Slow Squares

Binary Diagonals

Filled and hollow squares in equal measure — along both diagonals too.

Binary Diagonals is a binary puzzle with two lines more. Every row and every column holds as many zeros as ones and nowhere three alike stand in a row — and the same goes for the two long diagonals, corner to corner, which the board draws as two lines. A diagonal crosses every row and every column, so it ties the whole board together: most boards cannot be finished without reading them. A few cells are given; the rest is the puzzle. Here the board writes no digits: a zero is a hollow square and a one a filled one, a tap walks a cell from empty to filled to hollow and back, and the board tells you only what your own marks already say — three alike one after another and a mark its row, column or diagonal has too many of take a reddish wash. Nothing is ever marked as “must be the other one” — with two kinds of mark, that would be the answer.

A new board every day — 8 × 8, 10 × 10, and 12 × 12 — the same for everybody, each with a single solution that reasoning alone reaches. No timer and no account needed: a board left half-done waits for you until the day turns, at midnight UTC.

Today’s boards

How to play

Fill every empty cell with a hollow square or a filled one, so that each row, each column and each of the two long diagonals — the lines drawn corner to corner — holds as many of one as of the other.

Never three alike one after another — not in a row, not in a column, and not along either of those two diagonals.

Tap a cell for a filled square, tap again for a hollow one, once more to clear it. The squares the board came with stay put: tap one and they all give a shake, to show which they are.

Shown in red: three of the same kind one after another, and squares a row, column or diagonal has too many of.

Solved: four hollow and four filled in every row, every column and both drawn diagonals, and nowhere three alike one after another along any of them.

How to solve Binary Diagonals

Beyond today’s board

No timer. Leave and come back — it’s saved.

Play today’s Binary Diagonals