My journey with the Rubik's Cube began 40 years ago, in the early 1980s. I saw an advert on TV and immediately decided to take on the challenge.
It took me six months, but eventually, I found a way to solve the cube. At that time, I had an intuition that the 'sledgehammer' could be the solution. (To be fair, four decades ago, the world was a very different place. There was no internet, no readily available solutions, and terms like 'sexy move' or 'sledgehammer' hadn't even been coined yet.)
Soon after, life took its course: university studies, family, work - and the cube was placed neatly on a shelf in a bookcase. That was, until one day when my son, who was 5 or 6 years old, decided to have a go at it. A few days later, the cube returned to the shelf, but this time in a dishevelled state. There it remained until 2017. (Interestingly, my son later became a champion, surpassing my own puzzle-solving abilities by far. He attained a top 10 ranking in Italy's competitions; however, he never seemed drawn to the Rubik's Cube, for reasons that remain mysterious.)
In 2017, a new chapter in my life began. I found time to revisit the Rubik's Cube. Many years had passed, and I had lost the ability to solve it. With the temptation of the internet, searching for alternative solutions became irresistible, and I learned the layer-by-layer method. Like everyone else, I began to strive for speed. I managed to solve it in under two minutes, but it no longer felt enjoyable. I was mechanically applying algorithms that were completely obscure to me. That's when I decided to pick up where I had left off many years ago. I was looking for a solution that was simple and intuitive, and I was convinced that the 'sledgehammer' (now the official name for the algorithm I had discovered years ago) was the key.
The following four years were spent experimenting with various solutions, searching for one that followed a clear logical thread and justified each move with simple reasoning. The real challenge was that, after all this time, the concept of 'simplicity' had become quite relative.
Finally, at the end of 2022, the DIY method was completed. It used only one algorithm (you guessed it, the 'Sledgehammer') and a minimal set of strategies. However, two notable achievements during this period were:
Identifying a straightforward path to escape from the deadliest configuration - when the last two edges are swapped, also known as 'The Trap' (often referred to as the 'parity' condition). This is when the cube seems to take its revenge, deceiving those who attempt to uncover its secrets. (See the three 'Edge swapped' cases in the 'Tutorial' section.) Discovering a simple way to position the last five corners by making small perspective changes, transforming what is otherwise a difficult operation (due to limited manoeuvring space) into a repetitive sequence of simple steps. At this point, I thought the research and development phase was complete, so I focused on developing this website to share the results with others. In short, it took a whole year.
Technically, the challenge wasn't getting overwhelmed by an inherently complex system. The real difficulty was implementing an automatic solver capable of solving any possible configuration while providing comprehensible justifications for each rotation.
As if that wasn't enough, when the website was almost ready, the idea of the 'Workbench' method emerged. It was even simpler than the DIY method and finally broke free from the constraints of the layer-by-layer approach.
However, the true challenge in creating this website was communication: finding a language that was simple, concise, and immediately conveyed the fundamental concepts.
I hope I succeeded.