How to solve a Rubik’s cube

1. Get to know your cube. For example, you should know that centre piece colours are always opposite each other. White is opposite yellow, orange is opposite red and green is opposite blue.
Pieces with two colours – there are 12 of them – are located in the middle rows, while pieces with three colours – there are eight – are located on the corners.
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2. Solve the white cross. The Rubik’s website recommends you aim to create a white cross on the top face of the cube first of all. This will make the next phase easier.
3. Solve the white corners. With the white cross on the top face, you must then solve the white corner pieces. Corner pieces will have one white side plus two other colours.
4. Solve the middle layer, so the bottom two layers of your cube match in colour.
5. Solve the top layer. The first stage of this step is to try and get a yellow cross on the top face of your cube. Next, you should try and get all the yellow on the top face.
6. Position the yellow corners correctly. Twist the top face, which should be yellow, until at least two of the corners are in the right location.
7. Finally, correctly place the centre pieces.
An international team of scientists and Google engineers discovered that there are more than 100,000 starting positions for the Rubik’s cube and they believe each can be solved in 20 moves or less.
Invented in 1974 by Professor Erno Rubik, the Rubik’s cube was an instant success when it was first exported from Hungary in 1980, becoming the world’s fastest-selling toy.
The 64-year-old reclusive Hungarian professor has since seen his cube achieve 350 million sales in the three decades since.

How to solve a Rubik’s cube