Fewest Moves Contest

Harvard Fall 2012 (October 6)

Out of sheer luck, perhaps, I won the Fewest Move Contest at today’s tournament with a 29-turn solution, which ties me at 6th in North America and 53rd (or so) in the world. Whoa.

scramble: B2 U2 B2 R U2 B2 R’ U2 F’ D F’ R F2 L2 B’ R U B’ U’

 

solution: 29 turns

L’ U’ L U — a petrus block

x’ R’ U’ R U2 — a pairing and completing the cross

x’y U’ R U’ R — insertion and another pairing

U2 B L’ B’ U2 L — altered hammer insertion and pairing

U2 L’ U L — final insertion

y L’ U R U’ L U R’ — niklas and a pll skip

 

The first 12 moves I found almost immediately, then I played around with around 8 methods of insertion until I discovered that hammering led to a niklas last layer. and that’s how it went.  I found it in the first 5 minutes of the hour allotted, and I couldn’t find any improvements for the rest of the time.

 

Back when I started cubing five years ago, I used to challenge myself to find efficient solutions with a Petrus-like method without back-tracking, but I haven’t practiced FMC since then. Maybe I should…