How to Play Queens: Rules, Strategy & Free Puzzles
Queens is a placement logic puzzle on a coloured grid. You place exactly one queen in every row, every column and every colour region, and no two queens may touch each other — not even diagonally. It is a friendly cousin of the classic N-Queens chess problem.
- Skill: Constraint satisfaction & deduction
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- Difficulty: Intermediate
How to play Queens
- One per row and column. Each row and each column must contain exactly one queen.
- One per colour region. Each coloured region of the board must also contain exactly one queen.
- No touching queens. No two queens may sit in adjacent cells, including diagonally adjacent ones.
- Use elimination. Mark cells that cannot hold a queen until each constraint leaves only one valid square.
Queens strategy & tips
- Start with the smallest colour regions — they have the fewest legal squares.
- Placing a queen eliminates its whole row, column and all eight neighbouring cells.
- If a region fits in a single row or column, that line is claimed by that region.
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Queens FAQ
Is this the same as the N-Queens chess problem?
It is based on it. The classic version places non-attacking queens; this puzzle adds colour regions and an adjacency rule so each puzzle has one unique solution.
Can two queens share a diagonal?
They can be on the same long diagonal as long as they are not directly adjacent. Only touching diagonally is forbidden.
Related puzzles
Reference: Queens on Wikipedia