Cube Tools

Ortega

Advanced 2x2

Ortega is a great intermediate method, but the fastest 2x2 solvers finish the cube with fewer steps. The two big ideas are CLL and EG.

CLL

In a nutshell:

  1. Solve one layer, a face whose side colors also match.
  2. Use one of 42 CLL algorithms to orient and permute the last layer corners at the same time.

Two of the 42 CLL algorithms are PLLs: the cases where the last layer is already oriented.

EG

The Erik-Gunnar (EG) method, by Erik Akkersdijk and Gunnar Krig, starts the way Ortega does.

  1. Solve one side. (This is the same first step as the Ortega/Varasano method.)
  2. Use one algorithm to solve the last layer and fix the bottom layer at the same time.

If the bottom is already a layer, that algorithm is a CLL. The other algorithms perform CLL on the last layer while swapping two corners of the bottom layer, either adjacent (EG-1) or diagonal (EG-2). Counting the PBL cases you already know, full EG is 128 algorithms.

I cover both in my 2x2 Advanced tutorial, with every CLL, EG-1, and EG-2 case.