Basic position and side names

To solve the Rubik’s cube you have to be familiar with some basic moves and you need to be able to orientate yourself on your cube. To do this we will introduce a special notation so that each time when you see a cube in the following position, called " basic position"

you will know directly what we mean by its front side, its back side,.. etc. This will not depend on the colors of the cube but only on its orientation as you can see on the next images:

For example, on the first picture you know directly that the green side is the front side, thus the blue side has to be its back side, etc... We can also already announce that in the following instructions the upper and the down side will always be either the white or the yellow side of the cube.

Sometimes it is a benefit to see the cube from a different perspective. In this case you will see the cube in the basic position and in a different one and all these pictures will in that case be connected by the symbol: &. For example:

This means that the 3 pictures above show the cube in the same configuration but from different perspectives.

Moreover, to orientate yourself still better on the cube we will use the term of layers of the cube. These will be called the upper, the middle and the bottom layer and describe the following parts of the cube: