Shikaku — Daily rectangle puzzle
Split a 6x6 grid into rectangles, one clue inside each, matching its shape and its size. The Shikaku puzzle LinkedIn calls Patches. Daily plus unlimited.
How to Play Shikaku
Shikaku is a daily rectangle puzzle on a 6x6 grid. A handful of cells carry a clue, and the job is to split the whole board into rectangles so that every rectangle holds exactly one clue and matches it. The icon fixes the shape — a square, wider than tall, or taller than wide — and the number fixes how many cells the rectangle covers. Either half of a clue can be hidden, and hiding it is what makes a board hard: a clue showing only "wider than tall" still pins one rectangle once the rest of the board closes in on it. Draw a rectangle by dragging across it, by tapping two opposite corners, or with the keyboard; the outline turns green the moment it is legal and stays dashed while it is not, so nothing is ever guessed at. Every board is run through a solver before it ships and only boards with exactly one tiling are published. Free, no account, and the same board worldwide.
How Shikaku works
Shikaku is a rectangle puzzle on a 6x6 grid. Seven to nine cells carry a clue; every other cell is blank. The whole grid has to end up divided into rectangles, with exactly one clue inside each rectangle.
A clue says two things about its rectangle, and it can keep either one to itself. The icon is the shape family — square, wider than tall, or taller than wide. The number is the exact cell count. A clue always shows at least one of the two; how much it hides is the difficulty dial, and it is set by a solver rather than by feel.
You draw a rectangle by dragging across it, by tapping two opposite corners, or from the keyboard — arrow to a corner, Enter to anchor, arrows to extend, Enter to close. The outline reads solid when the rectangle is legal and dashed when it is not, so an illegal shape is never committed and never costs anything.
There is no fail state and no guess counter. Tapping a rectangle you already drew takes it back, and Undo walks the whole board backwards. The only measurement is the clock, the same as Queens and Binary.
Every board served here is run through an exact-cover solver first, and only boards with exactly one possible tiling are published — so a board that looks ambiguous never is.
Tips & Strategy
A clue with no number is not a free choice. Its rectangle still has to fit between its neighbours, and on a 6x6 board that usually leaves one or two candidates once the surrounding patches are placed.
Any rectangle you draw must contain exactly one clue. That rules out a great many shapes instantly: if a candidate would swallow a second clue, it is dead, whatever its size.
A six-cell rectangle is 6x1, 3x2, 2x3 or 1x6, and the shape icon usually eliminates half of those. A five-cell rectangle only has 5x1 and 1x5 — prime numbers are the easiest clues on the board.
If a cell cannot be covered by any rectangle from any remaining clue, one of the patches you already placed is wrong. Back that one out rather than forcing the rest around it.
Add up the numbers you can see. The difference between that total and 36 is how much the hidden-number clues have to cover between them, which often pins the largest one.
Tapping a drawn rectangle removes it and costs nothing but a move. Shikaku has no fail state and no life counter — the only thing being measured is the clock.
More Game Modes
One word per day. 6 guesses. The classic.
2 boards, 1 keyboard, 7 guesses.
4 boards, 1 keyboard, 9 guesses.
8 boards, 1 keyboard, 13 guesses.
16 boards, 1 keyboard, 21 guesses.
32 boards, 1 keyboard, 37 guesses.
Race the clock. Solve as many words as you can before time runs out.
Find the mystery country. 6 guesses on a paper globe.
Guess the daily math equation in 6 tries.
Swap the 21 tiles so every row and column spells a word. 15 swaps, par 10.
Crown each region — one queen per row, column, and colored area.
A chess puzzle a day. Drag your moves, submit when ready, learn from the colours.
Lay every domino so each outlined region satisfies its rule.
Fill a 6x6 grid with suns and moons — balanced lines, never three in a row.
Draw one line through every cell — numbers in order, walls in the way.
Name the country from its flag. 6 guesses, one tile at a time.
Fill a 6x6 grid so every row, column and 2x3 box holds 1 to 6 once.
Name the country from its shape alone. 6 guesses.
Name the countries that link two places by land.
Read the clues, rule out the impossible, find the only grid that fits.
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