Learn · Level 1 · step 4 of 8
The middle edges
Two mirror-image algorithms move the four middle edges home, and two thirds of the cube is done.
Flip the cube over so the finished white layer is on the bottom. From here on it stays there. The middle layer needs just four edges, the ones with no yellow on them.
Find such an edge in the top layer. Spin the top until its front colour matches the centre below it, making a little T of one colour. Now look at the edge's top colour: if its home is to the right, use the first player; if to the left, use the second. Each starts from the exact position described and sends the edge down into its slot.
Send it right
Send it left
If an edge is already sitting in a middle slot but wrong or flipped, use either algorithm to eject it into the top layer, then place it properly. When all four middle edges are home, two layers of the cube are solid, and everything left lives on top.
Every algorithm on this page is checked by simulation before publishing: the position shown plus the moves shown must produce a solved cube. Players: press play, or step through one turn at a time.