11x11 Queens Puzzle #269
Difficulty: easy. Place 11 queens on this 11x11 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 11-step reasoning is written out below.
Previous puzzle · All 11x11 puzzles · Next puzzle
Step-by-step solution for puzzle #269
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #269, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 11 deductions, every one of them a forced placement. Each step names the rule that forces it, so nothing below is a guess, and the hardest idea required is the last square in a region.
Techniques this board needs: last square in a region.
Show the full walkthrough (11 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Only row 5, column 2 is still open in slate, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 5, column 2, the rest of the slate region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 2. The teal region is down to one open square, at row 11, column 6. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Cross out the whole of row 11 and column 6, the remaining teal squares, and the ring of neighbours around row 11, column 6.
Step 3. Only row 1, column 5 is still open in indigo, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 1, in column 5, in indigo and in the ring around that square is now dead.
Step 4. The sea green region is down to one open square, at row 10, column 10. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Row 10 and column 10 are now spoken for, along with the squares touching that queen.
The board after step 4 — 4 of 11 queens placed. Step 5. Only row 9, column 7 is still open in orange, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 9, column 7, the rest of the orange region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 6. The khaki region is down to one open square, at row 8, column 1. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Cross out the whole of row 8 and column 1, the remaining khaki squares, and the ring of neighbours around row 8, column 1.
Step 7. Only row 7, column 3 is still open in pale yellow, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 7, in column 3, in pale yellow and in the ring around that square is now dead.
The board after step 7 — 7 of 11 queens placed. Step 8. The red region is down to one open square, at row 6, column 8. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Row 6 and column 8 are now spoken for, along with the squares touching that queen.
Step 9. Only row 4, column 9 is still open in mint, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 4, column 9, the rest of the mint region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 10. The blue region is down to one open square, at row 3, column 4. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Cross out the whole of row 3 and column 4, the remaining blue squares, and the ring of neighbours around row 3, column 4.
Step 11. Only row 2, column 11 is still open in amber, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 2, in column 11, in amber and in the ring around that square is now dead.
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 #269
Puzzle #269 is one of the easy-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, #269 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 #269 are: slate (1 square), teal (1 square), indigo (2 squares), sea green (3 squares), khaki (10 squares), orange (12 squares), amber (14 squares), red (18 squares), blue (19 squares), mint (19 squares), pale yellow (22 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the slate region is running 10 squares under that average while the pale yellow region is the roomiest area on the grid with 22 squares.
Every color takes one queen and one only, whatever its size — which is why the 21 square difference between slate and pale yellow 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 mint is the most scattered at 45% of its 6×7 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
Each region's exact extent on this grid is listed below, starting with the most constrained. Knowing which lines a color can and cannot reach is most of the work on a easy board.
Slate occupies 1 square within rows 5–5, columns 2–2. It never leaves row 5, so its queen is locked to that row.
Teal: 1 square across rows 11–11, columns 6–6. It never leaves row 11, so its queen is locked to that row.
Indigo covers 2 squares, spanning 1 row and 2 columns (rows 1–1, columns 5–6). It never leaves row 1, so its queen is locked to that row.
Sea green occupies 3 squares within rows 10–11, columns 10–11.
Khaki: 10 squares across rows 8–11, columns 1–3.
Orange covers 12 squares, spanning 5 rows and 5 columns (rows 7–11, columns 5–9).
Amber occupies 14 squares within rows 1–6, columns 7–11.
Red: 18 squares across rows 6–10, columns 7–11.
Blue covers 19 squares, spanning 4 rows and 7 columns (rows 1–4, columns 1–7).
Mint occupies 19 squares within rows 2–7, columns 4–10.
Pale yellow: 22 squares across rows 4–11, columns 1–6.
Where to start on this board
Slate is the natural opening on #269: it is the smallest region on the grid at 1 square, boxed into rows 5–5 and columns 2–2. Since one of those squares must hold a queen, that block of 1 row and 1 column is the most contested part of the board.
Because slate never leaves row 5, its queen must be in that row — and that instantly settles row 5 for everyone else. Sweep along it and X out every square that is not slate. 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, teal 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 #269
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, rows 1, 2 and 3 are the narrowest, touched by only 3 colors. Columns 1, 3, 4 and 11 are the tightest columns, with 3 colors.
The fewer colors a line touches, the sooner it surrenders its queen. A row meeting just 3 colors has to be claimed by one of them, which pushes every remaining region into the other 10 rows. Row 11, meeting 5 colors, is the opposite case — the busiest line on #269 and the last one you should expect to crack.
Working through the middle game
The middle of #269 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.
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.
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 #269 is rated easy
The easy label comes out of four measurable things about #269: five of its regions are locked to one row or column, its smallest color spans 1 square, its least crowded row meets 3 colors, and its largest and smallest regions differ by 21. Boards that score tight on those measures give up their first queen fast.
The scale has nothing to do with maths or luck — every puzzle here is solvable by deduction and has exactly one answer. It measures reasoning depth: how many eliminations must stack up before a placement becomes provable. That depth is what separates a easy board from the rest.
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 #269 is row 1.
Here is a shape check that gives nothing away: when #269 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.
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.
Full rules · Strategy library · Puzzle statistics
Questions about this puzzle
How hard is 11x11 Queens puzzle #269?
Puzzle #269 is rated easy. Its smallest color region holds 1 square, its tightest row is touched by 3 colors, and five of its regions are confined to a single row or column, which gives you a forced move early.
Does 11x11 puzzle #269 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #269, 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 #269?
Start with the slate region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 5–5 and columns 2–2. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.