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CFOP

Cross 
F2L
OLL 
PLL

CFOP is a Speed Solving method devel by several speedcubers in 1980 it's also known as the Fridrich method after its popularizer Jessica Fridrich

CFOP has been the most popular and fastest speedcubing method ever since the 2000 century has started. From 2000 till now 85% know the CFOP and in that 80% of people use it. Top Speedcubers such Feliks Zemdegs, Yusheng Du, Mats Valk, Sebastian Weyer, Philip Weyer, Juliette sebastien etc.

Contents

  • History

  • Steps

  • Advanced algs

  • Competition use

  • see also 

  • External links

History

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information

Proposer: Jessica Fridrich

                    Hans Dokhorn

                    Kurt Dokhorn

                    Rene Schoof

                    David Singmaster

                    Aneke Treep

Proposed: 1981

Alternative names: Fridrich Method 

Variants: CLL/ELL, VH, ZB, MGLS-F

NO. OF STEPS: 4(CROSS-F2L-OLL-PLL) 

                             TOTAL 78 TO 119

NO. OF ALGS: F2L - 41 FULL 2LLL-                                           78 (OLL57 PLL-21)

ALG MOVES: 60

PURPOSE: SPEEDSOLVING

                    SPEED BLD

                    OH (ONE HANDED)

                     SOLVING WITH FEET 

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The basic LBL method(Layer By Layer or popularly known as beginners method) was the Cube craze before CFOP. David singmaster published layer by layer solution in 1980 which proposed the use of the cross. 

 

The major part of the innovation is F2L (First 2 Layers) Solves a corner with its corresponding edge piece simultaneously this step was not invented by Jessica Fridrich According to Singmaster's report about the 1982 World Rubik's Cube Championship, Fridrich was just using the basic LBL method, while Guus Razoux Schultz had an innovative First 2 Layers system(F2L).

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The last layer steps OLL(Orient last layer) PLL(Permute the last layer) first to make the last layer sticker facing up(orientation) and solving the corners and edges (permutation). This step was proposed by Hans Dockhorn and Anneke Treep.

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Fridrich switch to F2L later in 1982 but her main contribution to the method was to develop OLL and PLL algorithms which together allowed any last layer case to be solved in one algorithm which was much faster than other last layer systems

Steps

  • Cross - The Cross is the first step to solve in CFOP the cross is solved on the bottom face with 4 edge pieces lined up with its matching centerpiece                                                                                                                                              Virtually top CFOP solvers plan the cross during inspection and solve it on the bottom to avoid z2(flipping the cube 180 degrees front) rotations previously in the early 2000's speedcubers solved the cross on different sides like left or right or even at the back, currently speedcubers solve it on the bottom. Many top speedcubers or Color Neutral which makes them solve the cross on any color (Which allows them to find better cross solutions and makes them fast

  • F2L - F2L stands for First 2 Layers, in between the solved cross edges and their corresponding centers are four slots that contain a corner and an edge piece. The goal of this step is to fill in these slots with the right pieces to solve the first two layers at the same time. This is accomplished by pairing up a corner that shares a color with the cross, and an edge that shares its colors with a said corner, then inserting them together. The completion of this step leaves one with just the last layer, typically placed on top.

  • OLL - OLL stands for Orient last layer the target of this step is to make the top face of the last layer one color. There are 57 cases/14 groups and most of them are easy to learn. Those whoare new to OLL can learn 2-look OLL, it depleted 48 algorithms and only 10 cases are there. if you get any one of these three cases (dot, L, line) you make them into a cross and do 7 algorithms 

  • PLL -  PLL is the final step which stands for Permute last layer Which are total 21 cases to learn. Those who are can learn 2-look PLL  has only 6 cases but not as fast as full pll  

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Advanced algs

Advanced algorithms make the solves faster and reduce the number of moves 

  •  WV(Winter Variation) - WV algorithms skip oll while inserting your last F2L pair which makes from 20s seconds to 16 seconds

  • VLS(Valk Last slot) - VLS is also just like WV but the only thing is that there are more algs than WV like there are 200 algs 

  • more like - BLE, Zeroing, CLS, etc.

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Competition use

In competitions CFOP method is heavily used to challenge speedcubers such as Feliks Zemdegs, Max Park, Juliette sebastien, The Weyer brothers, Yusheng du, use this method making so many world records, in CFOP its fast for its quick pattern recognition and muscle memory.  If you see  most of the top speedcubers are CFOP users

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See also

External Link

  • System for solving Rubik's cube (binghamton.edu)

  • CFOP method on Speedsolving.com Wiki

  • How to solve Rubik's Cube (archive.org)

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