11x11 Queens Puzzle #299
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 17-step reasoning is written out below.
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Step-by-step solution for puzzle #299
What follows is a complete solve of puzzle #299, worked the way a person works it rather than the way a computer does. It runs to 17 deductions — 11 queen placements and 6 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 confined to one line, region shadow, proof by contradiction.
Show the full walkthrough (10 steps) — contains the solution
Step 1. The board opens by cascading. Each of these placements is forced the moment the one before it is marked, so the whole run is really a single sweep repeated: indigo has one square left, so its queen takes row 1, column 5; slate has one square left, so its queen takes row 5, column 6; teal has one square left, so its queen takes row 11, column 7; 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.
Step 2. Amber cannot leave row 2 — every one of its open squares (2 open squares) sits there. That row belongs to amber, so every square on it owned by another colour is dead: 6 squares in all.
Step 3. 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.
The board after step 3 — 5 of 11 queens placed. Step 4. Wherever mint 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.
Step 5. All of the red region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 11. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 3 squares come off.
Step 6. Khaki cannot leave column 3 — every one of its open squares (3 open squares) sits there. That column belongs to khaki, so every square in it owned by another colour is dead: 1 square in all.
Step 7. All of the orange region's remaining squares (2 open squares) lie in column 10. Its queen therefore has to be somewhere in that column, which means no other colour may use it: 5 squares come off.
The board after step 7 — 5 of 11 queens placed. Step 8. Only row 2, column 9 is still open in amber, and since each colour must take a queen, that settles it. Everything else in row 2, in column 9, in amber and in the ring around that square is now dead.
Step 9. Now a short proof by contradiction. Suppose the mint queen went to row 7, column 2. Follow the forced moves that would create and the orange region is left with nowhere to put its queen — impossible. So that square is ruled out for good.
Step 10. 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: mint has one square left, so its queen takes row 4, column 2; red has one square left, so its queen takes row 6, column 11; orange has one square left, so its queen takes row 9, column 10; khaki has one square left, so its queen takes row 8, column 3; pale yellow has one square left, so its queen takes row 7, 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 7, column 8.
The board after step 10 — 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 #299
11x11 puzzle #299 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.
Like every board on this site, #299 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 #299 are: indigo (1 square), slate (2 squares), teal (2 squares), red (5 squares), orange (5 squares), sea green (7 squares), amber (10 squares), blue (12 squares), mint (15 squares), khaki (19 squares), pale yellow (43 squares). An even split would hand every color 11 squares, so the indigo region is running 10 squares under that average while the pale yellow region is the roomiest area on the grid with 43 squares.
One queen per color, regardless of acreage: that is what turns this uneven split into a solving order. Indigo is working with 1 square while pale yellow has 43 to spare, a gap of 42. Attack the cramped end and the roomy regions tend to resolve themselves.
Look at arrangement as well as area. Indigo is the densest region on this grid at 100% of a 1×1 frame; blue is the loosest, occupying only 60% of its 4×5 frame. The loose one reaches into more rows and columns, which is exactly why it usually settles last.
Region by region
Below is every color on #299 with its exact reach, smallest region first. It is worth a slow read: the spans reveal which rows and columns several regions are fighting over.
Indigo occupies 1 square within rows 1–1, columns 5–5. It never leaves row 1, so its queen is locked to that row.
Slate: 2 squares across rows 5–5, columns 5–6. It never leaves row 5, so its queen is locked to that row.
Teal covers 2 squares, spanning 1 row and 2 columns (rows 11–11, columns 6–7). It never leaves row 11, so its queen is locked to that row.
Red occupies 5 squares within rows 2–6, columns 11–11. It sits wholly inside column 11, so its queen must be in that column.
Orange: 5 squares across rows 7–9, columns 10–11.
Sea green covers 7 squares, spanning 2 rows and 5 columns (rows 10–11, columns 1–5).
Amber occupies 10 squares within rows 1–2, columns 6–11.
Blue: 12 squares across rows 1–4, columns 1–5.
Mint covers 15 squares, spanning 5 rows and 4 columns (rows 3–7, columns 1–4).
Khaki occupies 19 squares within rows 6–10, columns 1–6.
Pale yellow: 43 squares across rows 2–11, columns 5–11.
Where to start on this board
The most constrained color is where a solve should begin, and on #299 that is indigo with 1 square. It reaches from row 1 to row 1 and from column 5 to column 5 — 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 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. Slate, teal, amber 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 #299
A quick way to find the next move is to count how many different colors touch each line. On this board, rows 1, 8, 9, 10 and 11 are the narrowest, touched by only 3 colors. Columns 8 and 9 are the tightest columns, with 2 colors.
Those lines matter because a row touched by few colors gives its queen away sooner. If a row meets only 3 colors, then one of those regions has to own it, and every other region is competing for the remaining 10 rows. By contrast row 7 meets 4 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.
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 #299 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 #299 is rated medium
What earns a board its rating is the shape of its opening. Here that opening offers five single-line regions, a 1-square smallest color, a tightest row touched by 3 colors, and a region-size spread of 42. Lopsided grids with flat regions fall quickly; balanced ones like this take more patience.
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.
If #299 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.
As a sanity check rather than a spoiler: the finished solution to #299 puts 4 queens on the outer border and 7 queens in the interior, with none in a 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.
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 #299?
Puzzle #299 is rated medium. 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 #299 have only one solution?
Yes. Every puzzle in the 11x11 collection, including #299, 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 #299?
Start with the indigo region — the most constrained color on this board, with 1 square spanning rows 1–1 and columns 5–5. Narrowing the smallest region first removes the most squares elsewhere on the grid.