6x6x6 Solve—A Surprise

Introduction

Kevin and I have been going back and forth discussing ways to solve the 6x6x6 in which parity is not a problem. There have been references to SuperAntonioVivaldi and Twisty Puzzling and their methods. I made an attempt to utilize some of their techniques to come up with a way to solve the 6x6x6 in a different way than I normally solve big cubes. In the end I decided my old method suits me best.

One Last Experiment

Kevin's focus in solving the 6x6x6 without parity is to reduce it, not to a 3x3x3, but to a 2x2x2. Today I thought it would be interesting to use my old method, with a minor change, to do just that. When solving the corners early in the solve, instead of orienting and permuting them, I would only orient them. Then when solving the rest of the puzzle using my old method, I would solve to the corners, wherever they happened to be. In other words, I would use my old method to reduce the 6x6x6 to a 2x2x2. It complicated things a bit both visually and in eliminating some shortcuts and options during the solve, but it is pretty much using my old method to reduce the 6x6x6 to a 2x2x2. See for yourself.

Scrambled

White and Yellow Centers

Corners Oriented

Fill in 3 of the 4 White Edge Rows

Fill in 3 Yellow Edge Rows

Insert Last Yellow Edge Backward into Whites

Solving White Solves the Yellow Too

Middle Layer Edges on the White Half of the Puzzle

Middle Layer Edges on the Yellow Half

Making Progress on Centers

Almost There

Centers Solved

2x2x2 Solved