Daily Queens Game — Saturday, September 26, 2026
Saturday, September 26, 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 #173
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #173, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 13 deductions — 11 queen placements and 2 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 region confined to one line.
Techniques this board needs: region confined to one line, last square in a region.
Show the full walkthrough (3 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. 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: 11 squares in all.
Step 2. All of the orange region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in row 9. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere on that row, which means no other colour may use it: 13 squares come off.
The board after step 2 — 0 of 11 queens placed. Step 3. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 11 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: sea green has one square left, so its queen takes row 10, column 9; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 11; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, column 10; mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 8; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 6; indigo has one square left, so its queen takes row 1, column 5; blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 4; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 1; amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, column 2; slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 3; teal has one square left, so its queen takes row 11, 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 11, column 7.
The board after step 3 — 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 #173
Puzzle #173 is one of the medium-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, #173 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 #173 are: indigo (2 squares), orange (2 squares), sea green (3 squares), pale yellow (9 squares), khaki (9 squares), blue (10 squares), amber (11 squares), red (11 squares), mint (16 squares), teal (19 squares), slate (29 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the indigo region is running 9 squares under that average while the slate region is the roomiest area on the grid with 29 squares.
Every color takes one queen and one only, whatever its size — which is why the 27 square difference between indigo and slate 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 1×2 box that encloses it, while slate is the most scattered at 32% of its 10×9 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 occupies 2 squares within rows 1–1, columns 5–6. It never leaves row 1, so its queen is locked to that row.
Orange: 2 squares across rows 9–9, columns 10–11. It never leaves row 9, so its queen is locked to that row.
Sea green covers 3 squares, spanning 1 row and 3 columns (rows 10–10, columns 9–11). It never leaves row 10, so its queen is locked to that row.
Pale yellow occupies 9 squares within rows 5–9, columns 9–11.
Khaki: 9 squares across rows 7–9, columns 5–8.
Blue covers 10 squares, spanning 4 rows and 3 columns (rows 1–4, columns 4–6).
Amber occupies 11 squares within rows 1–4, columns 1–3.
Red: 11 squares across rows 6–10, columns 1–3.
Mint covers 16 squares, spanning 6 rows and 4 columns (rows 1–6, columns 8–11).
Teal occupies 19 squares within rows 8–11, columns 1–11.
Slate: 29 squares across rows 1–10, columns 1–9.
Where to start on this board
Indigo is the natural opening on #173: it is the smallest region on the grid at 2 squares, boxed into rows 1–1 and columns 5–6. Since one of those squares must hold a queen, that block of 1 row and 2 columns is the most contested part of the board.
Because indigo never leaves row 1, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 1 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not indigo. 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. Orange 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 #173
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 1 color. Columns 4 and 7 are the tightest columns, with 3 colors.
Those lines matter because a row touched by few colors gives its queen away sooner. If a row meets only 1 color, then one of those regions has to own it, and every other region is competing for the remaining 10 rows. By contrast row 9 meets 6 colors — the most crowded line here, and the one least likely to resolve early. Spend your attention accordingly.
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.
The whole middle game reduces to two sweeps. Sweep the eleven colors looking for one with a single square left; sweep the eleven rows and eleven columns looking for the same. Each sweep feeds the next, and switching between them deliberately — rather than drifting — is what separates a fast 11x11 solve from a stalled one.
Resist the plausible-looking queen. On #173 every correct placement has a stated reason behind it, and any move you cannot justify is a guess wearing a disguise. Backing out of a wrong guess on a single-solution board takes far longer than finding the real deduction would have.
Why puzzle #173 is rated medium
Ratings track how generous the opening is. On #173 you get three regions pinned to a single row or column, a smallest color of 2 squares, a tightest row crossed by 1 color, and a 27-square gap between the largest and smallest regions. Those four numbers largely explain the medium 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.
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 #173 is row 11.
As a sanity check rather than a spoiler: the finished solution to #173 puts 4 queens on the outer border and 7 queens in the interior, with none in a corner. If your part-finished grid has queens bunched into one area while whole stretches sit empty, something probably went wrong a few moves back.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is 11x11 Queens puzzle #173?
Puzzle #173 is rated medium. Its smallest color region holds 2 squares, its tightest row is touched by 1 color, and three of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 11x11 puzzle #173 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #173, 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 #173?
Start with the indigo region — the most constrained color on this board, with 2 squares spanning rows 1–1 and columns 5–6. 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.