Ronin

About Ronin

Ronin is a logic puzzle that swaps the digits of sudoku for chess pieces. The board is a 6x6 chessboard split into six regions of 3x2 squares, and every region needs exactly one king, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn.

It is made by Andrew Taylor, who also publishes puzzles such as Cell Tower, 3Doku, Celtix and Ophex on his site, and the game is dated 2024.

Each day there is one numbered puzzle with a few pieces already placed as clues. You fill the rest so that no two pieces of the same kind attack each other, ignoring anything in between: two rooks cannot share a row or column, two bishops cannot share a diagonal, two knights cannot be a knight's move apart, and so on. Pen, pencil and highlight tools help you track candidates, and a countdown shows when the next puzzle comes. Your streak is saved, and older puzzles can still be opened.

The twist is that each piece type brings its own kind of constraint, so the queens behave like a small queens puzzle while the knights and pawns add local rules. It suits sudoku players who know how chess pieces move and want a short, different daily grid.

How to play Ronin

1. Open Ronin and start today's numbered puzzle.
2. Pick a piece (king, queen, rook, bishop, knight or pawn) and tap an empty square to place it.
3. Give every 3x2 region one of each of the six pieces.
4. Make sure no two pieces of the same type attack each other, ignoring pieces in between.
5. Fill the whole board correctly to finish and extend your streak.

Screenshots

Tips

• There are only a few ways to fit six non-attacking queens on a 6x6 board, so ruling some out can place all the queens at once.
• Pawns may never sit diagonally next to each other, which removes many squares quickly.
• Use the option to highlight attacked squares when you are stuck on one piece type.

Questions