Skip to content
4inarow.onlineHelp Centre

What do R, U, F, R’ and R2 mean in cube moves?

Each letter is a face: R right, L left, U up (top), D down, F front, B back. On its own it means a clockwise quarter turn as you look at that face; an apostrophe (’) means anticlockwise, and 2 means half a turn.

Step by step

  1. Hold the cube with the face you are turning towards you in your mind: R is turned as you look at the right side.
  2. R = right face clockwise. R’ = right face anticlockwise. R2 = right face half a turn.
  3. M, E and S are the middle slices; x, y and z turn the whole cube.
  4. Read more on notation explained and how to read a solution.

Notation explained

Questions and fixes

The solver’s moves don’t work on my cube

Check you are holding it the way the solver says (white on top, green in front for the 3x3) and that you didn’t turn the whole cube while copying colours.

Last checked: