“8 moves or less” for Cross just isn’t good enough…
Yep, that's right… I don't care if you're a white only solver or if you’re CN, or anywhere in between
If you think that 8 moves or less for your cross is good enough, you're wrong
But first, before I explain what you SHOULD be striving for...
It'd be silly not to at least address WHERE this age old "wisdom" comes from
And it comes from the concept of "God Number", which is the number of turns it takes to optimally solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's cube
For those unaware, any 3x3x3 can be solved in 20 moves or less
Now obviously humans aren't as "smart" as robots, so generally we suck at seeing and finding optimal solutions even when doing the FMC event (only a handful of people have ever gotten the optimal solution on a scramble unofficially, and AFAIK the only person to do it officially is the single WR holder)
Anyways, we now know that 20 is God's number, but is this the whole story?
Well, not exactly...
Even though *any* scramble can be done in 20 or less, the VAST majority of scrambles are 18 moves optimal
Actually, the odds of getting a scramble where you CAN'T solve it in less than 20 moves is very, very low
Now let's switch gears back to Cross
God's Number for Cross is 8, meaning any scramble, no matter how many turns your fat bachelor uncle does with his greasy hands recklessly fondling your main 3x3 behind his back (to prevent cheating of course), you can solve a cross on any side in 8 moves *or less*
Key Words
*or less*
Again, if you want to know more about God's Number for Cross & some relevant stats which I will be referencing in the rest of this email, check it out here (ignore the quarter turn metric stuff)
Here's a fun fact for the white only solvers of the World
The odds of an 8 move solution being the *optimal* solution are ~1-in-2000~
That means if you do 10,000 solves a month (so like 320ish solves a day), you should only have 5 solves where 8 moves for your cross was the best you could have possibly done
With that level of practice, you should be getting ONE 8 MOVE CROSS PER WEEK, IF THAT
Hopefully now you're starting to see why I truly think "8 moves or less" IS Shitty advice
And now for the CN solvers, those who cannot stay loyal to any colour
The odds of a 7 move solution being the *optimal* solution are LESS likely than the above odds for a one colour solver getting stuck with an 8 move cross
Again, I would encourage you to check out the God Number Cross Study page that I linked above and will again link here
Take the time to understand just how often 4-7 move crosses occur depending on what colours you solve on (if you're CN, you aren't going to like the odds of 7 move crosses ;)
Adjust your personal standards accordingly, and don’t settle for 8 move crosses in your solves because of “God’s number”