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Archive · Queens #44

Queens #44 (November 8, 2026): solution and step-by-step

The 11×11 Hard puzzle from Sunday, November 8, 2026. Play it first; the answer is folded below. Replays don't affect your streak.

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Queens #44 was the 11×11 hard board of Sunday, November 8, 2026. Our deduction solver, the same one behind the hint button, finishes it in 44 steps without guessing: 27 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 26 cells; the smallest is mint, and small regions are where the board opens up.

Queens #44 in numbers

Board11×11, Hard
Regions11, from 3 to 26 cells
Deduction steps44
Rule steps (neighbours, satisfied lines, last cell)27
Confinement steps15
“What if” contradictions2
Solver difficulty score35
How to start Queens #44: 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 8 cells. Every free cell of the mint region is in column 1, so that region's queen must be there — the rest of column 1 is crossed out.

  2. Cross out 8 cells. Every free cell of the gold region is in column 2, so that region's queen must be there — the rest of column 2 is crossed out.

  3. Cross out row 3, 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 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.

  5. Cross out row 2, column 1. This cell touches every free cell of column 2 — a queen here would leave column 2 with no queen, so it's 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 3, 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 5, column 4. A queen here would leave no room for a queen in the orchid region — so it's crossed out.

  9. Cross out 13 cells. The mint region and the coral region all fit inside rows 3 and 4, so those 2 rows' queens are theirs — every other cell in rows 3 and 4 is crossed out.

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

  11. Queen at row 1, column 2. Column 2 has only one free cell left — that must be its queen.

  12. Cross out 8 cells. Row 1 already has its queen — the rest of it is crossed out.

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

Queens #44 solution

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

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

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