8x8 Queens Puzzle #244

Difficulty: easy. Place 8 queens on this 8x8 board so that no two share a row, column or color region and none touch — including diagonally. This puzzle has exactly one solution, and it has been verified solvable by deduction alone: the complete 10-step reasoning is written out below.

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Step-by-step solution for puzzle #244

What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #244, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 10 deductions — 8 queen placements and 2 elimination steps that narrow the board between them. Each step names the rule that forces it, so nothing below is a guess, and the hardest idea required is the region confined to one line.

Techniques this board needs: last square in a region, region confined to one line.

Show the full walkthrough (6 steps) — contains the solution

  1. Step 1. Only row 1, column 5 is still open in indigo, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 1, column 5, the rest of the indigo region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.

  2. Step 2. The blue region is down to one open square, at row 3, column 8. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Cross out the whole of row 3 and column 8, the remaining blue squares, and the ring of neighbours around row 3, column 8.

  3. Step 3. Only row 6, column 7 is still open in red, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 6, in column 7, in red and in the ring around that square is now dead.

    Puzzle #244 after step 3: 3 of 8 queens placed
    The board after step 3 — 3 of 8 queens placed.

  4. Step 4. All of the slate region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in row 5. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere on that row, which means no other colour may use it: 4 squares come off.

  5. Step 5. Khaki cannot leave column 1 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That column belongs to khaki, so every square in it owned by another colour is dead: 4 squares in all.

  6. Step 6. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 5 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, column 2; slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 3; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, column 4; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 1; mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 6. After each one, clear that row, that column, the rest of the colour and the ring of neighbours before looking for the next. The last of them seats the queen on row 4, column 6.

    Puzzle #244 after step 6: 8 of 8 queens placed
    The board after step 6 — 8 of 8 queens placed.

That completes the board: 8 queens seated, one in every row, one in every column and one in every colour, with no two of them touching. Notice that nothing in the sequence above required a guess — each placement followed from an elimination already on the grid, which is what “single solution, solvable by logic” actually means in practice.

About 8x8 Queens puzzle #244

This is puzzle number 244 in the 8x8 collection, rated easy. The grid holds 64 squares split between eight colored regions, and a finished board carries eight queens — one in every row, one in every column, one in every color, and never two of them touching, diagonals included.

Puzzle #244 has been checked to admit exactly one arrangement of queens, and every step toward it is deducible from what is already on the board. There is no point at which you are expected to pick a square and hope. The only thing that differs between boards is how quickly the first certainty surfaces, and that depends entirely on the shapes the colors happen to take here.

How the colors divide this board

From smallest to largest, the regions on puzzle #244 are: indigo (1 square), blue (1 square), slate (3 squares), khaki (3 squares), red (5 squares), pale yellow (8 squares), amber (13 squares), mint (30 squares). An even split would hand every color 8 squares, so the indigo region is running 7 squares under that average while the mint region is the roomiest area on the grid with 30 squares.

Why does the split matter? Because a region's square count has no bearing on how many queens it gets — the answer is always one. So indigo, with 1 square, is under far more pressure than mint with 30. A 29-square gap like this one rewards players who start where the choices are fewest.

Square count is only half the story — how a color is arranged counts too. Indigo is the tidiest shape on #244, packing 100% of its 1×1 bounding box, whereas red straggles across its 4×2 box at just 63%. Tidy blocks are easy to work around; scattered ones touch more lines and resist resolution.

Region by region

The complete breakdown of each region on this board follows, ordered from tightest to roomiest. Skimming the spans first tells you where the board is crowded and where it has slack.

Indigo covers 1 square, spanning 1 row and 1 column (rows 1–1, columns 5–5). It never leaves row 1, so its queen is locked to that row.

Blue occupies 1 square within rows 3–3, columns 8–8. It never leaves row 3, so its queen is locked to that row.

Slate: 3 squares across rows 5–6, columns 2–3.

Khaki covers 3 squares, spanning 3 rows and 1 column (rows 6–8, columns 1–1). It sits wholly inside column 1, so its queen must be in that column.

Red occupies 5 squares within rows 4–7, columns 7–8.

Pale yellow: 8 squares across rows 6–8, columns 2–5.

Amber covers 13 squares, spanning 5 rows and 4 columns (rows 1–5, columns 1–4).

Mint occupies 30 squares within rows 1–8, columns 3–8.

Where to start on this board

The most constrained color is where a solve should begin, and on #244 that is indigo with 1 square. It reaches from row 1 to row 1 and from column 5 to column 5 — 1 row by 1 column. One queen has to live inside that footprint no matter what else happens, which makes those lines the busiest real estate on the board.

Because indigo never leaves row 1, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 1 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not indigo. Then look at which colors just lost ground: on a grid this size that one observation usually forces a second region within a move or two.

Work outward to the other flat regions next. Blue and slate are no more than two rows tall, so their queens are confined to a narrow band. When two flat regions overlap the same pair of rows, those rows are spoken for and every other color is locked out of both — the single most productive pattern in the game, and it is live on this board.

The tightest lines on puzzle #244

A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, row 2 is the narrowest, touched by only 2 colors. Column 6 is the tightest column, with 1 color.

Count colors per line and you have a ranking of where to look. The narrowest rows here see only 2 colors, so one of that handful must take the row and the rest are squeezed into the other 7 rows. Row 6 sits at the far end with 5 colors crossing it; it will almost certainly be among the last to settle.

Working through the middle game

The middle of #244 is where careless play costs time. Every queen you place kills a row, a column and the eight surrounding squares; if you do not mark all of that immediately, you will later "discover" a move that was available several turns ago. Mark first, then look.

With eight queens to seat and eight regions competing over 64 squares, keep two questions in rotation. Does any region now have exactly one open square left? That queen is forced. Does any row or column now have exactly one open square left? That queen is forced too. Alternating between the region view and the row-and-column view is what keeps a solve moving, and it is the clearest difference between players who finish 8x8 boards quickly and players who stall halfway.

Say the reason out loud: "this region has one square left", "this column has one square left". If no such sentence is available, the eliminating is not finished. One more pass of X marks is almost always quicker than committing to a placement you cannot defend.

Why puzzle #244 is rated easy

Ratings track how generous the opening is. On #244 you get five regions pinned to a single row or column, a smallest color of 1 square, a tightest row crossed by 2 colors, and a 29-square gap between the largest and smallest regions. Those four numbers largely explain the easy label.

Nothing about the rating involves computation or chance. Each grid has a single solution reachable by pure logic; the rating simply measures how far ahead you have to reason. Easy boards resolve a queen every step or two, while hard ones can ask you to carry three unfinished lines of thought before any of them pays off.

When a board plays tougher than its label, look for a missed mark before you look for a clever deduction. Walk back over every queen you have placed and confirm the full row, the full column and all eight surrounding squares are crossed out. The diagonal neighbours are the ones players skip, and a single skipped diagonal will hide the next forced move indefinitely.

Techniques that work well at 8x8

At 8x8 the whole grid stays within a single glance, which makes systematic scanning practical. Read the rows in order and count the colors in each — a row touched by two colors is far more constrained than one touched by five, and that is usually where the next forced move hides. The board is small enough that re-scanning from the top after each placement costs almost nothing.

Learn the pairing argument and you will use it on every board, this one included. If two colors can only sit inside the same two rows, between them they consume both rows and every other color is shut out. It generalises to any matching count — three colors across three rows, four across four. On #244, start hunting for it near column 6.

Use this as a rough check on your progress: the completed board has 3 queens around the border and 5 queens in the middle, including 1 in a corner. Solutions spread out; if yours is bunching up in one region of the grid, retrace a few moves.

How to play Queens

  1. The board is an N×N grid divided into N colored regions.
  2. Place exactly one queen (♛) in each row, each column, and each colored region.
  3. No two queens may touch each other — not horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
  4. Tap once to mark a square with an X (where a queen can't go), tap again to place a queen, and once more to clear it.
  5. There is always exactly one valid solution. Use logic, never guessing, to find it.

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Questions about this puzzle

How hard is 8x8 Queens puzzle #244?

Puzzle #244 is rated easy. Its smallest color region holds 1 square, its tightest row is touched by 2 colors, and five of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.

Does 8x8 puzzle #244 have only one solution?

Yes. Every puzzle in the 8x8 collection, including #244, has been verified to have exactly one valid arrangement of eight queens, and it can always be reached by logic alone — no guessing or backtracking needed.

Where should I place my first queen on puzzle #244?

Start with the indigo region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 1–1 and columns 5–5. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.