess's timer, so it's totally random. I'm going to write up what I do for each step.

Note: For EO, I've listed the edges incorrectly oriented, unless noted otherwise. For CO, in pairs of 2 corners, the first is to be turned ccw and the second cw, and in pairs of 3, all are to be turned in the direction noted before the closing parenthesis.

Scramble: D' B' F R' F2 U F L2 D2 B' U2 R2 D' L2 F R' D' F U L' F U' R B2 U'

Memorization:
CP: (1 5 4 2 7 8 3)
EP: (1 7 9 12 11 4 5 8)(2 6)
EO: 3 5 7 10 11 12
CO: (2 1)(5 7 8 cw)

Resolution:

CO:
First I'll deal with the (2 1).
z'-U'R'URU'R'U-L'-U'RUR'U'RU-L-z
Now flip the cube, and fix (5 7 8 cw), and unflip the cube.
x2z'-U'R'URU'R'U-L'-U'RUR'U'RU-L-U'R'URU'R'U-L2-U'RUR'U'RU-L2-zx2
And that completes Corner Orientation.

EO:
We already have 3 edges in D layer, it's probably a good idea to get one more and fix those four, then do the other two. Actually, I know a useful six-edge flipper (I found this one, but Chris showed it to me at US National. He must have found it while messing around, too. =D) for this one:
F'Uwx2y'-[RBR'U]x5-yx2U'wF
And that's...really nice. I can't usually do one-step edge-orientation for 6 edges, so I would count that as "slightly lucky." Anyways, that completes Edge Orientation, and now we can start on permutation.

EP:
There's not much chance or space to get creative here. Let's just start from the top.
R2x-R2UFB'R2F'BUR2-x'R2: (179)
F2x2-R2UFB'R2F'BUR2-x2F2: (1 12 11)
U2F-L2U'F'BL2FB'U'L2-F'U2: (145)
U'B'U'F'-RLU2R'L'F'B'U2FB-FUBU: (18)(26)
Lukily, we have no permutation parity (50% chance). Whew...or did you guys want to read me suffer? lol

CP:
If the cycles stuck to your memory, this step shouldn't take too long. Otherwise, it's dead-annoying trying to recall the numbers. Let's go:
D2R2U'-RB'RF2R'BRF2R2-UR2D2: (154)
DB2-RB'RF2R'BRF2R2-B2D': (127)
D'R2D2B2-RB'RF2R'BRF2R2-B2D2R2D: (183)
There's a confusing algorithm for that last cycle, but I'm probably not going to bother to learn it. This was a pretty easy case, as you did not even have to do two pairs of corner swaps.
Well, if you haven't made any mistake, you should be done! If not, scramble your cube and try again! =D

Are 5-edge cycles useful at all?

This one can be performed very quickly and does (1 3 12 2 11), which is very well-shaped.... of course, we can also do

Which does (1 11 12 4 3)

Conjugating this by R2, we get

Hmm, perhaps we can use this as a main alg? We'll need several different algorithms, though, to simplify the set-up move and reduce the need for thinking. Something involvng the middle layer, like (1 3 2 4 5) would be nice. Then we can do any 5-edge cycle by setting up 1, 3, 2, 4, then seeing if the last piece ends up in E or D layer. (You know it's funny, D is right below E on keyboards, too. =D) I'll look for more algorithms, or use Cube Explorer....

What about 5-corner cycles? would that be too much? well, it'll be pretty hard to set up....

BCFSSS is too hardcore and BCFTSS is still very hard, but using a couple of easy set-up moves should reduce the number of algs needed by a lot. Hmm....

This was compiled from the Yahoo blindfold cubing group. Please note that the names are "discoverers" but the first person to suggest it.

Corner Permutation:
3-cycles:
RB'RF2R'BRF2R2 (1 2 3) PLL
(L2 U) [B2 U']x2 (L2 U) (B2 U B2 U') (3 1 8) Brent Morgan
UL2UR2 U'L2UR2U2 (1 6 5) Ron van Bruchem
U'R2UR2UF2U'R2U'R2UF2 (1 3 6) Ron van Bruchem
Two 2-cycles:
RBLB'R'FB'RF'L'FR'F'B' (1 2)(3 4) PLL
U2RLU2R'L'F'B'U2FB (1 3)(2 4) PLL
[RB'R'B]x3 (1 3)(2 7) Dror Vomberg
L2-(L'BLB')x3-(FR'F'R)x3-L2 (1 5)(2 6) Masayuki Akimoto
(L' B') (R' F R F')*3 (B L) (1 5)(2 6) Stefan Pochmann
L2-(RB'R'B)x3-(R'BRB')x3-L2 (1 6)(2 5) Masayuki Akimoto
Four 2-cycles:
(RB'R'B)x3-(LF'L'F)x3-(L'BLB')x3-(FR'F'R)x3 (1 5)(2 6)(3 7)(4 8) Masayuki Akimoto

Edge Permutation:
3-cycles:
RU'RURURU'R'U'R2 (2 4 1) PLL
MD2M'D2 (1 11 9) Middle Edges
ERE'R2ERE' (1 7 12) ELL
5-cycles:
R2B2R2UR2B2R2U (1 3 2 4 11) Macky Makisumi
(R2U)^2 (1 4 3 2 12) pathfinder_netstorm
Two 2-cycles:
RL'U2RLF'B'U2FB (1 3)(2 4) PLL (can be done on all layers)
x'FRU'R'UDR'DU'R'URD2x (1 4)(2 3) PLL
z'FRUR'U'F'-F'L'U'LUFz (4 8)(7 12) ELL
(M' y M' D M (D2 y') M D) (3 4)(9 12) Stefan Pochmann

Edge Orientations:
M' U M' U M' U2 M U M U M U2 (1 3) ELL/CF
(M'U)*4 (MU)*4 (1 2 3 4) ELL
R2 D' (R2M2) (M'U)*4 (R2M2) D R2 (1 2 3 4)
ERERERER'ERERERER' (4 7 8 12) Ron van Bruchem
(M'U)*4 (2 3 9 11) Dror Vomberg
F D F D' (EF')*4 D F' D' F' (5 6 7 8) Chris Hardwick
[RBR'U]x5 (1 2 3 4 6 11) Brent Morgan, Joel, Macky Makisumi
(l U l' U) * 5 (1 2 3 4 5 9) Joel
(DwDRwR)*3 (1 3 5 6 7 8 9 11) Macky Makisumi
(M2U)(rR)(dD)(rR)(dD)(rR)(uM2)y2 Pedro

Corner orientations:
Ux R'DRFDF' Uy FD'F'R'D'R Uy' Ux' Olly
R'D'LDRD'L'DUL'UR2U'LUR2U2 (2 5) Richard Carr
(R'U2RUR'UR) U2 (L2U'F'BL2FB'U'L2)
(R'U2RUR'U'RUR'UR) (F2U'LR'F2RL'U'F2)
(LU2L'U'LU'L') (R'U2RUR'UR)
(F2 L F2 L') (U2 R U' R' F2 R' F2) (R U')
(F' D2 F R' U2 R) * 2
(L' U' L U' L' U2 L) (R U R' U R U2 R') (3 2) Stefan Pochmann
z Lx U'R'URU'R'U Ly U'RUR'U'RU Ly' Lx' z' Macky Makisumi

Richard Carr's not-even-Intermediate Method Algorithms

Cycles and Piece-by-piece are the two major approaches to blindfold cubing. There are really only two sites explaining blindfold cubing method in full detail: one is Olly's page, which explains the Cycles method, and the other is Richard Carr's page, which explains the Piece-by-piece method.

So which is better? I would say that doing in cycles is much easier than piece-by-piece as it reduces the need for thinking, but I don't know if it's faster. Using a large number of algorithms like in Richard Carr's BCFTSS, Piece-by-Piece can be ridiculously fast. Well, decide for yourself....

Cycles
Pro: removes thinking, easy to visualize
Con: hard setup moves

Piece-by-piece
Pro: no setup, very versatile, faster memorization
Con: rememorizing after each alg

3 "Too Hard" Two 2-Corner Swaps

Most two 2-corner swaps can be made considerably easier by using Dror's (2 4)(3 7) swap. All two 2-corner swaps involving pieces in both U and D layers that can't be done using a single (2 4)(3 7) swap are isomorphic to either of the follwing (I think), so you should get used to these....

(1 6)(3 7)=(2 4)(3 7)D'y2(2 4)(3 7)y2D

(1 2)(3 7)=L2DL2(1 3)(2 4)L2D'L2=(2 4)(3 7)->(1 2 4)

(1 3)(6 7)=R2D'B2D'B2(1 3)(2 4)B2DB2DR2

Ron's Edge Orientation-first Speedcubing Method

In Message 111 of the blindfold cubing group, Ron posted a nice - and I would say the best so far - idea of using blindfold cubing for speedubing. It's an edge-orientation-first method...during the 15 seconds of inspection, a solver will determine which edges need to be flipped using the technique used in blindfoldcubing. Then, one will fix the orientation and form the cross without messing up the orientation. Now, F2L can be done only using R, L, and U, and are very easy, and always results in LL edges all oriented correctly, which means you can go directly into ZBLL without ZBF2L.

Grant posted his result of analyszing the edge orientations in message 119 to follow up on Ron's interesting result.

Created by Shotaro "Macky" Makisumi

Last updated 06/14/2005