# How I devised my own Rubik's Cube method in 1980



## Tony Fisher (May 24, 2015)

I am repeatedly asked about my solving method so I decided to make a video explaining it. The method has no place in the speedcubing world but it might help people come up with their own solution or part solution.


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## PenguinsDontFly (May 24, 2015)

Thats awesome!


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## NeilH (May 24, 2015)

I'm gonna learn this method.


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## SenorJuan (May 24, 2015)

I've been cubing since 1980, and only know 3 people from that time who devised their own method. All 3 of them came up with a corner-first method, despite the fact that nearly everyone (including me) tried to solve it the 'most obvious' way, layer-by-layer. The fact that there were LBL solutions being passed around (supposedly "Russian") meant that, even then, people were content to simply speedcube.


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## APdRF (May 24, 2015)

Very intuitive aproach, I like it!


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## Praetorian (May 24, 2015)

really cool


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## newtonbase (May 24, 2015)

I like it. 

I remember the days of solving one side and very occasionally fluking another, usually adjacent, side. I don't know anyone who got further than that but we were only 9.


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## Tony Fisher (May 24, 2015)

NeilH said:


> I'm gonna learn this method.


Use a similar approach to create your own. It's incredibly satisfying and you can usually adapt it for other puzzles because you are understanding the logic behind the moves. If you're only interest however is getting faster then it's highly unlikely you would discover anything to help that.


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## obelisk477 (May 24, 2015)

Looks like it could have been a forerunner to Roux


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## PenguinsDontFly (May 24, 2015)

obelisk477 said:


> Looks like it could have been a forerunner to Roux



yeah thats what i thought! the part where he moves the 1x3 red bar to the bottom right and does LR edges is really cool.


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## cashis (May 24, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> yeah thats what i thought! the part where he moves the 1x3 red bar to the bottom right and does LR edges is really cool.



Haha same I posted a comment about it on his YouTube. Roux is like an optimized version of this


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## obelisk477 (May 24, 2015)

plot twist: we now have to call Roux the Fisher method. or maybe Fisheroux (fisheroo)


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## PenguinsDontFly (May 24, 2015)

obelisk477 said:


> plot twist: we now have to call Roux the Fisher method. or maybe Fisheroux (fisheroo)



I'm gonna use that now. FISHEROO its official!


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## Tony Fisher (May 25, 2015)

obelisk477 said:


> plot twist: we now have to call Roux the Fisher method. or maybe Fisheroux (fisheroo)


I have looked up the Roux method and it is very different to mine. Apart from a short time when a side and middle row is being used I don't see much similarity.


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## mns112 (May 25, 2015)

Tony Fisher said:


> I have looked up the Roux method and it is very different to mine. Apart from a short time when a side and middle row is being used I don't see much similarity.



Humble man


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## TheOneOnTheLeft (May 25, 2015)

Did an example solve to see how it worked out. It's better than most LBL solves, efficiency-wise, and very similar to Waterman (far more so than it is to Roux).


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## mns112 (May 25, 2015)

TheOneOnTheLeft said:


> Did an example solve to see how it worked out. It's better than most LBL solves, efficiency-wise, and very similar to Waterman (far more so than it is to Roux).



Fisherman then? or Waterfish


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## PenguinsDontFly (May 25, 2015)

Tony Fisher said:


> I have looked up the Roux method and it is very different to mine. Apart from a short time when a side and middle row is being used I don't see much similarity.



First layer=inneficient block
Last layer corners=cmll and beginning of second block
Placing of last layer/block edges using U2 R2 and then M moves= finishing second block using LR edges technique
Finishing M layer=edge permutation without first orienting them.

It is still a little different, but I think roux just did things in a different order, which constrained less movements of the cube. (eg. Doing opposite blocks instead of layers) and finishing with 2 gen MU that (in almost all cases) doesnt lead to that disgusting 2-flip.


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## Tony Fisher (May 25, 2015)

TheOneOnTheLeft said:


> Did an example solve to see how it worked out.


That's really cool. Obviously it was just one solve and I didn't show all the moves I would use in all situations. Some of those moves are pretty awful and I am tempted to clean them up a bit. I would for example do certain moves twice instead of just reversing them which would achieve the same result. Kind of down to habit.


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## G2013 (May 25, 2015)

The method is very nice and intuitive


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## Christopher Mowla (May 25, 2015)

Thanks for sharing your method.

The algorithm you created to flip the two edges at the end is a commutator indeed:
B E B2 E2 B U2 B' E2 B2 E' B' U2 = [B E B2 E2 B, U2].

I enjoyed how you explained your thought process regarding the trial and error you did to slowly develop each stage of your method as well.

This mental process reminds me of a "derivation" I came up with of the Nikolas commutator, which I show in one of my solving guides that variations of which can twist corners and flip edges in addition to cycling them.


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## qqwref (May 25, 2015)

TheOneOnTheLeft said:


> Did an example solve to see how it worked out. It's better than most LBL solves, efficiency-wise, and very similar to Waterman (far more so than it is to Roux).


From this example solve it's very similar to Waterman. Waterman is a lot more formalized in the later stages, with lots of algs and a better M layer, but it does have a lot of U2 M2 [thing] M2 U2 algs.


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## Kit Clement (May 26, 2015)

It's funny that this got posted recently, as some of us went to visit Jeff Varasano (WR holder in 1981, US Nationals Runner-Up to Minh Thai) in his Atlanta restaurant after Peach State 2015, and the method he developed in 1980 is incredibly reminiscent of this, at least the finish. His start was just doing the "Ortega" method to get all of the corners -- I use quotes because it should really be called the Varasano method! -- then solved edges on opposite layers to get to the same last four edges in the middle layer as you.


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## JustinTimeCuber (May 26, 2015)

PenguinsDontFly said:


> Last layer corners=cmll and beginning of second block



doesn't CMLL sometimes break up the DF and DB edges? I don't know too much about CMLL.
Edit: I guess you could say it is comparable to CMLL if you are comparing it to Roux.


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## PenguinsDontFly (May 26, 2015)

JustinTimeCuber said:


> doesn't CMLL sometimes break up the DF and DB edges? I don't know too much about CMLL.
> Edit: I guess you could say it is comparable to CMLL if you are comparing it to Roux.



Just the idea of solving corners in general. (and yes, it does break DF DB sometimes).


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## AlexMaass (May 26, 2015)

Kit Clement said:


> It's funny that this got posted recently, as some of us went to visit Jeff Varasano (WR holder in 1981, US Nationals Runner-Up to Minh Thai) in his Atlanta restaurant after Peach State 2015, and the method he developed in 1980 is incredibly reminiscent of this, at least the finish. His start was just doing the "Ortega" method to get all of the corners -- I use quotes because it should really be called the Varasano method! -- then solved edges on opposite layers to get to the same last four edges in the middle layer as you.


 That's cool, how fast is he nowadays?


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## Torch (May 27, 2015)

AlexMaass said:


> That's cool, how fast is he nowadays?



I saw him get a 23.


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## stoic (May 27, 2015)

Really interesting video!
Thanks for posting.


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## 2180161 (Jun 9, 2015)

So, its basically an intuitive approach of Waterman.


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## Logiqx (Jun 9, 2015)

Thanks for sharing Tony, it was an interesting video. Well done on working the cube out for yourself, I didn't have the patience to figure it out when I was a kid back in the 80's!

Like others have said the method is akin to the Waterman method but without all of the algorithms. The Waterman method was an inspiration for Roux but your method definitely resembles the steps of Waterman.

Mark Waterman came up with his method using similar logic to your own. The history of his method can be found online and he highlights three principles that you also described in your video:

http://rubikscube.info/waterman/index.php



> First: I found the corners of the U-face difficult to solve, so I decided that you have more freedom if you can neglect the M-ring.
> 
> Second: If you take out one corner from the D-face and put it back in an other way, something will change. So I found one process to solve the U- corners using only this! (I turned the whole cube, so that D becomes L)
> 
> Third: I found out that, after turning U2 R2, you have a lot of freedom to move edges.


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## Tony Fisher (Jun 29, 2015)

Since people seemed to like the video I have now done one explaining how I dealt with parity on the 4x4x4. Once again this is more of an insight into the logic of creating solutions (not a speedcubing one) and not an actual tutorial. I added it here because it doesn't really warrant starting a new thread.


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