Free Queens Puzzle, as many as you like
Queens Puzzle is a logic puzzle you can play online for free, with no account and nothing to install. Each board is split into colored regions. Your job is to place one queen in every row, every column and every region, without any two queens touching. When you finish one puzzle, the next is ready straight away: there are 1,000 boards to work through, and your game is saved in this browser as you go.
Every puzzle has exactly one solution, and you can always reach it by reasoning, never by guessing. A puzzle takes most people a few minutes. The clock starts with your first move, and your statistics keep your best and average times.
How to play
The board has as many colored regions as it has rows. Place one queen in each row, each column and each region. No two queens may touch, not even at a corner.
- Tap a cell once to mark it with an X, where you know a queen can’t go. Tap again for a queen, and a third time to empty it.
- Drag across the board to mark every empty cell you pass with an X. Start a drag on an X to clear X’s instead. Queens are never changed by a drag.
- You win when every row, column and region has its queen. X’s are only there to help you think.
- A queen that shares a row, column or region with another, or touches one, turns red and hollow. With Auto-check on, the rows, columns and regions holding two queens are striped too.
- Undo takes back one move at a time. Clear empties the board, and Undo brings it all back.
- Stuck? Hint points out a queen or X that’s wrong, or shows the next step you can work out and why. It never places anything for you.
- Settings can place the X’s around every queen for you, add region letters for telling colors apart, and hide the timer.
- The clock stops while you’re paused or in another tab.
Solving strategies
These are the steps the hints use, from the easiest. Every puzzle here can be solved with them alone.
Start with the smallest regions
A region with one cell is a free queen. A region with two or three cells nearly always settles quickly, and the X’s it sets off tell you where to look next.
Mark each queen’s reach
As soon as you place a queen, rule out the rest of its row, its column and its region, and the eight cells around it. Once a row, column or region has only one cell left, its queen goes there.
A region stuck in one row or column
If every open cell of a region lies in the same row, that row’s queen has to be the region’s queen, so nothing else in that row can hold one. The same works for columns, and the other way round: if a row’s open cells all sit inside one region, the rest of that region is ruled out.
Two or three regions at once
When two regions fit only into the same two rows, those two rows belong to them, and every other cell in those rows gets an X. The same holds for three regions in three rows, for columns, and for rows or columns that fit into the same few regions.
Try a queen in your head
Pick a cell and picture a queen on it. If that would leave some row, column or region with no cell at all, the queen can’t go there. Most puzzles need this step at least once, often near the start.
Keyboard
| Arrow keys | Move around the board |
|---|---|
| Space or Enter | Empty, X, queen, in turn |
| X | Add or remove an X |
| Q | Add or remove a queen |
| Backspace or Delete | Empty the cell |
| Ctrl + Z, Cmd + Z or U | Undo |
| H | Hint |
| P | Pause or resume |
Questions
Does every puzzle have exactly one solution?
Yes. Each board was checked by computer to have one solution, and to be solvable with the strategies above, so you never have to guess.
How many puzzles are there?
There are 1,000 boards of 8 by 8. New puzzle picks one you haven’t played in this browser. If you ever play them all, it starts over.
What does Hint do?
If a queen or an X on the board is wrong, the hint points to it first. Otherwise it highlights the next step you can work out, with a one-line reason, and leaves the move to you. Hints are counted in your result.
What do Auto-place X’s and Auto-check do?
Auto-place X’s marks every cell your queens rule out, and takes those X’s away again when you remove a queen. Your own X’s are never touched. Auto-check stripes any row, column or region that holds two queens. Both are in Settings, and you can turn them on or off at any time.
Is this the same as Star Battle?
It’s a close relative. Star Battle is a logic puzzle where each row, column and region holds a set number of stars that may not touch. Queens Puzzle is the one-star version, played with queens.
Where is my game kept?
Only in this browser: the game in progress, your settings and your statistics. Nothing is sent anywhere, and clearing your browser’s site data removes them.
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