11x11 Queens Puzzle #295
Difficulty: medium. 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 20-step reasoning is written out below.
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Step-by-step solution for puzzle #295
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #295, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 20 deductions — 11 queen placements and 9 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 proof by contradiction.
Techniques this board needs: last square in a region, region shadow, pairing argument on rows, proof by contradiction, region confined to one line.
Show the full walkthrough (13 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. Only row 11, column 2 is still open in teal, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. That clears row 11, column 2, the rest of the teal region and every square adjacent to it — diagonals included.
Step 2. The slate region is down to one open square, at row 5, column 1. Every colour holds exactly one queen, so that square is forced. Cross out the whole of row 5 and column 1, the remaining slate squares, and the ring of neighbours around row 5, column 1.
Step 3. The indigo region has 3 squares left, spread across rows 1 and 2, columns 7 and 8. You do not need to know which of them takes the queen: every one of those options attacks the same 2 squares, so they can be crossed out now.
Step 4. Wherever amber ends up among its 3 squares, the same squares fall within reach of it — 3 squares in total, impossible regardless of how the colour resolves.
The board after step 4 — 2 of 11 queens placed. Step 5. Indigo is down to 2 candidates in rows 1 and 2, columns 7 and 8, and they overlap enough to cover 2 squares elsewhere. Cross those out without deciding anything about indigo itself.
Step 6. The red region has 4 squares left, spread across rows 3, 4, and 6, columns 8 and 9. 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 7. Indigo and amber are now boxed into rows 1 and 2 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 7 squares at once.
Step 8. Here is the pairing argument. The blue, mint, and red regions have no open squares outside rows 3, 4, and 6 — 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: 7 squares come off in one stroke.
Step 9. Test row 2, column 8 for indigo: place a queen there, run the forced consequences through, and the sea green region is left with nowhere to put its queen. The assumption breaks, so the square is eliminated.
The board after step 9 — 2 of 11 queens placed. Step 10. 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: indigo has one square left, so its queen takes row 1, column 7; amber has one square left, so its queen takes row 2, column 9; mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 6; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 8. 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 6, column 8.
Step 11. 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: 5 squares come off.
Step 12. The orange region has 2 squares left, spread across rows 9 and 10, columns 3 and 10. You do not need to know which of them takes the queen: every one of those options attacks the same 3 squares, so they can be crossed out now.
Step 13. From here the board cascades. Keep alternating the region sweep and the line sweep and 5 queens fall out in order without any new idea being needed: sea green has one square left, so its queen takes row 10, column 11; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, column 10; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 3; blue has one square left, so its queen takes row 3, column 4; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, 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 8, column 5.
The board after step 13 — 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 #295
11x11 puzzle #295 is rated medium. 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 #295 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 #295 are: teal (1 square), slate (2 squares), indigo (3 squares), amber (4 squares), red (5 squares), sea green (7 squares), mint (8 squares), khaki (14 squares), pale yellow (22 squares), orange (25 squares), blue (30 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the teal region is running 10 squares under that average while the blue region is the roomiest area on the grid with 30 squares.
That imbalance is the first thing to read, because every region takes exactly one queen regardless of how much space it owns. Teal has only 1 place to put its queen; blue has 30. The spread between them on this board is 29 squares, and the wider that spread runs, the more it pays to solve from the small end inward.
Look at arrangement as well as area. Slate is the densest region on this grid at 100% of a 1×2 frame; orange is the loosest, occupying only 42% of its 6×10 frame. The loose one reaches into more rows and columns, which is exactly why it usually settles last.
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 medium board.
Teal covers 1 square, spanning 1 row and 1 column (rows 11–11, columns 2–2). It never leaves row 11, so its queen is locked to that row.
Slate occupies 2 squares within rows 5–5, columns 1–2. It never leaves row 5, so its queen is locked to that row.
Indigo: 3 squares across rows 1–2, columns 7–8.
Amber covers 4 squares, spanning 2 rows and 3 columns (rows 1–2, columns 9–11).
Red occupies 5 squares within rows 3–6, columns 8–9.
Sea green: 7 squares across rows 8–11, columns 10–11.
Mint covers 8 squares, spanning 5 rows and 3 columns (rows 2–6, columns 6–8).
Khaki occupies 14 squares within rows 7–10, columns 3–7.
Pale yellow: 22 squares across rows 2–10, columns 7–11.
Orange covers 25 squares, spanning 6 rows and 10 columns (rows 6–11, columns 1–10).
Blue occupies 30 squares within rows 1–6, columns 1–6.
Where to start on this board
The most constrained color is where a solve should begin, and on #295 that is teal with 1 square. It reaches from row 11 to row 11 and from column 2 to column 2 — 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. Slate, indigo and amber 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 #295
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, rows 1, 7 and 11 are the narrowest, touched by only 3 colors. Columns 1, 3, 4, 5 and 11 are the tightest columns, with 3 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 6 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 #295 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 #295 is rated medium
The medium label comes out of four measurable things about #295: three 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 29. Boards that score tight on those measures give up their first queen fast.
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.
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.
One pattern is worth learning at every size, and it is available here. When two regions can only fit inside the same two rows, they must take one row each — which locks every other region out of both. The same argument works for columns, and for any matching count: three regions sharing three rows, four sharing four. Spotting these pairings turns a slow grind into a quick cascade, and on #295 the place to look for one is around row 1.
A non-spoiling distribution check: solved, #295 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.
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.
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Questions about this puzzle
How hard is 11x11 Queens puzzle #295?
Puzzle #295 is rated medium. 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 #295 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #295, 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 #295?
Start with the teal region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 11–11 and columns 2–2. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.