Jaap's Puzzle Page

Frustr8tor

Frustr8tor Frustr8tor (Original)

Frustr8tor is a puzzle based on the classic 8 queens problem, in which you try to place 8 queens on a chess board without any queens attacking each other. In other words, you have to choose 8 squares of an 8×8 board such that no two chosen squares are in a line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The Frustr8tor puzzle consists of a black frame with an 8×8 grid of holes in the front. On the back there are two sliders in each column, which allow you to mark any of the holes in a column with either a red or a green dot. On the original version there are 28 challenges, given by numbers on the back of the puzzle. Put red markers at the two or three holes that have the number of the challenge you want to do, and then it is your task to place 5 or 6 green markers on the board to form an 8 queens pattern.

Recently the puzzle has been restyled and re-released in a new version. It has 30 new challenges, instead of the 28 that the original had.

The puzzle was invented by Albert Eckhardt and he was granted international patent WO 2006/098614, published 21 September 2006.

The number of positions:

Suppose three red dots have been placed. You can place the 5 green dots in 85 = 32,768 ways, one in each of the remaining columns. If you ensure no two dots lie in the same row, then there are only 5! = 120 ways to do this. In just one or two of these are there no two dots on the same diagonal.
If you are solving a puzzle with only 2 red dots given, then there are 86 = 262,144 ways to fill the empty columns, but just 6! = 720 with no two dots in the same row.
All together there are only 92 patterns of 8 dots with no two on a horizontal vertical or diagonal line.

If your browser supports JavaScript, then you can click on the link below to play Frustr8tor.

JavaScript Frustr8tor

Solutions:

The 92 patterns:

There are 92 eight-queen patterns, but this reduces to only 12 essentially unique patterns once symmetry is taken into account. There are 11 essentially unique asymmetrical patterns (accounting for 88 of the 92) and 1 symmetrical one (accounting for the remaining 4). The twelve patterns are shown below.

Click to show the unique solution patterns
Click to hide the unique solution patterns
17582463
17468253
61528374
41582736
51842736
31758246
51468273
71386425
51863724
57142863
63184275
53172864

Solutions to Standard version:

The list of all solutions to the puzzle challenges on the current version of the Frustr8tor is currently hidden. Click to show the list of all the solutions.
The following is a list of all solutions to the puzzle challenges on the current version of the Frustr8tor. Click to hide the list of solutions.
The solution of one of the challenges on the current version of the Frustr8tor is shown below. Click to show all the solutions.
1
74286135
2
35714286
3
53168247
4
42736851
5
16837425
36815724
6
57138642
7
73825164
8
47526138
9
64285713
10
35841726
11
63185247
12
64718253
13
52617483
14
83162574
15
57263184
16
36275184
17
42861357
18
71386425
19
82417536
20
47531682
21
82531746
22
63724815
23
15863624
24
63184275
25
48136275
26
27368514
27
57413862
28
62713584
29
42857136
30
51468273

Solutions to Original version:

The list of all solutions to the puzzle challenges on the original version of the Frustr8tor is currently hidden. Click to show the list of all the solutions.
The following is a list of all solutions to the puzzle challenges on the original version of the Frustr8tor. Click to hide the list of solutions.
The solution of one of the challenges on the original version of the Frustr8tor is shown below. Click to show all the solutions.
1.
36271485
2.
64285713
3.
53172864
4.
57248136
5.
41586372
6.
25713864
25741863
7.
64718253
8.
16837425
9.
84136275
10.
17468253
47185263
11.
52473861
12.
42586137
13.
63175824
14.
51842736
15.
28613574
16.
48531726
17.
62714853
18.
63571428
63581427
19.
58413627
20.
31758246
21.
63184275
83162574
22.
63571428
64713528
23.
47382516
24.
42861357
52468317
25.
61528384
26.
82417536
27.
46831752
47531682
28.
72418536