Queens: today's logic puzzle, free

How to play Queens

Tap a cell once to mark it with ✕, twice to place a queen. Drag across cells to mark several ✕ at once. Every row, every column and every colour region needs exactly one queen, and queens can't touch, not even at the corners. With auto-place on, every cell a new queen rules out gets an ✕ by itself. Full rules, an example and strategy on the how to play page.

Want another one? Unlimited Queens has 3,750 boards from 5×5 to 11×11. Missed a day? Every past day is in the archive.

The week's boards

Queens strategy and tips: how to solve the puzzle without guessing

The way to solve Queens is to cross out cells that cannot hold a queen until a queen is the only thing left, not to hunt for a queen first. The three rules: one queen in every row, one in every column, one in every colour region, and no two queens touching, not even diagonally. Our hint solver plays every daily this way, and the first queen it places comes after about 6 cross-out steps on average. Everything below is the technique behind those steps, with numbers from a year of Puzzlune's daily boards.

Where do you start a Queens puzzle?

With the smallest region, and in particular with any region whose cells all sit in one row or one column. On 6 of the 7 weekly boards the very first deduction is exactly that: the region's queen will use that line, so every other cell in the line is crossed out. A region with two or three cells has two or three places its queen can be, and every one of those places kills cells elsewhere. Thin regions, a horizontal strip or a vertical one, are confined by definition.

How do you cross out cells in Queens?

Three mechanical triggers do most of the work. A placed queen crosses out its whole row, column and region, plus the eight cells around it. A line with a queen has no room for another, so any open cell in it goes. A line or region with one open cell has its queen there, which starts the cycle again. Each cross-out can trigger the next, and the cascade is where most of a board goes. On a Monday 7×7 these three rules account for 18.7 of the 24 steps the solver needs; nothing cleverer is required until Wednesday.

How does the no-touching rule help in Queens?

Beyond crossing out the eight neighbours of a placed queen, it rules out any cell that touches every remaining option of a region: if a region has only two or three cells left and a cell outside it is adjacent to all of them, that outside cell can never be a queen, whichever cell the region picks. On Mondays this “touches all” check is the most common first move. It also works for a region squeezed into two cells that are diagonal to each other: both their common neighbours are out.

What is confinement in Queens?

Confinement is when one or more regions fit entirely inside the same number of rows or columns, which claims those lines for them. If two regions together fit inside two rows, those two rows' queens are theirs, and every cell of those rows that belongs to a third region is crossed out. The same holds for columns, and for three regions in three lines. Confinement steps are 5.3–9.3 per board on our dailies. Find them by reading each region's row span: write down which rows it touches, and look for two regions whose spans together cover only two rows.

Do you ever have to guess in Queens?

No, but on hard boards you have to test: on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday every daily board solves with the rules above, while on the hard days (Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) the solver needs about 2.2 “what if” checks per board. A what-if is not a guess: you place a queen in a candidate cell, run the cascade in your head, and if any line or region ends up with nowhere to put its queen, the candidate is crossed out for certain. Do it on the smallest region, try its cells one by one, and only cross out; never leave a trial queen on the board. The hint button does exactly this and tells you which line would have been emptied.

When should you place a queen in Queens?

Only when a row, column or region is down to its last open cell. Until then, keep crossing out. The temptation on a board that is half crossed-out is to place a queen that “looks right”; if it is wrong you will not find out for several moves, and undoing those moves is where time goes. The solver's own count shows how patient to be: about 6 cross-outs before the first queen, and the second queen usually follows within two or three steps once the first is down.

Which day has the hardest Queens puzzle?

Sunday, an 11×11 hard board that needs every technique on this page; Monday to Tuesday are the ones to learn on, and they never need a what-if. Board size and difficulty follow the weekday. For each, the average number of solver steps, how many of them are plain rule steps versus confinement, how many “what if” checks a board needs, and how often a board needs none at all, over 365 daily boards.

Every past Sunday in the archive has its first dozen deductions written out, which is the best place to see these techniques on a real board.

Queens daily, Queens practice or the Queens archive: which should you play?

Play the daily when you have five minutes, practice when you want to get better, the archive when you want a worked example. The daily. One board, the size and difficulty set by the weekday, the same for everyone. It is the only mode that counts for your streak, and the one to share.

Endless practice. Every size from 5×5 to 11×11 and every difficulty up to Expert, as many boards as you like. Nothing you do there spoils the daily.

The archive. Every past daily with its deductions written out step by step and the solved board. Every page has the full solution, so it doubles as a worked example when a technique from the strategy above hasn't clicked yet.

Queens FAQ

What is the Queens game?

Queens is a logic puzzle on a square grid divided into coloured regions. Place exactly one queen in every row, every column and every colour region, so that no two queens touch, not even diagonally. Every puzzle has one solution and can be solved by reasoning alone.

Is this the LinkedIn Queens game?

No. Queens is a daily game on LinkedIn, which offers one puzzle a day and no archive. Puzzlune's Queens uses the same rules with boards we generate ourselves: one daily puzzle from 7×7 to 11×11, unlimited mode in any size, hints that explain the logic, and a free archive. We are not affiliated with LinkedIn.

How big is the daily puzzle?

It follows the week: Monday is a 7×7, the board grows through the week, and Sunday is an 11×11. Difficulty rises with it. Unlimited mode has every size from 5×5 to 11×11 in four difficulties.

How do hints work?

A hint never guesses. It shows the next deduction a person could make, for example "every free cell of the mint region is in row 3, so the rest of row 3 is crossed out", highlights the cells involved and marks them for you. Use as many as you like; the result card records how many you used.

Is Queens the same as Star Battle, “queens ultimate” or mini queens?

Queens is the one-star version of the Star Battle puzzle family: one queen per row, column and region, none touching. Puzzlune also has Star Battle with two stars per line. Queens game unlimited, queens ultimate, mini queens and LinkedIn queens archive are all searches for the same puzzle; this page has it free in every size, with an archive of every past day.

Do I need an account?

No. Progress, streak and stats are stored in your browser.