How to Solve a Skewb - Step-by-Step Course

Before you start

Take a Skewb in your hand - the best way to learn is to repeat the moves on a real cube. You can rotate the animations in the course: drag the cube with your finger or mouse.

What a Skewb is made of

The Skewb is shaped like a cube, but the cuts run along the diagonals. There are only two kinds of pieces:

• 8 corners - each with three colours, as on a regular cube.
• 6 centres - squares rotated by 45 degrees, one colour each. Unlike on the 3x3 cube, the centres travel around the cube, so the colour of a face is not fixed in advance.

Each move turns half of the cube around one corner: that corner twists in place, and the three neighbouring corners and three centres move to new places. A move never affects just one face - it always changes something on three. The Skewb has 3,149,280 possible positions and from any of them it can be solved in at most 11 moves.

How to hold it

First you solve the white face, and from then on you keep it on top until the end. You can choose any colour for the front - in the animations it is green, with red on the right. The method has three parts: the white face (stage 2), the four bottom corners (stage 3) and the centres (stage 4).

1Move notation

On a Skewb you turn corners, so the letters stand for four corners of the cube held normally (one face to the front, one face on top):

• U - top back left corner,
• L - bottom front left,
• R - bottom back right,
• B - bottom back left (the one hidden at the back).

In addition, the simulator has F - the top front right corner (the one closest to you at the top). It is not in the official notation, but it is handy to turn when you want to check something. The algorithms in the course use only U, L, R and B.

A letter, e.g. R, means a turn of half the cube around that corner by one third of a turn clockwise when you look straight at that corner. An apostrophe (R', read “R prime”) is a turn in the opposite direction. This is how official competition scrambles and most programs write moves. Click a move below to see it on the cube:

Watch out for the direction: “clockwise” is judged while looking at the given corner - for L from below at the front left, for R from below at the back right, for B from the back and below. The other corners have no letters in the official notation, because a turn around them gives the same result as a turn around the opposite corner plus a rotation of the whole cube - for example F is B together with a rotation of the whole cube. In the simulator you can turn any of the 8 corners by dragging a sticker with your finger or mouse.

x, y and z are rotations of the whole cube in your hands, as on the 3x3 cube: y rotates the cube around the vertical axis (the right face goes to the front), x around the horizontal axis (the front goes to the top), z like turning a wheel (the top goes to the right). In the course you only need y, to bring the right side in front of you - the white face then stays on top.

The most important sequence of the course is L' U R U'. Repeat it a few times on a real cube until your hand remembers the move - it returns to the starting point after six repetitions.

2White face

Goal: the white centre and four white corners on top, with the side colours of the corners matching each other - on every side the two top corners in one colour.

White centre to the top

Find the white centre and rotate the whole cube in your hands (x, y or z) so that it is on top. Do not make any layer move - the centres travel, and this one has to stay in place.

The set of four spots

The Skewb has one important property: each corner can only be in four spots, always at “every other” corner of the cube. For the top front left spot, this set of four is: that spot itself, front right at the bottom, back left at the bottom and back right at the top. The corner that fits there is always in one of those four spots and nowhere else.

Inserting a corner

You insert every white corner in the same way:

1. Rotate the cube (y) so that the empty spot is at the top front left.
2. Find the corner that fits there: white + the colours of both neighbouring faces. The first corner can be any one - it determines the colours of the faces. For the next ones look at the ones already inserted: the corner next to it must have the same colour on the shared side, and opposite colours are always arranged the same way: green - blue, red - orange.
3. If the corner is at the top back right, drop it down with an R move (this move does not touch the other top spots).
4. Now the corner is at the bottom front right, at the bottom back left, or in its own spot, just twisted. Look at where the white sticker is facing and do:

The inserted corner and the ones already on top stay untouched - you can calmly fill the next spots. If a white corner is on top but in the wrong spot (the side colours do not match), treat that spot as empty: put it at the front left and insert the right corner - the wrong one will come out to the bottom by itself.

Finally, look at the top and the sides: four white corners around the white centre, and on every side the two top corner stickers in one colour. The side centres may have completely different colours - that is normal, you will deal with them in stage 4.

3Bottom corners

Goal: the four bottom corners with the yellow sticker facing down. The centres may still be mixed up.

The white face is on top, so the four corners with yellow are on the bottom - and each of them is already in its own spot, because on a Skewb a corner cannot end up in another corner's spot. All that is left is to twist them. Look at the cube from underneath and count the yellow stickers on the bottom face. There are three possibilities:

• Four yellow on the bottom - done, go to stage 4.
• None - all four corners are twisted. One of the side faces then has two yellow stickers. Rotate the cube (y) so that this face is on the left, and do L' U R U'.
• Two yellow on the bottom - two diagonal corners are twisted. Rotate the cube (y) until a twisted corner is at the front right, with its yellow sticker on the right face, and do U B L R' B' U L.

Both algorithms also move the centres around - do not worry about it, the centres wait for stage 4. The white face stays intact.

4Centres

Goal: a solved cube. Five centres are left: the bottom one and four side ones.

Yellow centre to the bottom

If the yellow centre is on one of the sides, rotate the cube (y) so that it is on the right, and do U L R B' R' L' U' B. The algorithm swaps the right centre with the bottom one (and the back one with the left one along the way - that does not matter). If yellow is already on the bottom, skip this step.

Side centres

A side centre is good when it has the same colour as the corners below it. Count the good sides:

• Four - the cube is solved.
• One - the other three need to be moved around in a circle. Rotate the cube (y) so that the good side is on the left. Look at the front centre: where does it belong? On the right - L' U' B U B' R' L U, at the back - U' L' R B U' B' U L (the same algorithm done backwards, in the other direction).
• None - do L' U' B U B' R' L U once from any side. One side will become good - then continue as above.

The cycle algorithm moves three centres: front, right and back; the left and bottom ones stay in place. Two good sides and two bad ones cannot happen - if it looks like that, check that yellow really is on the bottom.

Done - the Skewb is solved. Your first solves will take a minute or two, and after a dozen or so you will do it without looking at the course.

Cheat sheet: all algorithms

Everything you need to remember in one place. White face on top.

Printable cheat sheet (A4 / PDF)

1. White face - empty spot at the top front left (y); a corner at the top back right first R. Front right at the bottom: white facing right L', front U R' U', down L B' L B. Back left at the bottom: white facing back L, left B' L B, down L' U R' U'. In place but twisted: white facing front U R U' L', left L U R' U'.
2. Bottom corners - no yellow on the bottom: two yellow on the left face (y), L' U R U'. Two yellow on the bottom: twisted corner at the front right with yellow facing right (y), U B L R' B' U L.
3. Centres - yellow centre on the right (y): U L R B' R' L' U' B. Good side on the left; the front one belongs on the right L' U' B U B' R' L U, at the back U' L' R B U' B' U L. None good - the cycle once, then as above.

Solve it yourself

A practice simulator. You can scramble the whole cube or choose a single stage - then you get a cube with the previous stages solved and practise only what you are learning.

Common problems

I did the algorithm and it is worse than before

It is almost always one move in the wrong direction. “Clockwise” is judged while looking at the given corner - for R from the back and below, for B from the back (go back to stage 1 and click those moves). The second cause is the wrong grip: in stage 3 two yellow stickers on the left face or the twisted corner at the front right, in stage 4 the yellow centre on the right and the good side on the left. Do the algorithm slowly, move by move together with the animation.

After the algorithm the white face fell apart

Every algorithm in the course leaves the white face intact - if it fell apart, one of the moves was in the wrong direction or was skipped. Solve the white face again, it is quick, and try once more, counting the moves out loud.

The white centre is on top, but the corner will not go in

The corner is in a spot outside the set of four - which means it actually fits a different empty spot. Check the colours: maybe you are looking for the wrong corner. Remember that the first inserted corner determines the colours of the faces, and the opposite colours are green-blue and red-orange.

Two sides good, two bad

This arrangement of centres is impossible when the yellow centre is on the bottom. Most often yellow is in fact on a side, and a different colour is on the bottom - go back to the start of stage 4.

One corner twisted, the rest fine

A correctly assembled Skewb cannot have a single twisted corner - corners always twist in twos or fours. If yours looks like that, a corner was twisted in place (on loose cubes this happens when they are dropped). Algorithms will not fix it - carefully twist it back with your fingers.

The cube gets stuck halfway through a move

Cheap Skewbs do not snap shut by themselves, and a move stopped halfway blocks the next one. Modern models have magnets that pull the halves into place. See Skewbs.

How long does it take to learn?

With the course most people solve the Skewb on the first or second evening, and without looking - after a dozen or so solves. This method needs about 25-40 moves, which at first gives a minute or two, and after a few weeks - around ten to twenty seconds.

What next?

Once you can solve the Skewb a few times in a row without looking at the course, start timing your solves. Time every solve and count the average of five - single results vary a lot. The Skewb is an official WCA competition event; the best competitors solve it in about two seconds.

Faster methods shorten the way: in Sarah's Intermediate method, after the white face a single algorithm chosen for the case finishes the rest of the cube (there are a dozen or so of them), and competitors plan the whole first face during inspection of the scrambled cube.

If you like turning around corners, the Pyraminx turns in a similar way - you will find the course below. A harder cousin of the Skewb is the Master Skewb with extra cuts.