8 Queens Puzzle

Challenge your students to solve this free printable version of the 8 queens puzzle, a classic chess puzzle from the 1800s.

I shared a Halloween version of this puzzle called the 8 Bats Puzzle back in October, and many of you asked me for a non-seasonal version that could be used all year round with students.

Instructions

Place eight queens on the chessboard so that no queens are in conflict with one another. This means that no two queens are on the same line, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

Prepping this Puzzle for the Classroom

Each student or group of students will need a copy of the puzzle page as well as a set of eight queens.

If you don’t have a surplus of chess pieces lying around in your classroom, I have created a set of printable queen pieces that can be printed, laminated, and cut out.

Puzzle Source

This classic Eight Queens chess puzzle was first published by Max Bezzel in 1848.

Alternate Version with Circles

If your students aren’t familiar with chess or you think the chess queens might be too intimidating for them, I created an alternate printable version with just circles.

Like with the 8 queens version above, I created a printable version with the gameboard and printable circles.

I chose circles because you could then easily use bingo chips as playing pieces instead of having to cut out paper circle pieces. Work smarter, not harder, right?!?

Seasonal Versions

You could easily turn this into a seasonal activity by changing what type of piece you are arranging on the board.

I created an 8 Bats Puzzle for Halloween. You could do 8 Ornaments for Christmas or 8 Hearts for Valentine’s Day.

I have uploaded editable files at the bottom of this post that will allow you to edit this puzzle for your own classroom.