Twelve Quarto puzzles, with answers. Four ask you to find the winning cell, four to find the only safe piece to hand over, and four to find a squeeze: a move that forces your opponent to hand you the win. Every position comes from a real computer game and was checked by exhaustive search. Each answer is unique and the same under classic Quarto rules and with the 2×2 square rule, so they work whichever way you play.
About us: we make Quads, a game built on the same mechanic as Quarto. It isn't affiliated with Gigamic or the makers of Quarto. These puzzles are new and aren't part of the Quads daily puzzle.
How to read the diagrams
The board is seen from above. Columns are A to D from left to right and rows 1 to 4 from top to bottom. Each piece is drawn by its four traits:
- Tall pieces are drawn larger, short ones smaller.
- Dark pieces are brown, light ones cream.
- Square pieces have square corners, round ones are circles.
- Hollow pieces have a ring in the middle, solid ones don't.
Hover over or long-press a piece to see its name. New to the game? The rules take two minutes.
Puzzles 1–4: win now
You've been handed a piece. Somewhere on the board it completes a line of four that shares a trait. Only one cell works. Check every row, column and diagonal with three pieces in it.
Puzzle 1: win now
You've been handed the tall light square solid piece. Find the one cell where it wins.
Show the answer
D4. It completes column D, where all four pieces are tall. The other lines with three pieces (row 1, column B) can't be finished by this piece, so they're decoys.
Puzzle 2: win now
You've been handed the short dark square hollow piece. Find the one cell where it wins.
Show the answer
B4. It completes column B, where all four pieces are hollow. The other lines with three pieces (row 1, the D1–A4 diagonal) can't be finished by this piece, so they're decoys.
Puzzle 3: win now
You've been handed the short dark round solid piece. Find the one cell where it wins.
Show the answer
A1. It completes column A, where all four pieces are short. The other lines with three pieces (row 3, column B, column C) can't be finished by this piece, so they're decoys.
Puzzle 4: win now
You've been handed the tall light square hollow piece. Find the one cell where it wins.
Show the answer
C4. It completes row 4, where all four pieces are light. The other lines with three pieces (row 3, column A, column B) can't be finished by this piece, so they're decoys.
Puzzles 5–8: the only safe piece
Now you're the one handing over. Find the piece your opponent can't win with. Name what each open line shares, then look for the piece that breaks all of them. Our endgame guide explains the method.
Puzzle 5: the only safe piece
It's your turn to hand over a piece. Which of these 8 can you give without your opponent winning on the spot?
Show the answer
The short dark round solid piece. Every other piece wins somewhere:
- short dark round hollow: wins at B1 (column B, hollow)
- short dark square hollow: wins at B1 (column B, hollow)
- short light round solid: wins at B1 (column B, light)
- tall light round solid: wins at B1 (column B, light)
- tall light square solid: wins at B1 (column B, light)
- short dark square solid: wins at D1 (the D1–A4 diagonal, square)
- tall dark square solid: wins at D1 (the D1–A4 diagonal, square)
Puzzle 6: the only safe piece
It's your turn to hand over a piece. Which of these 8 can you give without your opponent winning on the spot?
Show the answer
The tall dark square hollow piece. Every other piece wins somewhere:
- tall light round hollow: wins at A3 (row 3, light)
- short dark square hollow: wins at A3 (row 3, short)
- short light round solid: wins at A3 (row 3, short and light)
- tall light round solid: wins at A3 (row 3, light)
- short dark round solid: wins at A3 (row 3, short)
- tall light square solid: wins at A3 (row 3, light)
- short dark square solid: wins at A3 (row 3, short)
Puzzle 7: the only safe piece
It's your turn to hand over a piece. Which of these 9 can you give without your opponent winning on the spot?
Show the answer
The tall dark square solid piece. Every other piece wins somewhere:
- short dark round hollow: wins at A3 (column A, round)
- tall dark round hollow: wins at A3 (column A, round)
- short light square hollow: wins at A3 (column A, light)
- tall light square hollow: wins at A3 (column A, light)
- short dark round solid: wins at A3 (column A, round)
- tall dark round solid: wins at A3 (column A, round)
- short light square solid: wins at A3 (column A, light)
- tall light square solid: wins at A3 (column A, light)
Puzzle 8: the only safe piece
It's your turn to hand over a piece. Which of these 9 can you give without your opponent winning on the spot?
Show the answer
The tall dark square solid piece. Every other piece wins somewhere:
- short dark round hollow: wins at C1 (column C, hollow)
- tall dark round hollow: wins at C1 (column C, hollow)
- short dark square hollow: wins at C1 (column C, hollow)
- tall dark square hollow: wins at C1 (column C, hollow)
- tall light round solid: wins at C1 (column C, light)
- short dark round solid: wins at A2 (row 2, round)
- short light square solid: wins at C1 (column C, light)
- tall light square solid: wins at C1 (column C, light)
Puzzles 9–12: the squeeze
The hardest kind. You can't win this turn, but you can make sure you win the next one. Place your piece and choose a safe hand-off so that, wherever your opponent puts it, they're left with nothing safe to hand back.
Puzzle 9: the squeeze
You hold the tall dark round solid piece. It can't win anywhere. After you place it, you'll hand over one of these 5:
Show the answer
Place on B4, then hand over the tall light square solid piece. Your opponent can't win with it, but wherever they place it, each of the 4 pieces they could hand back (short light square hollow; short dark square hollow; short light round solid; short dark round solid) gives you a win. It's the only move in the position that wins by force: an exact search found no other placement and hand-off that wins, however long the game goes on.
Puzzle 10: the squeeze
You hold the tall light square solid piece. It can't win anywhere. After you place it, you'll hand over one of these 5:
Show the answer
Place on C1, then hand over the short dark square hollow piece. Your opponent can't win with it, but wherever they place it, each of the 4 pieces they could hand back (short dark round hollow; tall dark square hollow; short light round solid; tall light round solid) gives you a win. It's the only move in the position that wins by force: an exact search found no other placement and hand-off that wins, however long the game goes on.
Puzzle 11: the squeeze
You hold the short dark square solid piece. It can't win anywhere. After you place it, you'll hand over one of these 3:
Show the answer
Place on A2, then hand over the tall light square hollow piece. Your opponent can't win with it, but wherever they place it, each of the 2 pieces they could hand back (short dark round hollow; tall light square solid) gives you a win. It's the only move in the position that wins by force: an exact search found no other placement and hand-off that wins, however long the game goes on.
Puzzle 12: the squeeze
You hold the tall light square hollow piece. It can't win anywhere. After you place it, you'll hand over one of these 3:
Show the answer
Place on D2, then hand over the tall dark square solid piece. Your opponent can't win with it, but wherever they place it, each of the 2 pieces they could hand back (tall light round hollow; tall light square solid) gives you a win. It's the only move in the position that wins by force: an exact search found no other placement and hand-off that wins, however long the game goes on.
How these puzzles were made
- From real games. We had the Quads computer opponents play thousands of games against each other, with random openings, and collected positions from the middle and end of each game. At most one puzzle comes from any game.
- Checked exhaustively. For every candidate, a program tried every cell and every piece. A position was kept only if exactly one answer works. For the squeezes, an exact solver with no depth limit also confirmed that no other move wins by force.
- Same answer under both rule sets. Each position was checked twice: with classic lines only, and with 2×2 squares added. We kept only positions where the unique answer is identical both ways.
- Not the daily puzzle. Positions in the Quads daily puzzle collection were excluded.
Want more? The Quads daily puzzle has a new position every day, free in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
Are there Quarto puzzles?
Yes. Quarto positions make good puzzles because there is no luck: given a board and the pieces left, each question has a definite answer. This page has twelve, and Quads publishes a new one every day.
What is a squeeze in Quarto?
A move that leaves your opponent with no safe piece to hand back: you place, hand over a safe piece, and wherever they put it, every piece left wins for you.
Do these puzzles work with the 2x2 square rule?
Yes. Every puzzle here has the same single answer under classic rules and with 2x2 squares counting.