The touching rule, precisely
Crowns cannot share a row, column or colored region. They also cannot occupy neighboring cells, including diagonal neighbors. A crown on R2C2 blocks R1C1, R1C3, R3C1 and R3C3 through adjacency. Horizontal and vertical neighbors are already blocked by the row and column rules.
A crown at R4C4 does not touch R2C2. That distant diagonal is allowed if the crowns belong to different regions and obey the row and column rules. This is not chess: a crown does not attack along an entire diagonal.
- After placing a crown, scan its entire row, column and region, then the four close diagonal cells.
- Two available cells touching diagonally cannot both hold crowns. That fact alone does not tell you which one is correct; look for an additional deduction.
- Keep region letters on if similar colors are difficult to distinguish.
Why the touching rule matters so much
The no-touching rule is what makes Queens a logic puzzle instead of a simple matching exercise. Rows, columns and regions each remove one line of cells; adjacency removes a small ring of eight cells around every crown. Those eight cells often cut a region or a row down to one candidate, which is where most forced moves come from.
Because adjacency reaches across region borders, a crown in one region can decide a neighboring region. When you place a crown near a border, always check the regions on the other side of it first.
Common mistakes
- Treating the diagonal like chess. Only the four touching diagonal cells are blocked; a crown two steps away on a diagonal is fine.
- Forgetting the corners of the ring. The cells above-left, above-right, below-left and below-right are the ones players miss most often.
- Marking an X on a distant diagonal. That cell is still legal unless another rule removes it.
Try one move
Tap the cell that must hold a crown. This is a real position from 5×5 puzzle #5-standard-001.
👑 placed crown · × already ruled out · · still a candidate. Row and column numbers start at 1.
Questions about this technique
Can two queens touch diagonally in the Queens puzzle?
No. Two crowns (queens) may not occupy any of the eight neighboring cells, including the four diagonal neighbors. Crowns further apart on a diagonal are allowed.
Is the Queens puzzle the same as the chess N-queens problem?
No. In chess, queens attack along whole diagonals. In the Queens puzzle only touching cells are forbidden, and colored regions add a third constraint.