How to play Queens
Queens is a quick logic puzzle on a square board split into patterned regions. Place one queen in every row, every column and every region — and no two queens may touch, not even diagonally.
Every board is generated fresh and has exactly one solution, so there is always a logical next step.
Rules
- An n × n board has n regions, each marked by its own pattern and outlined with a heavy border. You place n queens.
- Each row, each column and each region holds exactly one queen.
- Queens may not touch, including corner to corner. Unlike chess queens, they may share a diagonal as long as they are not neighbours.
- Queens that break a rule turn red. Mark squares that cannot hold a queen with a cross — crosses are only notes.
- Auto-cross dots every square ruled out by the queens you have placed. It is a display aid and does not count as a hint.
- The clock stops the moment all n queens are placed with no clashes. Each size keeps its own board in progress.
Controls
- Click / tap
- Cycle a square: empty → cross → queen → empty
- Right-click
- Toggle a cross
- Drag
- Cross out (or clear crosses from) every square you pass over
- Arrows / WASD
- Move the keyboard cursor
- Space / Enter
- Cycle the square under the cursor
- Q / X
- Toggle a queen / a cross
- Backspace
- Clear the square
- O
- Toggle auto-cross
- Z / Ctrl+Z
- Undo
- P
- Pause
Tips
- Start with the smallest region. A region that fits in a single row or column claims that line, so cross out the rest of it.
- If two regions sit entirely within the same two rows, those two rows belong to them — cross out every other region’s squares there.
- A queen rules out all eight neighbours. When every square left in a region touches the same outside square, that square must be empty.
- Cross out generously; drag across a row to mark it in one go.
Queens strategy
Count regions against lines
The two-regions-in-two-rows idea works at any size. If three regions fit entirely inside three rows, those rows belong to them, and every other square in those rows is out. It also works the other way. If three columns contain squares from only three regions, those regions must place their queens there, so cross out their squares in every other column. On 8 × 8 and 9 × 9 these counts break most deadlocks.
Squares that touch a whole region
When a region is down to two side-by-side squares, the two squares directly above them and the two directly below both touch the region’s queen, wherever it goes, so cross them out. For three squares in a line, the middle square on each side is out. The same check works for any small region: find outside squares that neighbour every square still open in it.
Think in pairs of rows
Any 2 × 2 block holds at most one queen, since any two of its squares touch. Two neighbouring rows hold exactly two queens, which must be at least two columns apart. When a region is squeezed into a short stretch of two neighbouring rows, this tells you which columns the other queen in those rows can and cannot use.
Test a square, then undo
On larger boards you sometimes need a short proof by contradiction. Pick a region with only two squares left and place a queen on one. Let auto-cross show what it rules out. If any row, column or region is left with nowhere to go, the other square is the answer. Undo back and place it. Each board has one solution, so a contradiction is always a sound reason.
About Queens
Queens puzzles grew out of the classic eight-queens problem, first posed by the chess composer Max Bezzel in 1848: place eight chess queens so that none attacks another. Puzzle setters later replaced the diagonal rule with coloured regions and a “no touching” rule, giving the pencil puzzle often printed as Star Battle with one star per region, and it became a daily habit for many office workers in the 2020s.
This version is an original take: regions are told apart by printed patterns and heavy borders rather than colour, boards from 6 × 6 to 9 × 9 are generated fresh, and each one is kept only after a solver proves it has exactly one solution.
Questions
Is every Queens puzzle solvable without guessing?
Every board has exactly one solution, checked by a solver before you see it, so there is always a deduction to make. Larger boards ask for longer chains of reasoning.
Can two queens share a diagonal?
Yes, as long as they are not touching. The only diagonal rule is that queens may not be next to each other, corners included.
What does auto-cross do?
It shows a small dot on every empty square that a placed queen already rules out — same row, column or region, or touching. It is only a display aid; your times count either way.
Is my board saved if I leave?
Yes. Your board is saved in your browser separately for each size, and the clock pauses while the tab is hidden.