Reference sheet

Speffz

The lettering scheme. Twenty-four stickers, twenty-four letters, one rule that generates all of them.

Speffz is the near-universal scheme, which matters more than its merits: it is what wikis, alg sheets and other solvers all speak. Learn it once and every resource becomes readable.

The rule

You do not memorise twenty-four items. You memorise one rule and read the rest off the cube.

Faces in the order U, L, F, R, B, D. Four letters each, so U takes A–D, L takes E–H, F takes I–L, R takes M–P, B takes Q–T, D takes U–X.

Within a face, go clockwise from the top-left. Look straight at the face; letter the top-left piece, then move clockwise.

Orient with U on top and F toward you — except D, which you letter as if you had turned the cube x2, so F stays on top of the D face.

The same rule letters corners and edges independently. On a face, corners take the four diagonal positions and edges take the four side positions, both clockwise from the top-left.

The map

Corners. Each corner carries three stickers, so three different letters name the same physical piece.
Edges. Each edge carries two stickers, so exactly two letters name the same physical piece.

Buffers used in this workspace

The corner buffer is UFR because that is the 3-style standard — Gianfranco Huanqui popularised the UFR/UF buffers on ergonomic grounds, and the alg resources you will meet assume it (Cubing History).

PiecesBufferLetterMethod
Edges (3x3)DFUM2
CornersUFRC3-style
Wings (4x4)DFr—r2

The buffer is never a target: you never shoot to your own buffer's stickers. For edges that retires U and K; for corners it retires C, J and M.

Edge stickers

Corner stickers

Same piece, different letters

Worth knowing cold: when you find a piece, you need to know instantly which letter names the sticker you are looking at, and which names its partner.

Tracing, compressed

  1. Look at the sticker sitting in your buffer.
  2. Work out where that piece belongs, matching the sticker you are looking at to the face it must end on. That letter is your target. Write it down.
  3. Go to that letter's position. Look at the sticker now sitting there. Repeat.
  4. When the piece in the buffer belongs in the buffer, the cycle is closed. Break: write down the lowest-lettered sticker that is not yet solved, and carry on from there.
  5. Stop when every piece is accounted for.

An odd number of edge targets means parity. Even means none.

Lesson 1 — The letters, and your first trace Daily — Speffz trainer Reference · Speffz