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. There are 28 standard puzzles, given by
numbers on the back of the puzzle. Put red markers at the two or three holes that
have the number of the puzzle 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.
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.
Solution:
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.
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17582463
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17468253
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61528374
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41582736
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51842736
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31758246
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51468273
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71386425
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51863724
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57142863
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63184275
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53172864
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The following is a list of all solutions to the preset puzzles.
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1.
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36271485
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2.
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64285713
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3.
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53172864
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4.
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57248136
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5.
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41586372
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6.
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25713864
25741863
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7.
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64718253
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8.
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16837425
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9.
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84136275
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10.
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17468253
47185263
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11.
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52473861
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12.
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42586137
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13.
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63175824
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14.
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51842736
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15.
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28613574
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16.
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48531726
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17.
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62714853
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18.
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63571428
63581427
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19.
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58413627
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20.
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31758246
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21.
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63184275
83162574
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22.
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63571428
64713528
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23.
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47382516
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24.
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42861357
52468317
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25.
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61528384
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26.
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82417536
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27.
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46831752
47531682
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28.
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72418536
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