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Archive · Queens #23

Queens #23 (October 18, 2026): solution and step-by-step

The 11×11 Hard puzzle from Sunday, October 18, 2026. Play it first; the answer is folded below. Replays don't affect your streak.

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Queens #23 was the 11×11 hard board of Sunday, October 18, 2026. Our deduction solver, the same one behind the hint button, finishes it in 44 steps without guessing: 31 follow straight from the rules (a queen's neighbours, a line that already has its queen, a line with one free cell left), 10 come from confinement (a region squeezed into one row or column, or several regions sharing the same rows), and 3 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 2 to 22 cells; the smallest is sky, and small regions are where the board opens up.

Queens #23 in numbers

Board11×11, Hard
Regions11, from 2 to 22 cells
Deduction steps44
Rule steps (neighbours, satisfied lines, last cell)31
Confinement steps10
“What if” contradictions3
Solver difficulty score36
How to start Queens #23: 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 9 cells. Every free cell of the sky region is in column 1, so that region's queen must be there — the rest of column 1 is crossed out.

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

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

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

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

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

  7. Cross out row 2, column 4. A queen here would leave no room for a queen in the coral region — so it's crossed out.

  8. Cross out row 3, column 5. A queen here would leave no room for a queen in the coral region — so it's crossed out.

  9. Cross out row 4, column 4. A queen here would leave no room for a queen in the orchid region — so it's crossed out.

  10. Cross out 7 cells. Every free cell of the coral region is in row 3, so that region's queen must be there — the rest of row 3 is crossed out.

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

  12. Cross out 4 cells. The gold region, the lavender region and the mint region all fit inside rows 1, 2, 4, so those 3 rows' queens are theirs — every other cell in rows 1, 2, 4 is crossed out.

32 more steps follow the same pattern until the 11 queens are placed.

Queens #23 solution

Queens by row: row 1: column 2 (mint); row 2: column 7 (lavender); row 3: column 3 (coral); row 4: column 11 (gold); row 5: column 1 (sky); row 6: column 4 (orchid); row 7: column 6 (rose); row 8: column 8 (lime); row 9: column 10 (teal); row 10: column 5 (peach); row 11: column 9 (stone).

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

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