Inside every book
Each PDF opens with a cover and a one-page statement of the rules — two stars in every row, column and outlined region, no two stars touching — so a book can be handed to someone who has never seen the puzzle. Then come the boards, four to a page, sized for a pencil. The Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert books each hold twenty boards on five pages; the Mixed book holds sixteen across four, stepping up a tier every page: four easy, four medium, four hard, four expert.
Every board is a released daily puzzle, drawn from the same bank as the boards on the site and checked by our solver to have exactly one solution reachable by logic alone. Nothing in a book requires a guess. And because each board has a play page in the online archive, every book's page lists its puzzles by number — type one in to check an answer, or open its step-by-step solution to see the move you missed.
Solving on paper
Screen solvers get auto-X; paper solvers need a system. A few that hold up across a whole book:
- Dot the X's, don't cross them. A small pencil dot in a ruled-out cell keeps the grid readable; a full X in eighty cells does not. Save the big mark for the stars.
- Ring every star immediately. The moment you place one, dot its eight neighbours before you look anywhere else. On paper there is no board to catch a missed diagonal for you.
- Circle candidates. When a region is down to a few possible cells, a light circle in each lets you see squeezes and claims at a glance — and erases cleanly when the region resolves.
- Count out loud. Two-row bands hold four stars; three-row bands hold six. Saying the arithmetic is the surest way not to lose it halfway across a wide board.
- Work in pencil. Every book has at least one board where you will want to take a mark back.
Which book is yours
For a classroom, a child, or a first-timer: Easy. Every star is forced by one direct observation and the boards forgive slow play; the easy guide covers the three moves they will need on a single page. For a commute or a coffee break: Medium — the tier most regular solvers make their daily habit. For a puzzle club or a long weekend: Hard or Expert, twenty boards that will not all fall on the first sitting. Not sure: Mixed. Sixteen boards that climb from easy to expert tell you exactly where you sit, and which book to print next.
Prefer instant feedback? Play Two Not Touch online free instead — a new set every day, every past board in the archive, and the rules on the how to play page. Want the other game on paper too? The Queens books print in full color.