Daily Queens Game — Saturday, October 17, 2026
Saturday, October 17, 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 #51
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #51, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 22 deductions — 11 queen placements and 11 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 columns.
Techniques this board needs: last square in a region, region shadow, region confined to one line, pairing argument on rows, pairing argument on columns, last square in a column, line confined to one region.
Show the full walkthrough (14 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Only row 11, column 11 is still open in teal, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 11, column 11, the rest of the teal region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 2. Indigo is down to 4 candidates in rows 1 and 2, columns 1–3, and they overlap enough to cover 1 square elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about indigo itself.
Step 3. Blue cannot leave row 3 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to blue, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 11 squares in all.
Step 4. Wherever sea green ends up among its 4 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 1 square in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.
Step 5. Khaki is down to 6 candidates in rows 8 and 9, columns 6–9, and they overlap enough to cover 1 square elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about khaki itself.
The board after step 5 — 1 of 11 queens placed. Step 6. 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: 2 squares come off in one stroke.
Step 7. Khaki, orange, and sea green are now boxed into rows 8–10 and nothing else. That is 3 colours needing 3 rows, so they fill those rows between them — which locks every remaining colour out and removes 11 squares at once.
Step 8. Here is the pairing argument. The indigo, blue, and pale yellow regions have no open squares outside columns 1–3 — 3 colours confined to 3 columns. Between them they must take one column each, in some order, so every other colour is shut out of all of them: 5 squares come off in one stroke.
Step 9. 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: mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 4; blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 2; sea green has one square left, so its queen takes row 10, column 5; column 3 is down to one square, putting a queen on row 1, column 3. 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 1, column 3.
The board after step 9 — 5 of 11 queens placed. Step 10. Orange cannot leave row 9 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to orange, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 3 squares in all.
Step 11. All of the khaki region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in row 8. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere on that row, which means no other colour may use it: 1 square come off.
Step 12. Column 7 has only slate squares left (2 open squares). The column needs a queen and only slate can provide one, which pins that colour to this column and kills its squares elsewhere: 7 squares.
Step 13. All of the slate region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 7. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 1 square come off.
Step 14. 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: column 8 is down to one square, putting a queen on row 8, column 8; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 10; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 9; amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, column 6; slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 7; 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 14 — 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 #51
11x11 puzzle #51 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.
Puzzle #51 has been checked to admit exactly one arrangement of queens, and every step toward it is deducible from what is already on the board. There is no point at which you are expected to pick a square and hope. The only thing that differs between boards is how quickly the first certainty surfaces, and that depends entirely on the shapes the colors happen to take here.
How the colors divide this board
From smallest to largest, the regions on puzzle #51 are: teal (1 square), blue (2 squares), indigo (4 squares), mint (7 squares), khaki (7 squares), red (10 squares), sea green (11 squares), orange (13 squares), pale yellow (14 squares), amber (21 squares), slate (31 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the teal region is running 10 squares under that average while the slate region is the roomiest area on the grid with 31 squares.
Why does the split matter? Because a region's square count has no bearing on how many queens it gets — the answer is always one. So teal, with 1 square, is under far more pressure than slate with 31. A 30-square gap like this one rewards players who start where the choices are fewest.
A region's outline can constrain it more than its size does. Here blue is the most solid, filling 100% of its 1×2 box, and sea green the most diffuse at 39% of its 4×7 box. Solid blocks give clean eliminations; diffuse ones spread across the board and stay open longer.
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.
Teal: 1 square across rows 11–11, columns 11–11. It never leaves row 11, so its queen is locked to that row.
Blue covers 2 squares, spanning 1 row and 2 columns (rows 3–3, columns 2–3). It never leaves row 3, so its queen is locked to that row.
Indigo occupies 4 squares within rows 1–2, columns 1–3.
Mint: 7 squares across rows 3–6, columns 1–4.
Khaki covers 7 squares, spanning 2 rows and 5 columns (rows 8–9, columns 5–9).
Red occupies 10 squares within rows 4–8, columns 8–11.
Sea green: 11 squares across rows 8–11, columns 1–7.
Orange covers 13 squares, spanning 4 rows and 6 columns (rows 8–11, columns 6–11).
Pale yellow occupies 14 squares within rows 5–10, columns 1–3.
Amber: 21 squares across rows 1–3, columns 2–11.
Slate covers 31 squares, spanning 7 rows and 9 columns (rows 2–8, columns 2–10).
Where to start on this board
The most constrained color is where a solve should begin, and on #51 that is teal with 1 square. It reaches from row 11 to row 11 and from column 11 to column 11 — 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 teal never leaves row 11, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 11 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not teal. 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. Blue, indigo and khaki 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 #51
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, row 1 is the narrowest, touched by only 2 colors. Columns 1, 4, 5, 10 and 11 are the tightest columns, with 4 colors.
Those lines matter because a row touched by few colors gives its queen away sooner. If a row meets only 2 colors, then one of those regions has to own it, and every other region is competing for the remaining 10 rows. By contrast row 8 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.
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 #51 is rated easy
Ratings track how generous the opening is. On #51 you get three regions pinned to a single row or column, a smallest color of 1 square, a tightest row crossed by 2 colors, and a 30-square gap between the largest and smallest regions. Those four numbers largely explain the easy 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.
When a board plays tougher than its label, look for a missed mark before you look for a clever deduction. Walk back over every queen you have placed and confirm the full row, the full column and all eight surrounding squares are crossed out. The diagonal neighbours are the ones players skip, and a single skipped diagonal will hide the next forced move indefinitely.
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.
Learn the pairing argument and you will use it on every board, this one included. If two colors can only sit inside the same two rows, between them they consume both rows and every other color is shut out. It generalises to any matching count — three colors across three rows, four across four. On #51, start hunting for it near row 1.
As a sanity check rather than a spoiler: the finished solution to #51 puts 3 queens on the outer border and 8 queens in the interior, 1 of them in an actual 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 #51?
Puzzle #51 is rated easy. Its smallest color region holds 1 square, its tightest row is touched by 2 colors, and three of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 11x11 puzzle #51 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #51, 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 #51?
Start with the teal region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 11–11 and columns 11–11. 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.