How To Solve The White Face Of The Rubik's Cube
Solving the first face of the Rubik's Cube is relatively easy because there are not too many solved pieces that you can mess up.
Spend some time playing with the puzzle and try to do this without reading further this page.
- ✔Start with the white edges, then do the corners.
- ✔Make sure the side colors are matching the side center colors (image below).
- ✔Can you do this step by yourself without reading this help?
1. Solve the white edges
We start by solving the white edge pieces. Of course you can start with any other color but in this solution guide we're going to use the white so I would advidse you to use the same.
We already know that the center pieces are fixed and they define the color of each face. This is why we have to solve the white edges according to the color of the center piecess as illustrated above.
Solving the white edges is intuitive and quite easy because at this stage there are no solved pieces that we can break. In most cases you can just simply rotate each piece where they are supposed to be.
Here are a few examples that require a few extra moves.
Press the Play button to animate the rotations.
Apply this short algorithm when the piece is in the right spot (FU edge), but it's oriented wrong.
U' R' U F'
Do this when you can't simply just turn the front edge to its spot because it would be oriented wrong.
F' R' D' R F2
The algorithm to solve the white edge when it's oriented wrong in the middle layer.
R' D' R F2
2. Solve the white corners
The white edges are solved and we have to fix the white corners to complete the first face.
This is another easy stage where you shouldn't memorize any algorithm just follow your instincts. If you have difficulties solving the white corners, here's an easy trick you can always apply, you just have to memorize a short algorithm and repeat it until the piece is solved:
R' D' R D
Bring the corner below the spot where it belongs (Front-Right-Down position highlighted with grey) and repeat the algorithm above until the white corner pops into its place oriented correctly. This algorithm sends the piece back and forth between the spots marked with dark, always changing the orientation.
Play the animation for an example where the sequence is repeated five times. Watch the affected white corner going to the top then back to the bottom in each step, changing its orientation.
The sixth would bring the cube back to its original position:
This trick always works but requires too many unnecessary steps. Here are the shortcuts:
F D F'
R' D2 R D R' D' R
At the end of this step your cube should have a solid white face.
