Queens Game Unlimited: play as many as you like

No limit, no waiting

How Queens Game Unlimited works

Queens Game Unlimited is the page for playing more than one puzzle in a sitting. The Daily gives everyone a single board per day; here you never have to wait for the next one. Solve a puzzle, or give up on it halfway, and another is ready at once. It is free, it runs in your browser, and there is nothing to sign up for.

What only Unlimited does

Unlimited draws its puzzles at random from every puzzle that has already come out as a Daily, so each board is a real, checked puzzle with exactly one solution. The first one waits behind its cover until you press Play. After that, New game and Next puzzle start the next board straight away, with the timer already running, so you can go from one solve to the next without a pause.

The line above the board shows the puzzle's number and the word Unlimited, with no date, because here a puzzle isn't tied to its day. It is the same number the puzzle carries in the Archive, so you can find it there later or tell a friend which board you mean.

The rules in short

The goal is one queen in each row, in each column and in each colored region of the grid, and queens may not touch one another, diagonally included. Every board here follows exactly those rules. If you are new to the puzzle, How to play walks through them with a solved example. Because the rules never change from one board to the next, what you practise here carries straight over to the Daily and to every puzzle in the Archive.

Placing queens and planning ahead

A first tap on a cell puts down ×, a second turns it into a queen, and a third empties it again. As soon as a queen is down, the cells it shuts off fill with × on their own, and they lift again if you take that queen away. Two queens that clash are both highlighted until one of them moves.

Playing several boards in a row is a good way to build a routine. Begin each one by scanning for the tightest spots: a tiny region, or a region squeezed into a single row or column. Settle those first, let the automatic × marks spread, and only then turn to the larger regions. If a board resists, look for two regions that both fit inside the same pair of rows: those rows' two queens belong to them, so every other cell in those rows can be crossed out.

Play one game after another

New game is the heart of this page. Press it at any time, whether the board in front of you is solved, half done or untouched, and a different puzzle replaces it right away. There is no confirmation step and no cover in between: the old board is gone and the new one is ready to play.

Which puzzle comes next

Each pick is random among the puzzles out at that moment. New game never hands you the puzzle you were just playing, as long as at least one other is out. It doesn't remember further back than that, so a puzzle you solved a few games ago can turn up again. "As many as you like" is about how often you can press New game, not a promise that every board will be new to you. Whichever board comes up, it has exactly one solution that you can reach by deduction.

After a solve, Next puzzle in the result dialog does exactly what New game does: it closes the dialog and starts another board at once.

Reset or New game?

Reset and New game sit side by side but do different things. Reset keeps the same puzzle and wipes your queens and × marks from it while the timer carries on, which suits a fresh attempt at a board you want to finish. Undo can bring the cleared board back if you pressed Reset by mistake. New game swaps the puzzle itself and starts its timer from zero, and the board you left can't be brought back.

Hints and results

Hint works here as on every other board: it explains one deduction from the position you have, highlighting what that deduction rests on, and only shows a queen if you ask again on the same step. There is no limit on how often you use it, though a board on which Hint showed you a queen sets no best time for that puzzle. When a queen or × on the board is wrong, Hint points to the mistake before it suggests anything new.

Each solve opens the result dialog with your time, your personal best for that puzzle and your Streak. Best times belong to the puzzle, not the page, so a puzzle you first met as a Daily or in the Archive brings its best time with it. Share result passes on the puzzle number and your time, with a link to that puzzle.

A few boards at a time

Unlimited suits a short break as well as a long session. You can stop after a single board or keep pressing New game for as long as you like. Nothing carries over between visits except your best times and your Streak, so reloading the page simply gives you another random puzzle. If you liked a board, note its number: every puzzle has its own page in the Archive, where you can play it again.

When to switch to Daily or the Archive

Come back to the Daily when you want the one board everyone is playing today, with its date on it. Open the Archive when you want a particular earlier puzzle, chosen by its day, rather than a random one. Stay on Unlimited when all you want is the next board.

FAQ