Daily Queens Game — Saturday, July 11, 2026
Saturday, July 11, 2026 · 11x11 grid. A brand new puzzle, the same for everyone, resetting at midnight UTC.
About the daily Queens game
A new Queens puzzle every day at midnight UTC — free online, no sign-up. Replay unlimited past challenges from the daily archive or browse 1,800+ Queens puzzles.
How to play Queens
- The board is an N×N grid divided into N colored regions.
- Place exactly one queen (♛) in each row, each column, and each colored region.
- No two queens may touch each other — not horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
- Tap once to mark a square with an X (where a queen can't go), tap again to place a queen, and once more to clear it.
- There is always exactly one valid solution. Use logic, never guessing, to find it.
Step-by-step solution for puzzle #1
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #1, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 23 deductions — 11 queen placements and 12 elimination steps that narrow the board between them. Each step names the rule that forces it, so nothing below is a guess, and the hardest idea required is the proof by contradiction.
Techniques this board needs: region confined to one line, region shadow, pairing argument on rows, pairing argument on columns, proof by contradiction, last square in a region.
Show the full walkthrough (17 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Indigo cannot leave column 4 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That column belongs to indigo, so every square in it owned by another colour is dead: 13 squares in all.
Step 2. Amber is down to 3 candidates in rows 1 and 2, columns 1 and 2, and they overlap enough to cover 1 square elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about amber itself.
Step 3. The teal region has 4 squares left, spread across rows 9–11, columns 8 and 9. You do not need to know which of them takes the queen: every one of those options attacks the same 1 square, so they can be crossed out now.
Step 4. Here is the pairing argument. The indigo and amber regions have no open squares outside rows 1 and 2 — 2 colours confined to 2 rows. Between them they must take one row each, in some order, so every other colour is shut out of all of them: 12 squares come off in one stroke.
The board after step 4 — 0 of 11 queens placed. Step 5. Blue and mint are now boxed into rows 3 and 4 and nothing else. That is 2 colours needing 2 rows, so they fill those rows between them — which locks every remaining colour out and removes 8 squares at once.
Step 6. All of the slate region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in row 5. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere on that row, which means no other colour may use it: 8 squares come off.
Step 7. Amber, blue, and pale yellow are now boxed into columns 1–3 and nothing else. That is 3 colours needing 3 columns, so they fill those columns between them — which locks every remaining colour out and removes 8 squares at once.
Step 8. Here is the pairing argument. The slate, khaki, sea green, and teal regions have no open squares outside columns 8–11 — 4 colours confined to 4 columns. Between them they must take one column each, in some order, so every other colour is shut out of all of them: 9 squares come off in one stroke.
Step 9. The red region has 5 squares left, spread across rows 6 and 7, columns 5–7. You do not need to know which of them takes the queen: every one of those options attacks the same 1 square, so they can be crossed out now.
The board after step 9 — 0 of 11 queens placed. Step 10. Now a short proof by contradiction. Suppose the indigo queen went to row 2, column 4. Follow the forced moves that would create and column 9 runs out of open squares entirely — impossible. So that square is ruled out for good.
Step 11. Only row 1, column 4 is still open in indigo, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 1, in column 4, in indigo and in the ring around that square is now dead.
Step 12. The amber region is down to one open square, at row 2, column 1. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Row 2 and column 1 are now spoken for, along with the squares touching that queen.
Step 13. Test row 4, column 2 for blue: place a queen there, run the forced consequences through, and column 9 runs out of open squares entirely. The assumption breaks, so the square is eliminated.
The board after step 13 — 2 of 11 queens placed. Step 14. The blue region is down to one open square, at row 3, column 3. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Cross out the whole of row 3 and column 3, the remaining blue squares, and the ring of neighbours around row 3, column 3.
Step 15. Only row 4, column 6 is still open in mint, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 4, in column 6, in mint and in the ring around that square is now dead.
Step 16. Now a short proof by contradiction. Suppose the slate queen went to row 5, column 11. Follow the forced moves that would create and the teal region is left with nowhere to put its queen — impossible. So that square is ruled out for good.
Step 17. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 7 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 8; teal has one square left, so its queen takes row 11, column 9; sea green has one square left, so its queen takes row 10, column 11; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, column 2; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 5; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 10; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 7. After each one, clear that row, that column, the rest of the colour and the ring of neighbours before looking for the next. The last of them seats the queen on row 9, column 7.
The board after step 17 — 11 of 11 queens placed.
That completes the board: 11 queens seated, one in every row, one in every column and one in every colour, with no two of them touching. Notice that nothing in the sequence above required a guess — each placement followed from an elimination already on the grid, which is what “single solution, solvable by logic” actually means in practice.
About 11x11 Queens puzzle #1
Puzzle #1 is one of the hard-rated boards in the 11x11 set. Eleven colors divide its 121 squares, and you win by placing eleven queens so that each row, each column and each color holds exactly one, with no two queens adjacent in any direction.
As with every puzzle in this collection, #1 has a single verified solution and needs no guesswork. Each queen follows from something already visible. What the board controls is tempo — how soon the first forced move shows up and how far apart the rest are spaced — and that is a direct consequence of how these colors are cut.
How the colors divide this board
From smallest to largest, the regions on puzzle #1 are: indigo (2 squares), amber (4 squares), sea green (4 squares), teal (4 squares), blue (7 squares), slate (9 squares), khaki (11 squares), pale yellow (15 squares), red (21 squares), orange (21 squares), mint (23 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the indigo region is running 9 squares under that average while the mint region is the roomiest area on the grid with 23 squares.
Every color takes one queen and one only, whatever its size — which is why the 21 square difference between indigo and mint is worth noting before you touch the grid. The cramped colors resolve first and hand you information; the roomy ones absorb whatever is left over at the end.
Shape matters as much as size. The indigo region is the most compact color here, filling 100% of the 2×1 box that encloses it, while orange is the most scattered at 53% of its 5×8 box. Compact regions are easy to eliminate around; straggling ones reach into more rows and columns and tend to stay unresolved until late.
Region by region
The complete breakdown of each region on this board follows, ordered from tightest to roomiest. Skimming the spans first tells you where the board is crowded and where it has slack.
Indigo covers 2 squares, spanning 2 rows and 1 column (rows 1–2, columns 4–4). It sits wholly inside column 4, so its queen must be in that column.
Amber occupies 4 squares within rows 1–2, columns 1–3.
Sea green: 4 squares across rows 10–11, columns 10–11.
Teal covers 4 squares, spanning 3 rows and 2 columns (rows 9–11, columns 8–9).
Blue occupies 7 squares within rows 2–4, columns 1–3.
Slate: 9 squares across rows 3–5, columns 7–11.
Khaki covers 11 squares, spanning 6 rows and 3 columns (rows 5–10, columns 9–11).
Pale yellow occupies 15 squares within rows 5–11, columns 1–4.
Red: 21 squares across rows 4–7, columns 2–9.
Orange covers 21 squares, spanning 5 rows and 8 columns (rows 7–11, columns 2–9).
Mint occupies 23 squares within rows 1–4, columns 3–11.
Where to start on this board
Indigo is the natural opening on #1: it is the smallest region on the grid at 2 squares, boxed into rows 1–2 and columns 4–4. Since one of those squares must hold a queen, that block of 2 rows and 1 column is the most contested part of the board.
Because indigo stays inside column 4, its queen belongs to that column and no other region may use it. Cross out the rest of column 4 straight away. Any color that was relying on those squares now has a visibly smaller footprint, and that shrinkage is where your second deduction comes from.
Work outward to the other flat regions next. Amber and sea green are no more than two rows tall, so their queens are confined to a narrow band. When two flat regions overlap the same pair of rows, those rows are spoken for and every other color is locked out of both — the single most productive pattern in the game, and it is live on this board.
The tightest lines on puzzle #1
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, rows 1, 3, 6 and 8 are the narrowest, touched by only 3 colors. Columns 1, 5 and 6 are the tightest columns, with 3 colors.
Count colors per line and you have a ranking of where to look. The narrowest rows here see only 3 colors, so one of that handful must take the row and the rest are squeezed into the other 10 rows. Row 10 sits at the far end with 5 colors crossing it; it will almost certainly be among the last to settle.
Working through the middle game
Once two or three queens are down, the board changes character. Each queen removes an entire row, an entire column and the ring of up to eight squares around it, so the grid shrinks faster than most people expect. The habit that pays here is marking rather than remembering: after every placement, cross out the full row, the full column and all eight neighbours before hunting for the next move.
Keep alternating between two views of the board. In the region view you ask which of the eleven colors is down to one open square. In the line view you ask the same of each row and column. Both produce forced queens, and each placement refreshes the other view, so cycling between them deliberately is how a 11x11 board unwinds.
The trap on a board like this is placing a queen that is merely plausible. Every placement should be traceable to an elimination you can point at. If you cannot name the rule that forced it, you are guessing — and on a single-solution grid a guess costs more to unwind than the deduction would have taken to find.
Why puzzle #1 is rated hard
Ratings track how generous the opening is. On #1 you get one region pinned to a single row or column, a smallest color of 2 squares, a tightest row crossed by 3 colors, and a 21-square gap between the largest and smallest regions. Those four numbers largely explain the hard label.
The scale has nothing to do with maths or luck — every puzzle here is solvable by deduction and has exactly one answer. It measures reasoning depth: how many eliminations must stack up before a placement becomes provable. That depth is what separates a hard board from the rest.
A board that feels above its rating is nearly always a board with a missing X. Audit every queen on the grid: full row cleared, full column cleared, all eight touching squares cleared. Diagonals are the common omission, and missing one is far more often the cause of a stall than any genuine difficulty in the puzzle.
Techniques that work well at 11x11
At 11x11 you are managing 121 squares, and holding the whole board in your head will not work. Split it into quadrants and solve locally. Most useful deductions on a grid this large are regional — a color pinched between two placed queens, or a band of rows that two regions must share. Trust the marks on the board over your memory.
There is one technique that repays study at every grid size. Two regions restricted to the same two rows must occupy one row apiece, which excludes all other regions from those rows entirely; the identical logic applies to columns and to larger matched sets. It converts slow boards into fast ones, and the likeliest place to find it on #1 is row 1.
Use this as a rough check on your progress: the completed board has 4 queens around the border and 7 queens in the middle, and nothing in the corners. Solutions spread out; if yours is bunching up in one region of the grid, retrace a few moves.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is 11x11 Queens puzzle #1?
Puzzle #1 is rated hard. Its smallest color region holds 2 squares, its tightest row is touched by 3 colors, and one of its regions is confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 11x11 puzzle #1 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #1, has been verified to have exactly one valid arrangement of eleven queens, and it can always be reached by logic alone — no guessing or backtracking needed.
Where should I place my first queen on puzzle #1?
Start with the indigo region — the most constrained color on this board, with 2 squares spanning rows 1–2 and columns 4–4. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.
What makes the daily Queens game special
The daily Queens game challenge is one carefully chosen puzzle that is the same for every player around the world. A new board goes live every day at midnight UTC and stays as the day's official puzzle until the next reset. Because everyone is solving the identical grid, the daily becomes a shared experience: you can compare how you approached it with friends, talk through the tricky deduction in the middle, or simply enjoy the quiet satisfaction of knowing you cracked the same board as solvers everywhere else.
Like every puzzle on the site, the daily Queens game online is completely free, needs no sign-up and runs instantly in your browser so you can play Queens online in seconds. It is designed to be a perfect bite-sized brain exercise — long enough to feel earned, short enough to fit into a coffee break. Solving it keeps your daily streak alive, and the streak is a gentle nudge to come back tomorrow and keep the logical part of your mind warmed up.
How today's puzzle is chosen
Each day's board is drawn from our larger library of verified puzzles, so the daily inherits the same cast-iron guarantee as the rest of the site: it has exactly one solution and that solution is always reachable by logic alone, never by guessing. The grid size and the specific puzzle rotate from day to day, which keeps the routine varied — some days you will face a brisk smaller board, other days a meatier grid that rewards a slower, more methodical solve.
Because the selection is deterministic and tied to the date, the puzzle you see today is exactly the puzzle every other player sees today, and it is exactly the puzzle that will sit at this date forever in the archive. There is no randomness between players and no way to refresh into an easier board — the challenge is fixed, fair and shared, which is precisely what makes comparing solves with other people meaningful.
Replay the full daily archive
Missing a day is never a problem here. Every past daily challenge is preserved in the archive, so you can step back to any previous date and play that day's board exactly as it appeared. This is something the original LinkedIn-style daily does not let you do, and it turns the daily from a one-shot novelty into a deep, replayable collection you can binge whenever you like.
The archive is also a great way to practice. If today's grid size suits you, browse backward to find more boards of the same shape, or work through the history in order to feel how the puzzles vary over time. You can move directly between consecutive days using the previous and next links, jump to any date from the archive list, or branch out into the full puzzle library whenever you want even more to solve.
A simple daily solving routine
A reliable routine makes the daily quick and stress-free. Begin by reading the colors: find the smallest or most awkwardly shaped region, because a cramped region usually forces its queen into one of very few squares. Then sweep the rows and columns for any line that already has only a single open cell, since a queen must go there. Place those forced queens first and let them do the heavy lifting.
After every placement, immediately mark X's on the squares that queen rules out — the rest of its row, column and region, plus every neighboring square it touches. These marks keep the board honest and constantly expose the next forced move. When easy moves run out, hunt for pairs of regions confined to the same rows or columns; identifying those locked lines is what breaks open the harder daily boards. Work in calm passes, trust the logic, and the final queen will click into place.
More ways to keep playing
If one puzzle a day is not enough, the Queens game online keeps you covered. Dive into the archive to replay history, or open the full library of more than 1,800 puzzles across six grid sizes, from quick 7x7 boards to demanding 12x12 grids. Every one of them follows the same friendly promise: one queen per row, one per column, one per color region, none of them touching, and a single solution you can always reach by reasoning rather than luck.
However you choose to play, the daily challenge is a great anchor for the habit. Solve it each day to protect your streak, use the archive to catch up on anything you missed, and lean on the wider library whenever you want to push your skills further. It is a free, friendly, guess-free logic puzzle that is always ready when you want to think.