Advanced Cross

Beginners solve the cross piece-by-piece. Pros solve the cross as a system. The WCA limit for inspection is 15 seconds. You should use ALL of it to plan your cross.

1. Relative Order

You don’t need to match the centers immediately.

• Scenario: You have Blue on Front. You put the Red edge on the Left and Orange on the Right.
• Fix: Just do a D2 at the end.
• Rule: Know your color order (Blue is opposite Green, Red opposite Orange). As long as they are correct relative to each other, you can align them at the very end.

2. “Bad” vs “Good” Edges

• Good Edge: Can be solved with just R or L moves into the bottom.
• Bad Edge: Requires F or B moves (which are slow).
• Strategy: Use the solution of one edge to turn a “Bad” edge into a “Good” one.

3. Fingertricks

• Avoid rotations (y) during Cross.
• Use your left index push for U' or right index push for U to align the D-layer if needed.
• Use “Thumb” moves for F turns.

Example

Scramble: R U R' F' (Assume White top, Green front).

• Beginner: “Where is Green? Okay put it in. Where is Red? Rotate. Put it in.”
• Advanced: “I see Green is good. Red is bad. If I move Green (R), Red becomes good (F).”

The Benchmark

If your cross takes more than 8 moves, you missed a better solution. (Average optimized cross is ~6 moves).