9x9 Queens Puzzle #60
Difficulty: hard. Place 9 queens on this 9x9 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 15-step reasoning is written out below.
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Step-by-step solution for puzzle #60
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #60, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 15 deductions — 9 queen placements and 6 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 rows.
Techniques this board needs: last square in a region, region shadow, region confined to one line, pairing argument on rows.
Show the full walkthrough (8 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Only row 9, column 1 is still open in orange, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 9, column 1, the rest of the orange region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 2. Indigo is down to 3 candidates in rows 1 and 2, columns 3 and 4, and they overlap enough to cover 3 squares elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about indigo itself.
Step 3. Amber cannot leave column 2 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That column belongs to amber, so every square in it owned by another colour is dead: 6 squares in all.
Step 4. All of the indigo region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 4. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 6 squares come off.
The board after step 4 — 1 of 9 queens placed. Step 5. Slate cannot leave row 5 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to slate, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 8 squares in all.
Step 6. All of the red region's remaining squares (4 open squares) lie in column 3. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 1 square come off.
Step 7. Indigo and amber are now boxed into rows 1 and 2 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 8 squares at once.
Step 8. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 8 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 5; indigo has one square left, so its queen takes row 1, column 4; amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, column 2; mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 8; slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 6; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, column 7; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 3; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 9. 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 9.
The board after step 8 — 9 of 9 queens placed.
That completes the board: 9 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 9x9 Queens puzzle #60
This is puzzle number 60 in the 9x9 collection, rated hard. The grid holds 81 squares split between nine colored regions, and a finished board carries nine queens — one in every row, one in every column, one in every color, and never two of them touching, diagonals included.
Puzzle #60 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 #60 are: orange (1 square), indigo (3 squares), slate (4 squares), amber (5 squares), mint (7 squares), blue (11 squares), khaki (15 squares), pale yellow (16 squares), red (19 squares). An even split would hand every color 9 squares, so the orange region is running 8 squares under that average while the red region is the roomiest area on the grid with 19 squares.
Every color takes one queen and one only, whatever its size — which is why the 18 square difference between orange and red 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. Orange is the densest region on this grid at 100% of a 1×1 frame; blue is the loosest, occupying only 46% of its 4×6 frame. The loose one reaches into more rows and columns, which is exactly why it usually settles last.
Region by region
Here is the full footprint of every color on puzzle #60, smallest first. Reading these spans before you place anything is the quickest way to see which parts of the grid are genuinely contested.
Orange: 1 square across rows 9–9, columns 1–1. It never leaves row 9, so its queen is locked to that row.
Indigo covers 3 squares, spanning 2 rows and 2 columns (rows 1–2, columns 3–4).
Slate occupies 4 squares within rows 5–6, columns 4–6.
Amber: 5 squares across rows 1–2, columns 1–3.
Mint covers 7 squares, spanning 3 rows and 3 columns (rows 2–4, columns 6–8).
Blue occupies 11 squares within rows 1–4, columns 4–9.
Khaki: 15 squares across rows 2–9, columns 7–9.
Pale yellow covers 16 squares, spanning 6 rows and 5 columns (rows 4–9, columns 3–7).
Red occupies 19 squares within rows 3–9, columns 1–3.
Where to start on this board
Begin where the choices are fewest. On this board that means orange, which owns just 1 square inside a 1×1 window running from row 9 to row 9 and column 1 to column 1. A queen is guaranteed somewhere in there, so every line that window crosses is under pressure from the very first move.
Because orange never leaves row 9, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 9 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not orange. 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. Amber, indigo 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 #60
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, rows 1, 7 and 8 are the narrowest, touched by only 3 colors. Columns 2 and 9 are the tightest columns, with 2 colors.
A line with few colors is a line close to resolving. Where only 3 colors appear, one of them owns the row outright and the others must fit into the remaining 8 rows. Row 4 is the crowded extreme at 5 colors — worth revisiting later, not now.
Working through the middle game
Past the opening, treat this as an elimination exercise rather than a placement exercise. Each queen takes out a row, a column and its eight neighbours, and the value of a move is measured by how much it removes. Cross everything out as you go and let the board do the remembering.
With nine queens to seat and nine regions competing over 81 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 9x9 boards quickly and players who stall halfway.
Resist the plausible-looking queen. On #60 every correct placement has a stated reason behind it, and any move you cannot justify is a guess wearing a disguise. Backing out of a wrong guess on a single-solution board takes far longer than finding the real deduction would have.
Why puzzle #60 is rated hard
The rating reflects how much the board concedes up front. Puzzle #60 has two regions confined to a single row or column, its smallest color holds 1 square, its tightest row meets just 3 colors, and the gap between its largest and smallest regions is 18 squares. Flat, lopsided boards open quickly; even, sprawling ones make you earn the first placement.
The scale has nothing to do with maths or luck — every puzzle here is solvable by deduction and has exactly one answer. It measures reasoning depth: how many eliminations must stack up before a placement becomes provable. That depth is what separates a hard board from the rest.
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 9x9
At 9x9 a full re-scan after every move starts to get slow, so work locally instead. Once a queen goes down, check only the regions, rows and columns that placement actually touched — that is where new information appeared. Fall back to a complete sweep only when the local pass turns up nothing, and your solve times will drop noticeably.
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 #60 is column 2.
A non-spoiling distribution check: solved, #60 carries 3 queens on the perimeter against 6 queens inside, 1 of them cornered. Because no two queens may touch, real solutions always look fairly evenly spread — a lopsided board in progress is a warning sign.
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 9x9 Queens puzzle #60?
Puzzle #60 is rated hard. Its smallest color region holds 1 square, its tightest row is touched by 3 colors, and two of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 9x9 puzzle #60 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 9x9 collection, including #60, has been verified to have exactly one valid arrangement of nine queens, and it can always be reached by logic alone — no guessing or backtracking needed.
Where should I place my first queen on puzzle #60?
Start with the orange region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 9–9 and columns 1–1. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.