Hi guys,

Recently, one CubeSkills member has been practicing building extended crosses in his solves, and was
interested in my thoughts on how to tackle a variety of different scrambles. I thought it would be a nice
idea to share how I’d approach building the extended cross (or the reasoning for not building one) for
each individual scramble. By no means can I guarantee these examples are the “perfect” solutions, and
if you have any different thoughts or opinions on particular cases, let me know in the comments! :)

I’ll be building these as a colour neutral solver, but if you’re interested in following along and would find
it easier on white, make sure to place the white side at the location specified before each scramble. Let
me know if you spot any notation/other mistakes in the blog.

Lastly, this will be fairly advanced, and is intended for those who are quite comfortable with the CFOP
method and some intuitive blockbuilding and other extended cross techniques.

F' D2 B2 R B2 L U2 L R B2 U' R D L' D' R D2 L2 F (Cross on D)

y D’ L R’ B’ R’ D

The yellow-orange-blue 1x1x2 is nice, and the blue-orange edge is in the perfect position to take
advantage of that. We need to do a B’ to place the yellow-green edge whilst preserving that 1x1x2 and
solving the accompanying F2L edge.

To execute the B’, I’d use my right ring finger, which is a little bit risky.

An alternative execution is x2 y U’ R r’ U’ r’ D, but that is a little bit more complex and also leads to the
solved pair ending up in one of the front F2L slots.

R2 B U R' F D L' U' F' R2 B2 R2 L2 D2 B2 L2 F2 D' R2 D2 (Cross on R or F)

z R D’ R’ D R D R D’ can be executed quickly and also preserves the green/white F2L pair. Because it’s 2
generator, only pieces in the R or D layers will be affected by this solution.

As I said at the start, some solutions won’t actually be extended crosses, such as in this case where I
don’t think a red X-Cross is a great option.

For the Green cross (F), the extended cross z2 x’ R F L’ D2 F’ R’ u’ R u is also decent.

F U2 B2 L2 U2 F' D2 F' L2 U2 L F U' B R' U' L R F' (Cross on F)

x’ y2 D’ R2 L2’ D’
Similar to scramble 1, but a little bit easier still. The reason we do a y2 before executing that solution is
to solve the extended cross such that the first F2L pair ends up in the back-left slot.

There are multiple different ways to do the R2 L2’. I’d probably do a regrip of my right hand after the R2
to get ready for the D’. Alternatively something like x y2 U’ R2 r2’ D’ might be a bit faster to execute.

L2 D R2 B2 R2 B2 F2 D2 R2 U R2 F D' F' R' U2 L F D2 F' R2 (Cross on R)

This is a scramble where I don’t really think it’s worth it to do an extended cross, or rather, I probably
wouldn’t have been able to see and plan this solution in inspection. Safer to go with one of the easy
crosses (green, blue or yellow) and predicting pair 1.

However, an X-cross on red is: z y U’ F2 R D F D2 R B

R2 U2 B' L2 F2 D2 B L2 F' D2 U2 L U L2 F2 D' F2 D' U R D (Cross on R)

Not super easy, but there are a few different ways we can build this one. The location of the green-
yellow edge is a little bit troublesome.

y x’ L2 U (R U’ R B) D’ R2’

y x’ L2 R U’ B U2’ R2’ D’ R

y x’ F’ L’ U F L’ R2 D’ R2’

L2 D' R2 D2 F2 D B2 U R2 B2 U' F' L' D' F2 U' L R' U L2 F (Cross on B)

Yellow looks promising, but the position of the yellow-green edge is a bit unfortunate, and so I couldn’t
really find anything that great.

x2 U L R U R U z’ x’ R’ F R is a pretty straightforward solution on blue, and is pretty easy to execute, albeit

with the rotation. Note that z’ x’ should really just be one regrip of the cube, and not two.

A lesson here is that if we have a 1x1x2 block (ie just a corner and an edge paired up), there are multiple
crosses where we have the potential to use it. Here, for example, we could use it to try a either a yellow,
blue, or orange extended cross.

L' D2 R' B2 L R2 B2 R' D2 R' D L2 B' R B' U2 F R' B2 R2 (Cross on B)

x R D’ R’ U R L F is a nice solution here.

F' U2 B2 L U2 L' D2 R F2 L B2 F' D' R U2 L' R2 F' R (Cross on U)

x2 U’ R2 U’ R’ D2 U’ F2 R2

The green-orange edge in its place is handy, and forms the basis of this extended cross. The D2 U’ can be
performed simultaneously.

U' L B2 R U2 L D' R' B' U2 F2 R2 D2 R2 F L2 B' U2 F2 U (Cross on B)

x y D2 R’ D U’ r U r’ R2
We can see that an initial D’ move would solve a 1x2x2 block, and so the challenge with this solution is
simply to figure out how to insert the remaining blue cross edges in an efficient way which doesn’t
destroy that block.

U2 L D R F' U B L D R F2 R L U2 R2 B2 D2 R2 B' (Cross on D)

Probably the best thing to do on this scramble is to preserve that yellow pair and insert it right after the
cross.

y R’ U R’ L F u’ or y R2’ U’ L F’ u’ solve the cross and preserve the pair.

The reason for doing u’ instead of D’ to align the cross is to ensure that we don’t need to do any
rotations to solve the blue-orange F2L pair.

B2 U R2 B2 L2 U' F2 D U2 B2 L F' U' L D2 L' B U2 L' B' (Cross on L)

z’ y’ D2 R’ D R L U’ L’ D’

A standard keyhole extended cross.

U B2 R2 F2 L2 D2 B' D2 B' D2 F2 L U2 L F' D L D' U2 (Cross on D)

y r’ D’ r U2 L R2’

The key to doing this one most effectively is figuring out how to make it rotationless and fingertrick
friendly. It’s tempting to just make the 2x2x2 with F’ R’ F2 and then do R2 B’ R2’, and the execution on
that isn’t too bad, but it builds the X-Cross with the pair in a front slot.

L' U2 L U2 F2 R B2 R' F2 R U B F' D U L' D R F L2 (Cross on D)

U2 F R’ U’ D2 R2 U L F’

This is a reasonably tricky X-Cross, the reason I’d consider it is because the 6 move 2x2x2 is decent to
execute, and because the last two cross edges afterwards are in a good position. The yellow-orange
edge is fairly easy to track (only affected by the F), but the yellow-green is probably the one to keep an
eye on as you solve the 2x2x2.

U' F' L F U' B' L' F R F2 D F2 U' F2 L2 D2 F2 U2 B2 (Cross on R)

z R’ u R’ L’

F L2 D B2 D' R2 U R2 U2 L U' R' U' F' D' F U' B2 (Cross on F)

x’ y’ F D L R’ U’ R D2

A fairly standard keyhole extended cross on green - it can be tempting to also try and preserve the red-
yellow pair. The simplest way to do this is probably just move it into the top layer before doing the D2
move to finish the cross.

B2 D' L' F2 U2 F' D' L U B' U' D2 R2 F2 D2 B2 D2 (Cross on D)

The first thing I saw on this scramble was y2 F R’ D R U L U L’ F R’ F R.

The position of the red-blue edge makes the blue X-Cross a bit tricky. x U D’ R D R D2 was an initial idea
for blue, but the blue-red is in basically the worst position possible at this point.

U2 F2 U B2 F2 U' B2 R2 D B2 U' B U' B2 R U' L F' R D R' (Cross on B or R)

I would probably avoid doing the yellow cross in this example, the red-yellow edge is not placed very
well. Instead, with that 1x1x2 block, either orange or blue are good places to try and build something.

x y2 U’ F U R2’ U’ L F2 is okay for blue, and z’ y’ R’ F R D’ r’ U’ M’ D’ a good solution for orange.

B' U' B D' B' R' D2 L' D F' U2 L2 B R2 B' L2 F' D2 B2 R2 (Cross on F or R)

For the cross on F, x’ D2 R2 U L’ R’ F R solves the X-cross and sets up the second F2L pair.

For the cross on R, ideally we would like to solve the double extended cross using keyhole (as both of
the edges we need to use are in the top layer and oriented the same way). When there are two corners
solved diagonally opposite to one another, we need the cross to be offset by a single move, not a double
move, in order to freely insert both edges without consequence.

Ie, a double extended cross solution here looks like z r’ D’ r u R U’ R’ L U L’ D

L2 U' F2 U2 B2 L2 D' U' F2 U' B U R D' L' F2 R U2 R' B' (Cross on D)

y2 F R L D2 R2’ D’

Simple solution, but the key here is to actually break up that corner/edge pair.

L2 U2 F' U2 B R2 B' R2 F' U2 R U' B L D2 B' R' B L D' (Cross on B)

x D’ U’ F U’ R’ U R U’ R’ D2

The important thing here is to cancel into the corner insertion for the keyhole X-cross.

L' F2 U2 B2 R' B2 R U2 B2 L' U' F' L2 F2 L' U' B' R' D' U2 (Cross on R)

Very easy scramble

x z D’ L’ D F’ U2’ R2’ for a double extended cross. The hardest part of this one is seeing where the
green/white edge ends up after the first 4 moves.

D L2 D B2 F2 D L2 U R2 D2 R2 L' F2 R' U' R B' L D2 F2 U (Cross on U)

x2 y F R' L D2 L D U R2 is probably how I'd deal with that orange/blue edge piece. This was quite a tricky
one to plan out and I'm not sure if I'd have done it in just 15 seconds of inspection time.

R2 U L2 B2 F2 D' B2 D2 B2 U' L' F' R B U B' U2 R B2 (Cross on U)

Whilst it seems like an easy to see X-Cross, finding a nice way to execute this is the difficult part.

x2 y' r' U r F D R u R2' is the best I can do.

L' U' B L2 D' R' L' U2 L F D2 F R2 B' L2 D2 B' L2 D2 F2 (Cross on B)

This one is a bit interesting - I think that a rotation and regrip for the X-cross solution isn't too bad, but
the alternative solution (which simply sets up the first pair) is also decent.
y z R' U R y' R' U' R2 L or

x L R U R d L U' L'

B2 R2 D2 R2 U2 B' L2 R2 B2 F' U L F2 U2 B2 F R D' B2 L2 (Cross on D)

Always nice to finish with an easy one.

y' L U F' D'

A double X-cross (still using keyhole) which takes advantage of the blue-red edge and the blue-orange-
yellow corner is:

y' L R' F' U R y L U L' D'

I hope these were useful, and feel free to leave feedback which I could incorporate into something like
this if I were to do it again! :)

Feliks
Lookahead - Planning future stages of a speedsolve whilst executing moves to solve the pieces of the
current stage.

Developing your lookahead ability is one of the most challenging and frustrating aspects of speedcubing.
In my experience, it is largely something you develop with time and increased familiarity and knowledge
of the cube. However, I’ve written a simple framework for the main stages of lookahead progression,
and I’ve also added my tips and thoughts for improvement at each stage. Throughout this blog, I mainly
refer to lookahead improvement in the context of solving the F2L using the CFOP method. Some of the
lookahead tips in here are specific to F2L, whereas some are universal.

Firstly, I’d like to briefly describe what I believe to be the three main levels of lookahead ability. These
are certainly not comprehensive, and some people may disagree with them, but I think they can serve as
a nice guideline.

The three stages in my framework are “Spotting”, “Tracking”, and “Knowing”. I’m also interested to hear
if anyone has better name suggestions, but I think these will do for the moment. Broadly speaking, I
think they are equivalent to beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of lookahead ability. In the
following examples, I will describe these three levels in the context of F2L pairing.

Spotting: You see F2L pair #1, and watch the pieces as you solve it into its slot. After doing this, you look
around the cube to “spot” F2L pair #2.
Tracking: You see F2L pair #1, and as you solve the pieces into their correct slot, you look for, and then
“track” the pieces of F2L pair #2, so that you can then solve them immediately after you have solved F2L
pair #1.

Knowing: You see F2L pair #1 and #2. In your mind, you already “know” the moves you will use to solve
F2L pair #1, and exactly how they will affect F2L pair #2, so that you can solve pair #2 immediately
afterwards.

So to summarise, “Spotting” is a beginner level of lookahead where the solver is only focused on the
pieces that they are currently solving. “Tracking” is the intermediate level where the solver is focused on
solving the current pieces whilst looking at upcoming pieces. “Knowing” is the level at which the solver
can visualise/predict where future unsolved pieces will end up on the cube before performing the
moves to solve current pieces.

There are, of course, gradual stages of improvement in between these three main levels of lookahead
ability. An example of a level in between “spotting” and “tracking” in the context of F2L pairs would be
when a solver is only able to track one F2L piece from pair #2 (an edge or corner) whilst solving F2L pair
#1. An example of a level between “tracking” and “knowing” would be when a solver is able to predict
the end location of the pieces of F2L pair #2 only once F2L pair #1 has been reduced to a 3 move
insertion case. To keep this framework simple, I have focused on what I see as the three main levels.

It’s all well and good to have a nice neat framework for the stages of progression, but that doesn’t tell
you much about how to actually progress. Below, I’ve outlined a bunch of tips and thoughts around
improving your lookahead at these different levels. Attempting to teach lookahead is particularly
difficult, because it’s not just a “method” that you can show someone, and in my opinion, a big part of
lookahead improvement comes naturally from lots of solving and practice. Just as a reminder, most of
these tips are mainly applicable to the cross and F2L stages of the CFOP method, but can certainly be
adapted in some fashion to working on lookahead in different stages/methods/cubes.

Improving from "Spotting" to "Tracking"

By far, the most important thing for progressing from just “spotting” pieces to “tracking” pieces is
confidence in your solving techniques and algorithms. Again, it’s easiest for me to talk about this in the
context of F2L. When you start out learning F2L, a lot of mental effort and thought goes into solving
each F2L pair. However, after a certain period of time and practice, your solutions for each F2L pair will
become standardised, so that once you see the F2L edge and corner, you know what moves you will do
to solve them before executing any moves at all.

Once you’re at the stage where you can confidently solve individual F2L pairs into their slots without
looking at the cube, then you can start to work on your ability to track pieces. The simplest and most
fundamental drill to practice this is the following:

Solve your cross

Look for your first F2L pair

Determine the moves you will use to solve that F2L pair into its slot. I would advise against memorising
the notation to do this, but rather, just thinking about it in terms of the required fingertricks and hand
movements, or like “Pair up the corner and edge by hiding the corner over here, bring the connected
pair around to the front, and insert it into the front-right slot”.

Before executing any moves, look for another, different F2L pair.

Execute the solution for your first F2L pair. Whilst executing the solution, focus on looking at (“tracking”)
the pieces of the second F2L pair. Follow those two pieces around the cube with your eyes until you
have solved the first pair into its slot.

Repeat the same process for the remaining F2L pairs on the cube, starting from step 3. Step 2 is not
required for the following pairs, because you have already tracked your next pair in step 5.

In doing this drill (many many times!) you will train yourself to avoid looking at the current pieces being
solved, and literally “look ahead” to the following pieces, so that this habit begins to make its way into
your timed solves. This drill also reinforces your ability to solve F2L pairs blindfolded.

Before doing this drill, it’s also probably a good idea to just practice solving individual F2L pairs
blindfolded. Looking ahead to the next F2L pair isn’t really possible unless you’re very confident in your
ability to solve individual F2L pairs. If you’re not at that stage just yet, don’t worry, particularly if you’re
new to F2L. After you learn the techniques for solving F2L pairs, it does take a little bit of time to make
them subconscious in your solves. Additionally, I also recommend taking a look at the tutorial pdf in the
F2L module on the website to help standardise your F2L pair solutions - but only after you learn intuitive
F2L.

The drill described above should be practiced in isolation - obviously when you’re doing full timed
solves, it’s rather impractical. In your timed practice sessions, your goal should be to try and track
pieces, but not to the point where it’s detrimental to your solves. So, if that means you can only track
one piece (an edge or corner) of the next pair whilst you’re solving the current F2L pair, then that’s fine,
and a great start in your progression towards the “Tracking” stage of lookahead.

A couple of other random thoughts to help out with tracking - it can be helpful to slow down your
turning at the end of an F2L pair (say, the last three moves) to allow yourself to look elsewhere without
pieces rapidly flying everywhere around the top layer and slots. This should help you eliminate your
pauses. RiDo has a paragraph in his blog where he talks about the end of each pair solution being a
“braking point” in his cool race car metaphor for F2L. Check it out here. (Start from the “Getting a quick
lap time” heading if you don’t want to read the entire thing… but you should also read the entire
thing :p)

Maintaining a calm turning style with relatively quiet hands and keeping the cube quite still in the air will
also help - it means your eyes and brain won’t have to work as hard as compared to if your cube is
shaking and moving all around the space in front of you.

Another common drill is to make use of a metronome for F2L practice. That is, set a metronome at a
particular speed, and do one turn of your solve on each beat. An appropriate metronome speed is one
which really challenges your lookahead ability, but where you don’t make too many mistakes or miss
many beats. The most challenging part about this drill is the transition between cross and the first F2L
pair, and the transitions between F2L pairs - you will be forced to lookahead so as to not miss any beats
of the metronome.

This last tip is more of a mindset thing, but instead of treating F2L as 4 distinct pairs that you need to
solve, it needs to be viewed as a constant flow from the cross to OLL. Very often I see quite ‘choppy’ F2L
styles, where the solver turns really quickly to solve a pair, pauses, and then does the same thing 3 more
times for their F2L. For advanced cubers, choppy F2Ls often give the slowest results, I’d much prefer to
have a smooth, rotationless F2L, with some cancellations between F2L pairs, than a really fast-turning
F2L. The old adage of “go slow and look ahead” is the most fundamental way of describing this.

Improving from "Tracking" to "Knowing"

So, once you’re at what I have termed the intermediate stage of lookahead ability, the “tracking stage”,
how do you effectively progress to the “knowing” stage, whereby you can predict the future state of
certain pieces? I believe this largely comes with time and experience, but here are some of my thoughts
and some exercises that may help along the way.

In order to predict what will happen to pieces before you execute an algorithm or even just a few
moves, you really need to be able to visualise a cube in your mind. This sort of thing can certainly be
trained, but it requires a great deal of familiarity with the cube and the way pieces move around. As an
exercise, just take a solved cube and do the moves R U R’. Undo them to solve the cube, and then repeat
the R U R’. However, this time, before doing those three moves, close your eyes and visualise what
happens to the corner and the edge in the front-right F2L slot. For many of you, this will be quite easy -
you’ll be able to imagine the pair coming into the top layer and the pieces ending up in the UFL and UF
positions.

That’s a very basic level of “knowing”. You know that these three moves will move the pair from the
front-right slot into the top layer. The expert level is being able to correctly predict where the pieces of a
disconnected F2L pair will end up after doing more than 7 moves at high speed. That’s a bit more
difficult. I can’t speak for other fast solvers on this, but in my solves, I feel like I use a combination of
“knowing” and “tracking”. Before I solve an F2L pair, depending on the difficulty of the pair and
depending on the location of the corner and edge of the next pair, I’ll have a certain degree of
confidence regarding where the pieces of my next pair will end up. Subconsciously, if it’s an easy case to
“know” and I’m very confident about my prediction, then I won’t bother too much about “tracking” the
pieces, and start to look elsewhere for the pair after that. However, if it’s quite a long solution for the
first pair, and it will heavily influence the pieces of the following pair, then it’s quite difficult for me to
“know” where the subsequent pair’s pieces will end up, and so I have to focus on actually tracking them
during the execution of my first pair.

I should also note that this is all just a description of what I think happens subconsciously in the minds of
experienced cubers - by no means do I suggest actually trying to think about this in speedsolves, I’d only
suggest doing it as a drill, if anything.

If the first visualisation drill was too easy, it’s time to increase the difficulty. Choose any 7 or 8 move
trigger, algorithm, whatever you like, and choose any single corner or edge piece. In this example, I’ll use
the F2L pair solution R U’ R’ U R U’ R’. The sorts of questions you should now ask yourself are - where
will the UBR corner end up after these moves? Where will the UF edge end up? Spend some time
thinking about those moves and trying to work out in your mind where certain pieces will move - don’t
worry about figuring out the orientation just yet, just try and follow the permutation (location) of the
piece. Don't actually make any physical turns on the cube.

With those seven moves above, the UBR corner moves to the ULB position, and the UF edge moves to
the UB position. Because the algorithm is 2 gen, the edge (and all other edges) will remain in the same
orientation.

One fantastic drill to practice your ability to visualise pieces moving around is the two look F2L drill.
Scramble your cube, solve the cross, and then take as long as you need to plan the first two pairs.
Execute the solution for those pairs blindfolded, and then take another look at the cube and do the
same thing for the last two pairs. Alternatively, instead of planning out the whole solution for both F2L
pairs, you can just memorise the solution for the first one, take a quick glance at another pair, and close
your eyes. Execute the solution for the first F2L pair slowly enough to allow yourself to track the pieces
of the next pair around the cube. Keep your eyes closed, and solve the second pair into its slot, based on
the case you had visualised/predicted on the cube whilst solving the first pair.

Let’s go back to that R U’ R’ U R U’ R’ example. Perhaps it’s the first F2L pair that you’re solving. As is the
case with many F2L pair solutions, doing those moves does not affect the pieces in any of the other F2L
slots. For example, if you have the back-right edge solved, or the corner piece in the front-left slot, you
will only need to try and predict one piece, and you don’t need to worry about the one already in its
slot. This is because pieces in other F2L slots aren't affected by the moves R U' R' U R U' R'. Practicing
and being able to “know” just one piece is very beneficial in cases like this, and will greatly help your
lookahead and reduce pauses.

A common misconception is that lookahead is only really useful in the F2L stage in the CFOP method. It’s
very easy to get to the final pair and relax, because all you need to do after solving it is recognise an OLL
case. However, one thing that I do, and strongly recommend practicing, is trying to predict the OLL case
that you’ll get, whilst doing your last pair. The easy mode of this challenge is to just try and predict the
edge orientation. That is, solve the cube and three pairs, look at the cube, and then try and solve your
last pair as well as an edge orientation algorithm. The more difficult mode is finishing three pairs and
attempting to solve your last pair and OLL in one look.

That’s all from me for now - I hope this framework and the associated tips and thoughts can be useful
for you. If you’re at all confused or need a reminder of the stages of lookahead, I recommend going back
towards the start of the post and reading over the three examples which come after the introduction.