Daily Queens Game — Sunday, July 12, 2026
Sunday, July 12, 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 #58
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #58, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 20 deductions — 11 queen placements and 9 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: last square in a region, region shadow, region confined to one line, pairing argument on columns, proof by contradiction, line confined to one region, last square in a row.
Show the full walkthrough (15 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Only row 10, column 4 is still open in sea green, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 10, column 4, the rest of the sea green region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 2. Khaki is down to 3 candidates in rows 8 and 9, columns 10 and 11, and they overlap enough to cover 1 square elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about khaki itself.
Step 3. Teal cannot leave row 11 — every one of its open squares (3 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to teal, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 5 squares in all.
Step 4. Here is the pairing argument. The amber and khaki regions have no open squares outside columns 10 and 11 — 2 colours confined to 2 columns. Between them they must take one column each, in some order, so every other colour is shut out of all of them: 12 squares come off in one stroke.
Step 5. Only row 11, column 9 is still open in teal, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 11, column 9, the rest of the teal region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
The board after step 5 — 2 of 11 queens placed. Step 6. All of the red region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 8. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 8 squares come off.
Step 7. Only row 9, column 7 is still open in orange, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 9, in column 7, in orange and in the ring around that square is now dead.
Step 8. The khaki region is down to one open square, at row 8, column 11. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Row 8 and column 11 are now spoken for, along with the squares touching that queen.
Step 9. Only row 2, column 10 is still open in amber, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 2, column 10, the rest of the amber region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 10. All of the mint region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 6. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 4 squares come off.
The board after step 10 — 5 of 11 queens placed. Step 11. Indigo and pale yellow are now boxed into columns 3 and 5 and nothing else. That is 2 colours needing 2 columns, so they fill those columns between them — which locks every remaining colour out and removes 5 squares at once.
Step 12. Now a short proof by contradiction. Suppose the indigo queen went to row 1, column 5. Follow the forced moves that would create and the pale yellow region is left with nowhere to put its queen — impossible. So that square is ruled out for good.
Step 13. Test row 3, column 5 for indigo: place a queen there, run the forced consequences through, and column 2 runs out of open squares entirely. The assumption breaks, so the square is eliminated.
Step 14. Every open square left in row 3 (2 open squares) belongs to the blue region. Since that row must contain a queen, blue is the colour that supplies it — so blue squares anywhere else on the board are out, 4 squares in all.
Step 15. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 6 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: row 5 is down to one square, putting a queen on row 5, column 2; blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 1; row 7 is down to one square, putting a queen on row 7, column 5; indigo has one square left, so its queen takes row 1, column 3; mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 6; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 8. 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 6, column 8.
The board after step 15 — 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 #58
Board #58 of the 11x11 bank carries a hard rating. Its 121 squares are shared between eleven colored regions, and the solution places eleven queens: one per row, one per column, one per region, none of them side by side or corner to corner.
As with every puzzle in this collection, #58 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 #58 are: sea green (1 square), khaki (3 squares), amber (4 squares), teal (6 squares), blue (8 squares), indigo (11 squares), red (13 squares), pale yellow (13 squares), orange (18 squares), mint (20 squares), slate (24 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the sea green region is running 10 squares under that average while the slate region is the roomiest area on the grid with 24 squares.
That imbalance is the first thing to read, because every region takes exactly one queen regardless of how much space it owns. Sea green has only 1 place to put its queen; slate has 24. The spread between them on this board is 23 squares, and the wider that spread runs, the more it pays to solve from the small end inward.
Square count is only half the story — how a color is arranged counts too. Sea green is the tidiest shape on #58, packing 100% of its 1×1 bounding box, whereas mint straggles across its 8×5 box at just 50%. Tidy blocks are easy to work around; scattered ones touch more lines and resist resolution.
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.
Sea green covers 1 square, spanning 1 row and 1 column (rows 10–10, columns 4–4). It never leaves row 10, so its queen is locked to that row.
Khaki occupies 3 squares within rows 8–9, columns 10–11.
Amber: 4 squares across rows 1–3, columns 10–11.
Teal covers 6 squares, spanning 2 rows and 3 columns (rows 10–11, columns 9–11).
Blue occupies 8 squares within rows 1–5, columns 1–3.
Indigo: 11 squares across rows 1–4, columns 2–6.
Red covers 13 squares, spanning 4 rows and 4 columns (rows 4–7, columns 8–11).
Pale yellow occupies 13 squares within rows 5–9, columns 3–6.
Orange: 18 squares across rows 7–11, columns 4–10.
Mint covers 20 squares, spanning 8 rows and 5 columns (rows 1–8, columns 6–10).
Slate occupies 24 squares within rows 4–11, columns 1–5.
Where to start on this board
Begin where the choices are fewest. On this board that means sea green, which owns just 1 square inside a 1×1 window running from row 10 to row 10 and column 4 to column 4. A queen is guaranteed somewhere in there, so every line that window crosses is under pressure from the very first move.
Because sea green never leaves row 10, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 10 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not sea green. Then look at which colors just lost ground: on a grid this size that one observation usually forces a second region within a move or two.
Work outward to the other flat regions next. Khaki and teal 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 #58
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, row 11 is the narrowest, touched by only 3 colors. Columns 1 and 7 are the tightest columns, with 2 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 8 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
Past the opening, treat this as an elimination exercise rather than a placement exercise. Each queen takes out a row, a column and its eight neighbours, and the value of a move is measured by how much it removes. Cross everything out as you go and let the board do the remembering.
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.
Say the reason out loud: "this region has one square left", "this column has one square left". If no such sentence is available, the eliminating is not finished. One more pass of X marks is almost always quicker than committing to a placement you cannot defend.
Why puzzle #58 is rated hard
Ratings track how generous the opening is. On #58 you get two regions pinned to a single row or column, a smallest color of 1 square, a tightest row crossed by 3 colors, and a 23-square gap between the largest and smallest regions. Those four numbers largely explain the hard label.
Nothing about the rating involves computation or chance. Each grid has a single solution reachable by pure logic; the rating simply measures how far ahead you have to reason. Easy boards resolve a queen every step or two, while hard ones can ask you to carry three unfinished lines of thought before any of them pays off.
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.
One pattern is worth learning at every size, and it is available here. When two regions can only fit inside the same two rows, they must take one row each — which locks every other region out of both. The same argument works for columns, and for any matching count: three regions sharing three rows, four sharing four. Spotting these pairings turns a slow grind into a quick cascade, and on #58 the place to look for one is around column 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 #58?
Puzzle #58 is rated hard. Its smallest color region holds 1 square, its tightest row is touched by 3 colors, and two of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 11x11 puzzle #58 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #58, 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 #58?
Start with the sea green region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 10–10 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.