10x10 Queens Puzzle #73

Difficulty: easy. Place 10 queens on this 10x10 board so that no two share a row, column or color region and none touch — including diagonally. This puzzle has exactly one solution, and it has been verified solvable by deduction alone: the complete 18-step reasoning is written out below.

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Step-by-step solution for puzzle #73

What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #73, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 18 deductions — 10 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 columns.

Techniques this board needs: last square in a region, region shadow, pairing argument on rows, region confined to one line, pairing argument on columns.

Show the full walkthrough (11 steps) — contains the solution

  1. Step 1. Only row 1, column 10 is still open in indigo, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 1, column 10, the rest of the indigo region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.

  2. Step 2. Slate is down to 9 candidates in rows 4–8, columns 5–7, and they overlap enough to cover 1 square elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about slate itself.

  3. Step 3. Only row 6, column 5 is still open in red, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 6, in column 5, in red and in the ring around that square is now dead.

  4. Step 4. Wherever pale yellow ends up among its 3 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 2 squares in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.

    Puzzle #73 after step 4: 2 of 10 queens placed
    The board after step 4 — 2 of 10 queens placed.

  5. Step 5. Khaki is down to 4 candidates in rows 8–10, columns 3 and 4, and they overlap enough to cover 1 square elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about khaki itself.

  6. Step 6. Here is the pairing argument. The khaki, orange, and sea green regions have no open squares outside rows 8–10 — 3 colours confined to 3 rows. Between them they must take one row each, in some order, so every other colour is shut out of all of them: 5 squares come off in one stroke.

  7. Step 7. Wherever slate ends up among its 3 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 2 squares in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.

    Puzzle #73 after step 7: 2 of 10 queens placed
    The board after step 7 — 2 of 10 queens placed.

  8. Step 8. All of the pale yellow region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in row 7. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere on that row, which means no other colour may use it: 3 squares come off.

  9. Step 9. The slate region has 2 squares left, spread across rows 4 and 5, 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.

  10. Step 10. Here is the pairing argument. The mint and pale yellow regions have no open squares outside columns 1 and 2 — 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: 5 squares come off in one stroke.

  11. Step 11. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 8 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: sea green has one square left, so its queen takes row 10, column 3; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 4; blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 6; slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 7; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 9; amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, column 8; mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 1; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, column 2. 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 2.

    Puzzle #73 after step 11: 10 of 10 queens placed
    The board after step 11 — 10 of 10 queens placed.

That completes the board: 10 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 10x10 Queens puzzle #73

Puzzle #73 is one of the easy-rated boards in the 10x10 set. Ten colors divide its 100 squares, and you win by placing ten queens so that each row, each column and each color holds exactly one, with no two queens adjacent in any direction.

There is exactly one way to finish #73, and it has been verified. More importantly, you can reach it without ever gambling: at every stage some square is provably right or provably wrong. Boards differ only in how deep you must dig before that proof appears, and the geometry of these ten regions is what sets the depth.

How the colors divide this board

From smallest to largest, the regions on puzzle #73 are: indigo (1 square), red (2 squares), pale yellow (7 squares), sea green (7 squares), slate (9 squares), khaki (9 squares), mint (10 squares), orange (10 squares), blue (18 squares), amber (27 squares). An even split would hand every color 10 squares, so the indigo region is running 9 squares under that average while the amber region is the roomiest area on the grid with 27 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 indigo, with 1 square, is under far more pressure than amber with 27. A 26-square gap like this one rewards players who start where the choices are fewest.

Shape matters as much as size. The indigo region is the most compact color here, filling 100% of the 1×1 box that encloses it, while blue is the most scattered at 51% of its 5×7 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 covers 1 square, spanning 1 row and 1 column (rows 1–1, columns 10–10). It never leaves row 1, so its queen is locked to that row.

Red occupies 2 squares within rows 6–6, columns 5–6. It never leaves row 6, so its queen is locked to that row.

Pale yellow: 7 squares across rows 6–8, columns 1–4.

Sea green covers 7 squares, spanning 3 rows and 3 columns (rows 8–10, columns 1–3).

Slate occupies 9 squares within rows 4–8, columns 5–7.

Khaki: 9 squares across rows 7–10, columns 3–5.

Mint covers 10 squares, spanning 5 rows and 3 columns (rows 1–5, columns 1–3).

Orange occupies 10 squares within rows 8–10, columns 6–10.

Blue: 18 squares across rows 1–5, columns 2–8.

Amber covers 27 squares, spanning 9 rows and 5 columns (rows 1–9, columns 6–10).

Where to start on this board

Begin where the choices are fewest. On this board that means indigo, which owns just 1 square inside a 1×1 window running from row 1 to row 1 and column 10 to column 10. A queen is guaranteed somewhere in there, so every line that window crosses is under pressure from the very first move.

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. Red is no more than two rows tall, so its queen is 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 #73

A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, rows 2, 3 and 10 are the narrowest, touched by only 3 colors. Column 9 is the tightest column, 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 9 rows. Row 8 sits at the far end with 6 colors crossing it; it will almost certainly be among the last to settle.

Working through the middle game

Once two or three queens are down, the board changes character. Each queen removes an entire row, an entire column and the ring of up to eight squares around it, so the grid shrinks faster than most people expect. The habit that pays here is marking rather than remembering: after every placement, cross out the full row, the full column and all eight neighbours before hunting for the next move.

Two checks, run alternately, will carry you through the 100 squares of this grid. First: has any of the ten regions been reduced to a single open square? Second: has any row or column? Either answer forces a queen. Players who stall on 10x10 boards almost always run one of those checks and forget the other.

A placement without a reason is a guess. Because this board has exactly one solution, a guess that happens to be wrong will not announce itself for several moves — and unwinding it is slower than simply finishing the eliminations first.

Why puzzle #73 is rated easy

Ratings track how generous the opening is. On #73 you get three regions pinned to a single row or column, a smallest color of 1 square, a tightest row crossed by 3 colors, and a 26-square gap between the largest and smallest regions. Those four numbers largely explain the easy label.

Rating is a measure of chain length, not of chance. With one guaranteed solution and no guessing required, the only thing that changes across the collection is how many eliminations you must link together before a queen is provably forced.

Stuck on #73 despite the easy rating? The odds strongly favour a bookkeeping error over a hard chain of logic. Re-check each placed queen for its complete set of eliminations, paying particular attention to the four diagonal squares — those are the ones that get overlooked, and one of them is usually sitting on the answer.

Techniques that work well at 10x10

At 10x10 a full re-scan after every move starts to get slow, so work locally instead. Once a queen goes down, check only the regions, rows and columns that placement actually touched — that is where new information appeared. Fall back to a complete sweep only when the local pass turns up nothing, and your solve times will drop noticeably.

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 #73, start hunting for it near column 9.

Use this as a rough check on your progress: the completed board has 3 queens around the border and 7 queens in the middle, including 1 in a corner. Solutions spread out; if yours is bunching up in one region of the grid, retrace a few moves.

How to play Queens

  1. The board is an N×N grid divided into N colored regions.
  2. Place exactly one queen (♛) in each row, each column, and each colored region.
  3. No two queens may touch each other — not horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
  4. 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.
  5. There is always exactly one valid solution. Use logic, never guessing, to find it.

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Questions about this puzzle

How hard is 10x10 Queens puzzle #73?

Puzzle #73 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 10x10 puzzle #73 have only one solution?

Yes. Every puzzle in the 10x10 collection, including #73, has been verified to have exactly one valid arrangement of ten queens, and it can always be reached by logic alone — no guessing or backtracking needed.

Where should I place my first queen on puzzle #73?

Start with the indigo region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 1–1 and columns 10–10. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.