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Archive · Queens #40

Queens #40 (November 4, 2026): solution and step-by-step

The 8×8 Hard puzzle from Wednesday, November 4, 2026. Play it first; the answer is folded below. Replays don't affect your streak.

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Queens #40 was the 8×8 hard board of Wednesday, November 4, 2026. Our deduction solver, the same one behind the hint button, finishes it in 26 steps without guessing: 19 follow straight from the rules (a queen's neighbours, a line that already has its queen, a line with one free cell left), 5 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 13 cells; the smallest is gold, and small regions are where the board opens up.

Queens #40 in numbers

Board8×8, Hard
Regions8, from 3 to 13 cells
Deduction steps26
Rule steps (neighbours, satisfied lines, last cell)19
Confinement steps5
“What if” contradictions2
Solver difficulty score31
How to start Queens #40: 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 5 cells. Every free cell of the gold region is in row 1, so that region's queen must be there — the rest of row 1 is crossed out.

  2. Cross out 6 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.

  3. Queen at row 3, column 6. The mint region has only one free cell left — that must be its queen.

  4. Cross out 5 cells. Queens can't touch, not even diagonally — the cells around this queen are crossed out.

  5. Cross out 5 cells. Row 3 already has its queen — the rest of it is crossed out.

  6. Cross out 5 cells. Column 6 already has its queen — the rest of it is crossed out.

  7. Cross out row 6, column 4. This cell touches every free cell of the orchid region — a queen here would leave the orchid region with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  8. Cross out 6 cells. The coral region, the sky region and the orchid region all fit inside rows 4, 5, 6, so those 3 rows' queens are theirs — every other cell in rows 4, 5, 6 is crossed out.

  9. Cross out row 4, column 8. A queen here forces another queen that leaves row 7 without one — so it's crossed out.

  10. Cross out 2 cells. Every free cell of row 4 is in the coral region, so that region's queen must be in row 4 — its other cells are crossed out.

  11. Cross out row 1, column 7. A queen here forces another queen that leaves the rose region without one — so it's crossed out.

  12. Queen at row 1, column 5. Row 1 has only one free cell left — that must be its queen.

14 more steps follow the same pattern until the 8 queens are placed.

Queens #40 solution

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

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

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