Two colors and two rules are all it takes to build a surprisingly deep puzzle. Unruly Black and White unblocked starts you with a few shaded squares, and you have to fill in everything else so the pattern balances out perfectly.
This version by Lennard Sprong belongs to Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection, while the idea goes back to Adolfo Zanellati, who named it Tohu wa Vohu.
How to play Unruly Black and White
Rule one: every row and every column ends up exactly half black and half white. That is why grid sizes are always even. Rule two: three squares of the same color can never sit side by side in a straight line, across or down.
Empty squares are gray. A left-click shades a square black and a right-click shades it white. Keep clicking and the square cycles through the colors and back to empty, so a slip is easy to fix. The starting squares have a thin inner border and cannot be changed.
Break a rule and the game flags it in red. The puzzle is solved when every square is filled with no red left. Grid presets start at 8x8 Trivial and climb to 14x14 Normal. Under Custom, an extra setting makes every row and every column unique.
Controls
| To… | Keyboard | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make a square black (then white, then empty) | Arrow keys to the square, then Enter | Left-click the square | Tap the square |
| Make a square white (then black, then empty) | Space | Right-click the square | Press and hold the square |
| Clear a square | Backspace | Middle-click, or keep clicking until it is empty | Keep tapping until it is empty |
| Undo, redo, new puzzle | U / R / N | Undo move, Redo move and New game buttons | Undo move, Redo move and New game buttons |
Tips
- Cap off every pair. When two matching squares touch, the squares at either end of that pair must be the other color.
- Fill the sandwich. Two same-colored squares with one gap between them force the gap to be the opposite color.
- Count to half. Once a line has its full share of one color, every empty square left in it is the other color.
- Test the last few squares. When a line needs one more of a color, check which spot would create a triple if you guessed wrong.
- Bounce between rows and columns. A square placed in one direction is a new clue in the other.
Unruly Black and White questions
What do the red marks mean?
A red outline shows three of a color in a row. Red exclamation marks mean a row or column already has more than half of one color.
Can I play on a phone?
You can. Tap a square to make it black, or press and hold to make it white. Repeat either one to cycle through the states.
Is there undo?
Yes. Undo and redo have no limit, so you can try a line of reasoning and step back if it leads to a mistake.
