Daily Queens Game — Saturday, August 22, 2026
Saturday, August 22, 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 #186
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #186, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 18 deductions — 11 queen placements and 7 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 line confined to one region.
Techniques this board needs: last square in a region, region confined to one line, line confined to one region, last square in a row.
Show the full walkthrough (12 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Only row 10, column 3 is still open in sea green, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 10, column 3, the rest of the sea green region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 2. The teal region is down to one open square, at row 11, column 10. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Cross out the whole of row 11 and column 10, the remaining teal squares, and the ring of neighbours around row 11, column 10.
Step 3. Slate cannot leave row 5 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to slate, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 11 squares in all.
Step 4. All of the red region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 5. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 10 squares come off.
The board after step 4 — 2 of 11 queens placed. Step 5. Indigo cannot leave row 1 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to indigo, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 6 squares in all.
Step 6. All of the pale yellow region's remaining squares (3 open squares) lie in column 1. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 4 squares come off.
Step 7. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 4 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 2; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 4; indigo has one square left, so its queen takes row 1, column 6; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 5. 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 5.
Step 8. Row 2 has only amber squares left (3 open squares). The row needs a queen and only amber can provide one, which pins that colour to this row and kills its squares elsewhere: 1 square.
The board after step 8 — 6 of 11 queens placed. Step 9. Every open square left in row 3 (3 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, 3 squares in all.
Step 10. Look along row 4: one square survives, row 4, column 11, which belongs to mint. A row cannot be left empty, so the queen goes there. Everything else in row 4, in column 11, in mint and in the ring around that square is now dead.
Step 11. All of the amber region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in row 2. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere on that row, which means no other colour may use it: 2 squares come off.
Step 12. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 4 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 7; amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, column 9; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 8; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, column 1. 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 7, column 1.
The board after step 12 — 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 #186
Board #186 of the 11x11 bank carries a easy 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.
Like every board on this site, #186 has been verified to have exactly one valid solution, and that solution is reachable by deduction alone. You never have to guess and then unwind; every queen can be justified by something already visible on the grid. What changes from puzzle to puzzle is where the first certainty appears and how long the chain of reasoning runs before the next one — and that is entirely a product of how these particular colors are shaped.
How the colors divide this board
From smallest to largest, the regions on puzzle #186 are: sea green (1 square), slate (2 squares), red (2 squares), teal (2 squares), indigo (4 squares), amber (9 squares), pale yellow (12 squares), mint (16 squares), khaki (16 squares), orange (22 squares), blue (35 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the sea green region is running 10 squares under that average while the blue region is the roomiest area on the grid with 35 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; blue has 35. The spread between them on this board is 34 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. Slate is the tidiest shape on #186, packing 100% of its 1×2 bounding box, whereas mint straggles across its 9×4 box at just 44%. 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: 1 square across rows 10–10, columns 3–3. It never leaves row 10, so its queen is locked to that row.
Slate covers 2 squares, spanning 1 row and 2 columns (rows 5–5, columns 1–2). It never leaves row 5, so its queen is locked to that row.
Red occupies 2 squares within rows 6–7, columns 5–5. It sits wholly inside column 5, so its queen must be in that column.
Teal: 2 squares across rows 10–11, columns 10–10. It sits wholly inside column 10, so its queen must be in that column.
Indigo covers 4 squares, spanning 2 rows and 3 columns (rows 1–2, columns 4–6).
Amber occupies 9 squares within rows 1–3, columns 8–11.
Pale yellow: 12 squares across rows 6–11, columns 1–3.
Mint covers 16 squares, spanning 9 rows and 4 columns (rows 3–11, columns 8–11).
Khaki occupies 16 squares within rows 6–11, columns 2–6.
Orange: 22 squares across rows 6–11, columns 6–10.
Blue covers 35 squares, spanning 6 rows and 9 columns (rows 1–6, columns 1–9).
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 3 to column 3. 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. Slate, indigo, red 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 #186
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, row 4 is the narrowest, touched by only 2 colors. Columns 7 and 11 are the tightest columns, with 2 colors.
The fewer colors a line touches, the sooner it surrenders its queen. A row meeting just 2 colors has to be claimed by one of them, which pushes every remaining region into the other 10 rows. Row 10, meeting 6 colors, is the opposite case — the busiest line on #186 and the last one you should expect to crack.
Working through the middle game
The middle of #186 is where careless play costs time. Every queen you place kills a row, a column and the eight surrounding squares; if you do not mark all of that immediately, you will later "discover" a move that was available several turns ago. Mark first, then look.
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 #186 is rated easy
Ratings track how generous the opening is. On #186 you get five regions pinned to a single row or column, a smallest color of 1 square, a tightest row crossed by 2 colors, and a 34-square gap between the largest and smallest regions. Those four numbers largely explain the easy label.
Difficulty in Queens is never arithmetic and never luck. Every board has one solution and none require guessing. What varies is the length of the chain you must follow before the next queen becomes certain — one or two steps on an easy board, five or six on a hard one, sometimes with several partial eliminations held in play at once.
If #186 feels harder than its rating suggests, the usual culprit is incomplete marking rather than a difficult deduction. Check that every queen already on the grid has its full cross of eliminations recorded — including the diagonal neighbours, which are by far the easiest to miss. More stalled solves come from one forgotten diagonal X than from any genuinely deep chain of logic.
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 #186 the place to look for one is around row 4.
Here is a shape check that gives nothing away: when #186 is solved, 4 queens sit on the outer edge of the grid and 7 sit inside it, and no queen lands in a corner. A work-in-progress board that clusters its queens in one quadrant while leaving others bare is usually carrying a mistake.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is 11x11 Queens puzzle #186?
Puzzle #186 is rated easy. Its smallest color region holds 1 square, its tightest row is touched by 2 colors, and five of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 11x11 puzzle #186 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #186, 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 #186?
Start with the sea green region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 10–10 and columns 3–3. 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.