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Archive · Queens #22

Queens #22 (October 17, 2026): solution and step-by-step

The 10×10 Hard puzzle from Saturday, October 17, 2026. Play it first; the answer is folded below. Replays don't affect your streak.

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Queens #22 was the 10×10 hard board of Saturday, October 17, 2026. Our deduction solver, the same one behind the hint button, finishes it in 47 steps without guessing: 30 follow straight from the rules (a queen's neighbours, a line that already has its queen, a line with one free cell left), 15 come from confinement (a region squeezed into one row or column, or several regions sharing the same rows), and 2 need a “what if” check: imagine a queen in a cell and watch some row, column or region run out of room. The regions range from 3 to 22 cells; the smallest is sky, and small regions are where the board opens up.

Queens #22 in numbers

Board10×10, Hard
Regions10, from 3 to 22 cells
Deduction steps47
Rule steps (neighbours, satisfied lines, last cell)30
Confinement steps15
“What if” contradictions2
Solver difficulty score35
How to start Queens #22: the first 12 deductions

Each step is a deduction a person can make, in the order our solver found them. Rows and columns are counted from the top-left corner.

  1. Cross out row 2, column 5. This cell touches every free cell of the gold region — a queen here would leave the gold region with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  2. Cross out row 1, column 4. This cell touches every free cell of the lavender region — a queen here would leave the lavender region with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  3. Cross out row 5, column 5. This cell touches every free cell of the sky region — a queen here would leave the sky region with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  4. Cross out 6 cells. Every free cell of the orchid region is in row 6, so that region's queen must be there — the rest of row 6 is crossed out.

  5. Cross out 10 cells. The gold region and the sky region all fit inside columns 5 and 6, so those 2 columns' queens are theirs — every other cell in columns 5 and 6 is crossed out.

  6. Cross out 7 cells. Every free cell of the lavender region is in row 2, so that region's queen must be there — the rest of row 2 is crossed out.

  7. Cross out row 1, column 3. This cell touches every free cell of row 2 — a queen here would leave row 2 with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  8. Cross out row 3, column 3. This cell touches every free cell of row 2 — a queen here would leave row 2 with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  9. Cross out row 3, column 4. This cell touches every free cell of row 2 — a queen here would leave row 2 with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  10. Cross out row 5, column 3. This cell touches every free cell of row 6 — a queen here would leave row 6 with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  11. Cross out row 7, column 3. This cell touches every free cell of row 6 — a queen here would leave row 6 with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  12. Cross out row 3, column 6. This cell touches every free cell of column 5 — a queen here would leave column 5 with no queen, so it's crossed out.

35 more steps follow the same pattern until the 10 queens are placed.

Queens #22 solution

Queens by row: row 1: column 1 (coral); row 2: column 3 (lavender); row 3: column 5 (gold); row 4: column 8 (mint); row 5: column 6 (sky); row 6: column 4 (orchid); row 7: column 9 (lime); row 8: column 7 (rose); row 9: column 2 (peach); row 10: column 10 (teal).

Back to the Queens archive, today's puzzle, or the rules and deductions used above.

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