The 8 puzzle: a 3×3 sliding puzzle

The 8 puzzle is the smallest classic sliding puzzle: eight numbered tiles and one gap on a 3×3 board. It is quick to learn, a good warm-up for the larger boards, and every shuffle here is made from real moves, so it can always be solved. Free, with no app, no sign-up and no interstitial; it works offline and plays from the keyboard.

How to play the 8 puzzle

1. Tap or click a tile next to the gap to slide it; tapping further along the row or column slides the whole run.
2. On a keyboard, an arrow key slides the tile next to the gap in that direction; Tab and Enter pick and slide a specific tile.
3. Arrange tiles 1 to 8 in reading order with the gap in the bottom-right corner.
4. Each shuffle is 108 random moves from the solved board, so it is always solvable.
5. The hint marks the first tile of a shortest solution.

8 puzzle strategy

The 3×3 board has 181,440 reachable positions, and every one of them can be solved in 31 moves or fewer. You do not need to find the shortest path to finish, but the method below gets you to a solve every time.

Top row first

Place 1 in the top-left. Then place 2 and 3 as a pair: park 3 in the middle of the top row, where 2 belongs, bring 2 directly below it, and route the gap into the top-right corner from underneath. Slide 3 right and 2 up, and the row is done.

Then the left column

Put 4 and 7 in the left column as a pair: place 7 where 4 belongs, 4 to its right, then move the gap round so 7 drops down and 4 slides left behind it.

Rotate the last three

Tiles 5, 6 and 8 sit in a 2×2 block with the gap. The tiles can only rotate around the block, so keep turning them in one direction until they fall into place.

Learn from the hint

On this board the hint searches for a shortest solution and marks its first tile as the Optimal move. When you are stuck, one hint often shows a route you had not seen. The first two hints in each puzzle are free.

Daily, stats and printables

The move counter and timer start with your first slide, and the timer pauses when you switch tabs. Stats are kept per board size in your browser: played, won, win rate, best and average time. The 3×3 board keeps its own best time.

Undo and redo are unlimited. The first two hints in each puzzle are free; if ads are switched on later, further hints offer a short ad or a 30-second wait. Every shuffle has a puzzle code such as A7K3Q, so ?p= replays the same start, and Share result copies your time and moves. There is no daily sliding puzzle and no printable version.

Plays anywhere, no app, no account

On a phone each 8 puzzle tile is large and easy to tap, and the arrow keys slide tiles into the gap on any keyboard. Tidy Puzzles runs entirely in your browser: there is no app to install, no account to create and no interstitial before you can play. After the first visit the game also works offline, because each puzzle is generated on your device from a seed. Every board can be played with the keyboard alone, on a phone or a desktop, and your stats and unfinished puzzles stay in this browser rather than on a server.