Queens Unlimited: one grid, then another

Pick the size, from 6 × 6 to 12 × 12, and the difficulty under the grid. Here the queens are dodos: they snore, so only one per row, per column and per garden, and never two touching.

Queens rules in thirty seconds

• One dodo per row and one per column: an 8 × 8 grid holds eight.
• One dodo per garden: each colour zone takes exactly one.
• No two dodos ever touch, not even at a corner.

To make progress you cross out more than you place: a cross on every square where no dodo can sleep, until the right square is the only one left. The six deductions that solve every grid are explained in the Queens puzzle guide.

Grids made on demand

Every grid comes from the same engine as our Queens puzzle maker. It draws the gardens, checks there is only one solution, then replays the grid with the deductions of the Dodoku game: a grid that would force you to guess is thrown away before it reaches you. While you play, the next one is already being made.

Picking the size and difficulty

• Easy: the last free square of a garden or a row, and the garden that fits in a single row. A good warm-up.
• Medium: you also need the row that fits in a single garden, and the square that, if taken, would leave a neighbouring garden with nowhere to go.
• Tough: gardens shut inside as many rows as they are. Two gardens trapped in two rows lock those rows for everyone else.

Sizes run from 6 × 6 to 12 × 12. LinkedIn’s Queens usually stays under 11 × 11; beyond that, each grid becomes a proper session. Your settings are kept for your next visit, and so is the number of grids you have solved here.

Stuck? One hint at a time

The “One hint” button doesn’t hand you the answer: it makes one deduction, circles the squares involved and explains it in a sentence. If a dodo is in the wrong place, it tells you that first. At the end, the message notes how many hints you took. Nobody will know, unless you send your time to a friend.

Stuck on a grid from somewhere else? The Queens solver reads a screenshot and gives one hint at a time.

Frequently asked questions