Queens

Queens is played on a grid split into coloured regions, where you place one crown in every row, every column and every colour region, with no two crowns ever touching — not even on a diagonal. On an N×N board there are N regions and exactly N crowns, and there is always one solution you can reach by logic.

What are the rules of the Queens puzzle?

There are three things to satisfy at once. First, one crown per row and one per column — just like the queens of a chessboard, no two share a line. Second, one crown per coloured region: each colour gets exactly one. Third, the no-touch rule: two crowns may never sit in adjacent cells, including diagonally, so every crown is surrounded by empty cells.

To solve Queens, work by elimination: mark ✕ everywhere a crown cannot go, hunt for a region or line squeezed to a single free cell, and the moment you place a crown, cross out its whole row, its whole column, its region and the eight cells around it.

What is the trick to solving LinkedIn Queens?

The fastest solvers barely guess — they eliminate. These are the core Queens tips:

• Place by elimination. When a row, column or region has only one cell left that is not crossed out, that cell must hold the crown.
• Crown then cross. Every crown forbids its entire row and column, its whole colour region, and all eight neighbouring cells — mark them ✕ immediately.
• Squeeze the regions. If a colour region sits entirely within one row (or one column), that row’s crown must belong to that region, so you can ✕ every other cell of that row.
• Use the ✕ marks. Pencilling in no-go cells turns a busy board into a few obvious forced moves.

What is the winning habit?

Cross out relentlessly and place only forced crowns. A proper Queens board never needs a guess — there is always a region or line that has been squeezed down to one cell.

The coloured regions are what make Queens more than an N-queens drill: because each region must hold exactly one crown, an oddly shaped or cornered region often forces a crown long before the rows and columns would.

Why do small regions matter most?

A region squeezed into a tight L-shape or a single row gives away its crown quickly. Always scan for the most constrained region first — the one with the fewest open cells — because it is the likeliest to be forced. A region reduced to one open cell is an instant crown.

How do regions interact with the no-touch rule?

Placing a crown blanks the eight cells around it, and those cells often belong to other regions — so one crown can shrink several neighbouring regions at once. Chaining these knock-on eliminations is the heart of a clean Queens solve.

Open every Queens board the same way: find a region pinned to a single line, claim that line for the region, then let the no-touch rule cascade.

How do you make the first deduction?

Suppose one colour region lies entirely inside a single row. Then that row’s crown has to be in that region, so no other region may use that row — cross out every cell of the row that is a different colour. Often that immediately squeezes a neighbouring region down to one open cell.

How does the cascade continue?

When a region (or a column) is reduced to one free cell, place its crown there, then cross out the rest of its row, the rest of its column, all the cells of its region, and the eight cells touching it. Each crown you place trims the board for the next, and the solution unfolds one forced move at a time — never a guess.

This page offers Queens at two sizes — a friendlier 7×7 and a meatier 8×8 — with bigger boards giving more colour regions and longer chains of elimination. Every board, at either size, has exactly one solution reachable without guessing.

• The 7×7 board has seven regions and seven crowns. It is the place to learn the crown-and-cross rhythm, since the whole grid stays in view.
• The 8×8 board adds an eighth region and more awkward shapes, so the squeeze-the-region and no-touch deductions chain further before the board locks in.

Tap New for a fresh board at either size, or play the shared Daily for the same Queens as everyone else and a streak to keep. Because every New button deals a brand-new board, this also works as Queens unlimited — as many puzzles as you want, any time.

Queens is the crowns-and-colour-regions logic puzzle that LinkedIn runs as one of its daily games; this page lets you play the same style of puzzle for free, as often as you like, with no account and no app. It is an independent version and is not affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn.

Note this is the logic Queens — coloured regions and crowns — not the card game Sleeping Queens and nothing to do with chess strategy beyond the one-per-line idea. If you like placing pieces by deduction, it sits naturally beside the other grid puzzles here: try Sudoku, where each row, column and box holds one of each digit, or Tango, another daily LinkedIn-style logic puzzle. The patient, never-guess habit carries straight across.

A few words come up whenever Queens is discussed — crown, region, the no-touch rule, elimination and the ✕ mark — and knowing them makes any guide easier to follow.

• Crown. The piece you place; there is exactly one per row, column and region.
• Region. A connected block of same-coloured cells that must contain exactly one crown.
• No-touch rule. Two crowns may never sit in neighbouring cells, including diagonals.
• Elimination. Crossing out cells that cannot hold a crown until a forced one appears.
• ✕ mark. Your own pencil mark for a no-go cell; it does not affect the solution, only your thinking.

Most Queens slip-ups come from a few habits: forgetting the diagonal in the no-touch rule, ignoring the colour regions, guessing instead of eliminating, and not crossing out after placing a crown.

• Forgetting diagonals. Crowns may not touch at all — a diagonal neighbour is just as illegal as a side-by-side one.
• Ignoring regions. Rows and columns alone do not pin the answer; the one-crown-per-colour rule is usually what forces the next move.
• Guessing. If nothing seems forced, you have missed an ✕ somewhere — re-scan the most constrained region rather than gambling.
• Not crossing out. After every crown, immediately ✕ its row, column, region and the eight cells around it, or you will lose track of what is still possible.

Queens has a moreish, modern feel — no numbers, no arithmetic, just crowns, colours and the satisfying click of a forced move — yet enough depth to keep you scanning for the next squeeze. A single board is a brisk few-minute solve, ideal for a break.

Like everything in this collection it is fair by design: each board has one answer you can reach by reasoning, so finishing always feels earned. Play the shared Daily for the same puzzle as everyone else, or tap New for unlimited fresh boards. And because Queens rewards elimination and spatial reasoning, it pairs naturally with Tango and Sudoku — once you enjoy solving by pure logic, the whole collection opens up.