Daily Queens Game — Sunday, October 4, 2026
Sunday, October 4, 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 #179
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #179, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 19 deductions — 11 queen placements and 8 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 pairing argument on rows.
Techniques this board needs: last square in a region, region confined to one line, region shadow, line confined to one region, pairing argument on rows.
Show the full walkthrough (11 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Only row 7, column 4 is still open in pale yellow, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 7, column 4, the rest of the pale yellow region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 2. All of the amber 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: 8 squares come off.
Step 3. The slate region has 4 squares left, spread across rows 5, 6, and 8, columns 6 and 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.
Step 4. Wherever orange ends up among its 4 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 2 squares in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.
The board after step 4 — 1 of 11 queens placed. Step 5. 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: teal has one square left, so its queen takes row 11, column 10; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 11; indigo has one square left, so its queen takes row 1, column 9; amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, 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 2, column 5.
Step 6. Sea green cannot leave row 10 — every one of its open squares (3 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to sea green, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 3 squares in all.
Step 7. Wherever khaki ends up among its 2 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 3 squares in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.
The board after step 7 — 5 of 11 queens placed. Step 8. Slate cannot leave column 6 — every one of its open squares (3 open squares) sits there. That column belongs to slate, so every square in it owned by another colour is dead: 2 squares in all.
Step 9. Every open square left in column 3 (3 open squares) belongs to the mint region. Since that column must contain a queen, mint is the colour that supplies it — so mint squares anywhere else on the board are out, 7 squares in all.
Step 10. Red and khaki are now boxed into rows 6 and 8 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 2 squares at once.
Step 11. 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: slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 6; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 8; blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 7; mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 3; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 2; sea green has one square left, so its queen takes row 10, 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 10, column 1.
The board after step 11 — 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 #179
11x11 puzzle #179 is rated easy. Eleven colored regions cover its 121 squares, and your job is to seat eleven queens so that every row, column and color contains exactly one — with no queen touching another, including diagonally.
Like every board on this site, #179 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 #179 are: pale yellow (1 square), teal (2 squares), orange (4 squares), indigo (5 squares), amber (5 squares), slate (10 squares), red (14 squares), sea green (15 squares), mint (18 squares), khaki (21 squares), blue (26 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the pale yellow region is running 10 squares under that average while the blue region is the roomiest area on the grid with 26 squares.
One queen per color, regardless of acreage: that is what turns this uneven split into a solving order. Pale yellow is working with 1 square while blue has 26 to spare, a gap of 25. Attack the cramped end and the roomy regions tend to resolve themselves.
Look at arrangement as well as area. Pale yellow is the densest region on this grid at 100% of a 1×1 frame; slate is the loosest, occupying only 56% of its 6×3 frame. The loose one reaches into more rows and columns, which is exactly why it usually settles last.
Region by region
Here is the full footprint of every color on puzzle #179, smallest first. Reading these spans before you place anything is the quickest way to see which parts of the grid are genuinely contested.
Pale yellow occupies 1 square within rows 7–7, columns 4–4. It never leaves row 7, so its queen is locked to that row.
Teal: 2 squares across rows 10–11, columns 10–10. It sits wholly inside column 10, so its queen must be in that column.
Orange covers 4 squares, spanning 3 rows and 2 columns (rows 9–11, columns 10–11).
Indigo occupies 5 squares within rows 1–2, columns 9–11.
Amber: 5 squares across rows 1–3, columns 4–5.
Slate covers 10 squares, spanning 6 rows and 3 columns (rows 3–8, columns 5–7).
Red occupies 14 squares within rows 6–10, columns 1–4.
Sea green: 15 squares across rows 8–11, columns 1–6.
Mint covers 18 squares, spanning 6 rows and 4 columns (rows 1–6, columns 1–4).
Khaki occupies 21 squares within rows 5–11, columns 7–11.
Blue: 26 squares across rows 1–6, columns 6–11.
Where to start on this board
The most constrained color is where a solve should begin, and on #179 that is pale yellow with 1 square. It reaches from row 7 to row 7 and from column 4 to column 4 — 1 row by 1 column. One queen has to live inside that footprint no matter what else happens, which makes those lines the busiest real estate on the board.
Because pale yellow never leaves row 7, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 7 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not pale yellow. 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. Indigo 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 #179
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 3 colors. Column 8 is the tightest column, with 2 colors.
A line with few colors is a line close to resolving. Where only 3 colors appear, one of them owns the row outright and the others must fit into the remaining 10 rows. Row 10 is the crowded extreme at 5 colors — worth revisiting later, not now.
Working through the middle game
After the first few queens the puzzle becomes bookkeeping. A placed queen wipes its row, its column and every square it touches — as many as eight neighbours — so the space collapses quickly. Record those eliminations on the board instead of carrying them in your head, and the next forced move tends to announce itself.
With eleven queens to seat and eleven regions competing over 121 squares, keep two questions in rotation. Does any region now have exactly one open square left? That queen is forced. Does any row or column now have exactly one open square left? That queen is forced too. Alternating between the region view and the row-and-column view is what keeps a solve moving, and it is the clearest difference between players who finish 11x11 boards quickly and players who stall halfway.
Resist the plausible-looking queen. On #179 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 #179 is rated easy
The rating reflects how much the board concedes up front. Puzzle #179 has three regions confined to a single row or column, its smallest color holds 1 square, its tightest row meets just 3 colors, and the gap between its largest and smallest regions is 25 squares. Flat, lopsided boards open quickly; even, sprawling ones make you earn the first placement.
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 #179 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.
Whatever the grid size, the pairing rule is the technique to internalise. When a pair of regions is boxed into the same pair of rows, they split those rows between them and nobody else may enter — and the same holds for columns, or for any n regions confined to n lines. Look for an instance of it around column 8 on this board.
A non-spoiling distribution check: solved, #179 carries 4 queens on the perimeter against 7 queens inside, with the corners empty. Because no two queens may touch, real solutions always look fairly evenly spread — a lopsided board in progress is a warning sign.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is 11x11 Queens puzzle #179?
Puzzle #179 is rated easy. Its smallest color region holds 1 square, its tightest row is touched by 3 colors, and three of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 11x11 puzzle #179 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #179, 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 #179?
Start with the pale yellow region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 7–7 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.