Two mirrored moves close the middle ring.
Two thirds of the cube falls in this lesson. The middle layer has just four pieces — the edges with no yellow and no white on them — and two mirrored sequences deliver them from the top layer into their slots.
- 1Hold the cube white-down. Find a top-layer edge with no yellow sticker. Turn U until its front sticker forms a solid T with a center — green edge sticker sitting on the green face, say.
- 2Look at the edge's top sticker. It points the way the piece must travel: toward the right center of that color, or toward the left.
- 3Run the matching insertion below. The edge dives into its slot; the white layer stays whole.
- 4No yellow-free edges left on top, but a middle edge sitting wrong? Insert any spare edge into that slot — the wrong one pops up to the top layer, and now you can place it correctly.
Insert to the right
U R U' R' U' F' U F
For an edge whose top sticker matches the center on your right.
Insert to the left
U' L' U L U F U' F'
The mirror image — same dance, left hand leads.
Tip
These two look long but they're the trigger's cousins: each is "pull the corner out, put it back with the edge". Watch the front-right corner while you run one slowly and you'll see the machinery — algorithms stick far better once you've seen what they do.