One crown per row, column and colour
How to play Queens with a friend
- Read the regionsThe grid is divided into coloured regions. There are as many regions as there are rows.
- Place a crownTap a cell to place. Every row, every column and every coloured region must end up with exactly one.
- Keep them apartNo two crowns may sit in touching cells — not side by side, and not diagonally.
- Work it togetherThere are no turns. Both players can place and remove on the same board, and both see every change immediately.
- Solve itThe puzzle completes when every constraint is satisfied at once.
The technique: eliminate, don't place
Beginners try to find where a crown goes. Solvers find where it can't.
The productive move is to look for a region that's squeezed — a coloured area confined to one or two rows. If a region only touches a single row, that row's crown must be inside it, which immediately rules the rest of the row out for everything else.
The no-touching rule then does a lot of work for free. Placing one crown eliminates up to eight neighbouring cells, and on a small grid that cascades quickly. One confident placement often collapses half the board.
The diagonal rule is the one people forget
One per row, one per column and one per region is a familiar shape. The extra constraint here is that crowns can't be diagonally adjacent either.
That's the rule that makes the puzzle a puzzle. Without it, most boards have many solutions; with it, they have exactly one. It's also the rule that invalidates most "obvious" first attempts — a placement that satisfies rows, columns and regions perfectly can still be illegal because two crowns are corner to corner.
When a solve won't close, check the diagonals before you check anything else.
Why this one is co-op and not a race
Queens is a pure deduction puzzle, and deduction is the thing that most benefits from a second person. One of you spots the squeezed region; the other notices the diagonal that kills it.
So it shares a board with no turns, like Sudoku. Either player can place or remove a crown at any moment, and both see it land.
Like every co-op game here it's unrated — there's no losing side, so there's nothing for a rating to measure.
Three things that actually help
- Start with the smallest coloured region. The fewer cells it has, the fewer places its crown can be.
- After every placement, mentally cross out the whole ring of eight around it. Most of your progress comes from that ring, not from the row and column.
- If you're stuck, say which cells you've eliminated rather than where you think a crown goes. Your partner can use eliminations; they can't use your hunch.
Queens questions
What are the rules of Queens?+
Place exactly one crown in every row, every column and every coloured region, with no two crowns touching — including diagonally. The diagonal restriction is what forces a single unique solution.
Can two people solve it at the same time?+
Yes. It's co-op on one shared board with no turns, so either player can place or remove a crown at any moment and both see the change immediately.
Why can't two crowns touch diagonally?+
Without that rule most boards would have several valid solutions. The diagonal restriction is what narrows it to exactly one, and it's the constraint that invalidates most first attempts.