FMC (Fewest Moves Challenge)

Most events are about Time. FMC is about Efficiency. You are given a scramble and 1 hour. You must find the shortest solution possible.

The Rules

• You get paper, pencils, and 3 cubes.
• You write down your solution in notation.
• Result = Total number of moves. (World Class is < 25 moves).

Basic Techniques

1. Blockbuilding (Petrus/Heise style)

CFOP is inefficient (usually 60 moves). In FMC, we build blocks.

• 2x2x2 Block: Solve a corner and its 3 surrounding edges.
• 2x2x3 Block: Expand it.
• This is far more efficient than Cross + F2L.

2. NISS (Normal Inverse Scramble Switch)

This is dark magic.

• If the scramble is bad, you can solve the Inverse Scramble (the scramble played backwards).
• Why? A solution to the inverse scramble is just the inverse of the normal solution.
• You can switch between Normal and Inverse scrambles mid-solve to find better block continuations.

3. Insertions

You solve the cube except for 3 corners (a “Skeleton”). Then, you go back inside your solution and insert a Commutator at the exact right moment to solve those corners, canceling out moves.

Example of Efficiency

• CFOP Solver: R U R' U' (4 moves) to pair.
• FMC Solver: Uses the scramble’s pre-existing blocks to solve the pair in 1 move.