8x8 Queens Puzzle #44
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 18-step reasoning is written out below.
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Step-by-step solution for puzzle #44
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #44, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 18 deductions — 8 queen placements and 10 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 pairing argument on columns.
Techniques this board needs: region shadow, region confined to one line, last square in a region, pairing argument on rows, pairing argument on columns.
Show the full walkthrough (12 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Wherever indigo ends up among its 3 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 2 squares in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.
Step 2. All of the amber region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 6. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 9 squares come off.
Step 3. Indigo cannot leave row 1 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to indigo, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 5 squares in all.
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: 9 squares come off.
The board after step 4 — 0 of 8 queens placed. 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: 5 squares in all.
Step 6. The slate region is down to one open square, at row 5, column 2. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Cross out the whole of row 5 and column 2, the remaining slate squares, and the ring of neighbours around row 5, column 2.
Step 7. Wherever blue ends up among its 3 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 2 squares in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.
Step 8. Pale yellow is down to 4 candidates in rows 7 and 8, columns 3–5, and they overlap enough to cover 1 square elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about pale yellow itself.
The board after step 8 — 1 of 8 queens placed. Step 9. Pale yellow and khaki are now boxed into rows 7 and 8 and nothing else. That is 2 colours needing 2 rows, so they fill those rows between them — which locks every remaining colour out and removes 5 squares at once.
Step 10. All of the red region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in row 6. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere on that row, which means no other colour may use it: 2 squares come off.
Step 11. Indigo and red are now boxed into columns 7 and 8 and nothing else. That is 2 colours needing 2 columns, so they fill those columns between them — which locks every remaining colour out and removes 3 squares at once.
Step 12. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 7 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 5; amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, column 6; indigo has one square left, so its queen takes row 1, column 8; blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 3; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 7; 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. 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 8, column 1.
The board after step 12 — 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 #44
This is puzzle number 44 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.
As with every puzzle in this collection, #44 has a single verified solution and needs no guesswork. Each queen follows from something already visible. What the board controls is tempo — how soon the first forced move shows up and how far apart the rest are spaced — and that is a direct consequence of how these colors are cut.
How the colors divide this board
From smallest to largest, the regions on puzzle #44 are: slate (2 squares), indigo (3 squares), amber (3 squares), khaki (4 squares), pale yellow (7 squares), red (12 squares), blue (16 squares), mint (17 squares). An even split would hand every color 8 squares, so the slate region is running 6 squares under that average while the mint region is the roomiest area on the grid with 17 squares.
Every color takes one queen and one only, whatever its size — which is why the 15 square difference between slate and mint is worth noting before you touch the grid. The cramped colors resolve first and hand you information; the roomy ones absorb whatever is left over at the end.
Look at arrangement as well as area. Amber is the densest region on this grid at 100% of a 3×1 frame; pale yellow is the loosest, occupying only 58% of its 3×4 frame. The loose one reaches into more rows and columns, which is exactly why it usually settles last.
Region by region
Each region's exact extent on this grid is listed below, starting with the most constrained. Knowing which lines a color can and cannot reach is most of the work on a easy board.
Slate occupies 2 squares within rows 5–5, columns 1–2. It never leaves row 5, so its queen is locked to that row.
Indigo: 3 squares across rows 1–2, columns 7–8.
Amber covers 3 squares, spanning 3 rows and 1 column (rows 1–3, columns 6–6). It sits wholly inside column 6, so its queen must be in that column.
Khaki occupies 4 squares within rows 6–8, columns 1–2.
Pale yellow: 7 squares across rows 6–8, columns 2–5.
Red covers 12 squares, spanning 4 rows and 5 columns (rows 5–8, columns 4–8).
Blue occupies 16 squares within rows 1–5, columns 1–5.
Mint: 17 squares across rows 2–6, columns 4–8.
Where to start on this board
The most constrained color is where a solve should begin, and on #44 that is slate with 2 squares. It reaches from row 5 to row 5 and from column 1 to column 2 — 1 row by 2 columns. 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 slate never leaves row 5, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 5 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not slate. 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. Indigo is no more than two rows tall, so its queen is 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 #44
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, row 4 is the narrowest, touched by only 2 colors. Column 3 is the tightest column, with 2 colors.
The fewer colors a line touches, the sooner it surrenders its queen. A row meeting just 2 colors has to be claimed by one of them, which pushes every remaining region into the other 7 rows. Row 6, meeting 4 colors, is the opposite case — the busiest line on #44 and the last one you should expect to crack.
Working through the middle game
Once two or three queens are down, the board changes character. Each queen removes an entire row, an entire column and the ring of up to eight squares around it, so the grid shrinks faster than most people expect. The habit that pays here is marking rather than remembering: after every placement, cross out the full row, the full column and all eight neighbours before hunting for the next move.
Keep alternating between two views of the board. In the region view you ask which of the eight colors is down to one open square. In the line view you ask the same of each row and column. Both produce forced queens, and each placement refreshes the other view, so cycling between them deliberately is how a 8x8 board unwinds.
The trap on a board like this is placing a queen that is merely plausible. Every placement should be traceable to an elimination you can point at. If you cannot name the rule that forced it, you are guessing — and on a single-solution grid a guess costs more to unwind than the deduction would have taken to find.
Why puzzle #44 is rated easy
The easy label comes out of four measurable things about #44: two of its regions are locked to one row or column, its smallest color spans 2 squares, its least crowded row meets 2 colors, and its largest and smallest regions differ by 15. Boards that score tight on those measures give up their first queen fast.
Rating is a measure of chain length, not of chance. With one guaranteed solution and no guessing required, the only thing that changes across the collection is how many eliminations you must link together before a queen is provably forced.
A board that feels above its rating is nearly always a board with a missing X. Audit every queen on the grid: full row cleared, full column cleared, all eight touching squares cleared. Diagonals are the common omission, and missing one is far more often the cause of a stall than any genuine difficulty in the puzzle.
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.
There is one technique that repays study at every grid size. Two regions restricted to the same two rows must occupy one row apiece, which excludes all other regions from those rows entirely; the identical logic applies to columns and to larger matched sets. It converts slow boards into fast ones, and the likeliest place to find it on #44 is row 4.
Here is a shape check that gives nothing away: when #44 is solved, 2 queens sit on the outer edge of the grid and 6 sit inside it, with 2 queens in a corner. A work-in-progress board that clusters its queens in one quadrant while leaving others bare is usually carrying a mistake.
How to play Queens
- The board is an N×N grid divided into N colored regions.
- Place exactly one queen (♛) in each row, each column, and each colored region.
- No two queens may touch each other — not horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
- 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.
- 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 #44?
Puzzle #44 is rated easy. Its smallest color region holds 2 squares, its tightest row is touched by 2 colors, and two of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 8x8 puzzle #44 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 8x8 collection, including #44, 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 #44?
Start with the slate region — the most constrained color on this board, with 2 squares spanning rows 5–5 and columns 1–2. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.