Learn the language of the cube. Understand what R, U, L, D, F, and B mean.
Notation is the cube's sheet music: a short written language that lets you record, share and replay any sequence of moves. Each letter names a face of the cube; a symbol after it says how to turn that face. Learn these and every algorithm online becomes readable.
Hold the cube the same way every time
Before any letter means anything, agree on how you are holding the cube. Pick up the cube with one colour on top (this becomes U, Up) and one colour facing you (this becomes F, Front). The other four faces fall into place: the face on your right is R, on your left L, away from you B (Back), and underneath D (Down). Hold it like this and the six letters never change meaning, no matter how scrambled the cube is.
The standard view: U on top, F toward you, R on your right. Every algorithm assumes you are holding the cube this way.
Basic Moves
A letter by itself means a 90-degree clockwise turn. A letter followed by an apostrophe (e.g., R') means a 90-degree counter-clockwise turn. A letter followed by a '2' (e.g., R2) means a 180-degree turn.
R
Turn the Right face clockwise.
R'counter-clockwise
R2180°
L
Turn the Left face clockwise.
L'counter-clockwise
L2180°
U
Turn the Up (top) face clockwise.
U'counter-clockwise
U2180°
D
Turn the Down (bottom) face clockwise.
D'counter-clockwise
D2180°
F
Turn the Front face clockwise.
F'counter-clockwise
F2180°
B
Turn the Back face clockwise.
B'counter-clockwise
B2180°
Modifiers
R
No modifier
Clockwise 90 degrees
R'
Counter-clockwise (apostrophe) — e.g. R'
Counter-clockwise 90 degrees
R2
180-degree turn — e.g. R2
180 degrees (either direction)
A single R turn, looping. Watch the top-right edge swing away from you — that is clockwise.
Read a real algorithm
Reading an algorithm is just two questions, one move at a time: which layer (the letter) and how does it turn (the symbol). Nothing more. Let's decode the most famous beginner trigger on the cube — the Sune, named by Swedish speedcuber Lars Petrus. It twists three corners and reads like this:
Watch it run, then read the seven tokens left to right against the list.
R — no symbol, so turn the right layer 90° clockwise.
U — no symbol, turn the up layer clockwise.
R' — the prime means turn the right layer 90° counter-clockwise.
U — up layer clockwise again.
R — right layer clockwise.
U2 — the 2 means a 180° turn of the up layer.
R' — right layer counter-clockwise to finish.
Naming pieces and slots
The same six letters name the pieces too, by listing the faces a piece touches. An edge touches two faces (the edge between U and F is UF); a corner touches three (the corner of U, R and F is URF). For a piece, order doesn't matter — FR and RF are the same edge. But corner names are read clockwise, so URF, RFU and FUR all name the same corner. When you need to talk about a single sticker, the first letter is the face you are looking at: the U-sticker of that corner leads with U.
UFedge — touches 2 faces (order doesn't matter)
URFcorner — touches 3 faces, read clockwise
Wide Moves
Lowercase or 'w' suffix means move that face plus the adjacent inner slice together.
RwRight face + middle slice (same as r).
UwUp face + second layer (same as u).
Slice Moves
Single inner layers, not touching any outer face.
MMiddle layer, same direction as L.
EEquatorial layer, same direction as D.
SStanding layer, same direction as F.
Cube Rotations
Rotate the entire cube without turning any face.
xTip the whole cube back so the F face becomes the U face (follows an R turn).
ySpin the whole cube so the F face becomes the R face (follows a U turn).
zRoll the whole cube toward you around the front face (follows an F turn).
The three notation mix-ups everyone hits
M “looks backwards.” The middle slice M follows the L face, not R — so an M turn goes the opposite way to what you'd expect from R. Judge slice direction by the left face.
Lowercase isn't a secret move. On a 3×3, u and Uw are the same thing (a wide turn). It only changes meaning on bigger cubes.
A double turn has no “wrong” direction.R2 and R2' end in the same state; the prime only tells your hands which way to spin.
