Learn · Level 4 · inspection
Plan the cross
Fifteen seconds of inspection are part of every official solve. Spent well, they buy the whole first stage. Every cross on earth falls in 8 moves or fewer.
Competition rules give you fifteen seconds with the cube in your hands before the timer starts. Beginners use them to find one white edge. Fast solvers use them to solve the whole cross in their head, so the first seconds of the solve are pure execution, no thinking at all.
The habit starts with a change of grip: build the cross on the bottom. It feels blind at first, you are solving pieces you cannot see, and that is exactly the skill. While the cross happens below, your eyes are already free to find the first corner and edge pair above.
The mathematics is on your side. A computer sweep of all 190,080 positions the four cross pieces can take shows every single one solves in 8 moves or fewer, 82% of them in six or fewer. The two players below hold real scrambles; each runs the shortest cross that exists for it, proved by that same sweep. Play them slowly and watch the bottom face, not the chaos on top.
Scramble 1 · the cross needs 4 moves
Scramble 2 · the cross needs 7 moves
The drill: scramble, inspect as long as you like, and solve the cross with your eyes shut. When that works three times in five, cut the inspection to fifteen seconds. You are now doing, at your pace, precisely what the fastest solvers in the world do at theirs.