This step, along with the next step, are the most difficult to teach because there are so many possible starting situations. Luckily, after these steps it takes very little effort to solve the rest of the cube, so please be patient on steps one and two.

In this step, it is important to remember that the very center piece of each side of the cube doesn’t move, making it that side’s respective color. You must bring all of the other pieces with that color to that side. In the example below we bring the red/green piece to match with the red and green sides.

Below are the most common moves for this step. If your cube doesn’t match any of the three starting positions shown below you may need to move some pieces around to get there. You must do this on four sides in order to make a cross like the “after” picture below. So in the example below, I would first get the red/green block in the correct spot (as shown in the “after” picture) then do the yellow piece, then blue, then white.