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Archive · Queens #41

Queens #41 (November 5, 2026): solution and step-by-step

The 9×9 Medium puzzle from Thursday, November 5, 2026. Play it first; the answer is folded below. Replays don't affect your streak.

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Queens #41 was the 9×9 medium board of Thursday, November 5, 2026. Our deduction solver, the same one behind the hint button, finishes it in 31 steps without guessing: 25 follow straight from the rules (a queen's neighbours, a line that already has its queen, a line with one free cell left), 6 come from confinement (a region squeezed into one row or column, or several regions sharing the same rows), and none need a “what if” check. The regions range from 3 to 16 cells; the smallest are gold and orchid, and small regions are where the board opens up.

Queens #41 in numbers

Board9×9, Medium
Regions9, from 3 to 16 cells
Deduction steps31
Rule steps (neighbours, satisfied lines, last cell)25
Confinement steps6
“What if” contradictions0
Solver difficulty score8
How to start Queens #41: 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 6 cells. Every free cell of the gold region is in column 1, so that region's queen must be there — the rest of column 1 is crossed out.

  2. Queen at row 7, column 2. The rose region has only one free cell left — that must be its queen.

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

  4. Cross out 6 cells. Row 7 already has its queen — the rest of it is crossed out.

  5. Cross out 6 cells. Column 2 already has its queen — the rest of it is crossed out.

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

  7. Queen at row 6, column 9. The orchid region has only one free cell left — that must be its queen.

  8. Cross out row 6, column 8. Queens can't touch, not even diagonally — the cells around this queen are crossed out.

  9. Cross out 4 cells. Row 6 already has its queen — the rest of it is crossed out.

  10. Cross out 6 cells. Column 9 already has its queen — the rest of it is crossed out.

  11. Cross out row 4, column 3. This cell touches every free cell of row 5 — a queen here would leave row 5 with no queen, so it's crossed out.

  12. Cross out row 4, column 4. This cell touches every free cell of row 5 — a queen here would leave row 5 with no queen, so it's crossed out.

19 more steps follow the same pattern until the 9 queens are placed.

Queens #41 solution

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

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

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